Page 13 of I Love You Again
"Trina please let meexplain."
"No. Please, just go." She brought her hands up to her head as tears streamed down hercheeks.
"I will, but you have to know the truth," heinsisted.
"I already know." She snapped. "And it doesn't matter. Go awayBrad."
There was no point reasoning with her. She was stubborn then, and he could see the trait was still very much alive. The best thing to do was to starttalking.
"I promised your father I would leave you alone.” He blurted. “I promised him that I'd leave so that you could have a better life. It was his dyingwish."
There.
That grabbed herattention.
Her head snapped up and she dropped her hands to her lap. She stared at him never breaking eye contact while her mouth droppedopen.
"What? What are you saying? And… you knew he was sick?" More tears ran down hercheek.
Brad nodded and straightened up in his chair. "He wanted to make sure you were happy and had the best lifepossible."
"So, he told you to leave me?" She looked at him in completedisbelief.
"Trina,” he gazed into her eyes. “Your dad knew you wouldn't have had the best life with me. He wanted you to behappy."
"Knew?"
"I was a thief, who was in and out of jail. I wasn't a good person." Losing what he treasured most made him change. In that one night, he whipped himself in shape. The first right thing Brad did was pay for the ring. That signaled the end of his bad lifestyle. "Your dad wanted the best for you, and it wasn'tme."
She held his gaze with those beautiful eyes he'd fallen in love with from the first time that he sawher.
When he moved over and sat next to her on the bed, he was glad she didn't moveaway.
He started talking again when she looked at him, and he told hereverything.
Brad told her everything she needed to know, except any details about the engagement ring and that whole crazy plan to propose. It was ridiculous now that he thought about it. Him with his criminal record, asking someone like her to marryhim.
When he finished telling her what happened fresh tears spilled from hereyes.
"You shouldn't cry, Trina. It was a good thing. I wasn’t a goodperson."
"Did you change?" She held his gaze again the way she used to whenever she begged him to stop getting introuble.
"Idid."
"Why didn't you come to my dad'sfuneral?"
"I did." He said again. Unknown to her and everyone else Brad had gone. "I watched from the pinnacle of the church as they conducted the service, then I followed to the grave site, and I watched you for hours until your aunt took youaway."
Her hands shook, and she broke down. He pulled her towards him and his spirits lifted when she sunk into his embrace and rested her head against his chest. To Brad holding her felt like cominghome.
He held her as she cried and tried to comfort her. It wasn't until sometime later when she stopped. He was hoping to talk to her some more, but was prevented from doing so because Neil and Jennifer came back with herfriends.
It was time for him to go. He needed to see if he could book himself on a flight. He thought he'd stop back here before he left and saygoodbye.
While her friends gathered and started trying to cheer her up, Neil accompanied Brad back to his room. On their way, Brad filled him in on all the details. With Neil, he didn't withhold any information, so Brad told himeverything.
"Why didn’t you ever tell me about Trina?" Neil asked as they got inside theroom.
