Page 6 of The Heart You've Borrowed

“It might always hurt but with time you will look back and not cry about it.” He squeezes my hand before leaving the kitchen. I finish my meal in silence. I think over his words, I really hope this all becomes a memory soon. Something that I can look back at and learn from.

Jett and I have been together since we were sixteen and spent seven years together. That is a huge chunk of my life and most of it was good but the last few years have been a nightmare. A part of me is angry at myself for not leaving sooner, for not realizing that things weren’t going to get better but another part of me I think was hoping that one day he would wake up and realize that he needed to change. But the thing about change is that if they don’t want to change they won’t, if they don’t see any issue with their behavior they won’t make the effort to change because they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.

“Hey, girl.” Kelly smiles at me as she enters the kitchen.

“Hey.” I give her a weak smile.

“Food is amazing huh?” She laughs and points to my basically licked-clean plate.

“I don’t think I’ll ever leave if he cooks every meal.” I laughed.

“I don’t know how he does but every single meal is amazing.”

“I believe you.”

“Has Jett reached out to you yet?” She finally asks.

“I haven’t checked.” I sighed. I pull my phone out of my pocket and my heart stops, my eyes shoot up to hers.

“What is it?” She rushes to my side.

“My location. Oh my God, I am an idiot. Kelly, he has my freaking location!” I scream.

“Okay, don’t panic. I’m sure we can get it shut off.” She tries to reassure me.

“How?” I ask with tears in my eyes.

“Give me your phone, and let me look through your app, maybe we can turn it off in there?” She grabs my phone from me and starts clicking away.

“Fuck.” She hisses.

“What?” I choke out.

“He’s here.” She turns to face me.

“W-what?” I stutter, standing from my chair.

“His location shows he’s outside.” She swallows and shows me my phone. Sure enough, it shows he’s here. Probably sitting in the driveway making a plan on how to get me to come home with him.

“What do we do?” I cry.

“I can have Andy handle it if you need him to. You do not need to see him.”

“I’m so sorry Kelly, I didn’t want him to come here and cause you guys any trouble. Maybe I should just go talk to him.” I started walking toward the front door.

“Charlie, you don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to. You don’t owe him anything.” She grabs my arm.

“If anything happens I want you to call Lio. Please.” I nod with tears in my eyes. I have to do this. I have to end this and tell him I’m never coming back. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I walk out this door but I have to do this. I have to face and tell him I’m done, I have to make it clear that we are through and he needs to leave me alone.

When I open the door he is already on the front porch, I quickly close the door behind me so he doesn’t see Kelly and get her in trouble. I would hate for her to lose her job because of me.

“Char,” Jett says through clenched teeth.

“Jett.” I narrow my eyes.

Chapter Four

Charlie

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