chapter in
Jennifer took a step closer, her heartbeat pounding in her ear“need something seal something even for a moment.”
They stared deep into one another’s eyes. Neither one moved..
Until they did. Byron reached for her gently, giving her every opportunity to pull away. But she didnot. She leaned in, gaping for breath.
And then their lips met.
It was not rushed. Not forced, Slow, deep, aching with the sadness of all their mutual restraint.
Jennifer leaned into him, lingers digging into his shit. Dyson’s hands framed her face as though she were precious and ultraly breakable.
The loss was incendiary as it was soothing Jennifer was breathless and panting after the kiss. Her lips tingle, and her heart felt like it was attempting to shout itself out of her chest. Byron ested bis ferhead against hers and said, “That was real.” She nodded. “Yeah, it was,” that the mantent didn’t go on before a furious buzzing sound erupted from the countertop: her phone. Turning, dread–anticipating whatever it was she was about to see. Another unkon number. Another message. But this one was different.
“warned you. You should have burned the journals too Blood turned cold as ice in her veins Jennifer looked in Byron’s direction with a shaky vole,
““What journals?” He shook his head. “I don’t know.” She was off into the guests‘ room, her heart catching in her throat, as she tore open box after box There, under the pile of old letters and phore alb, was a leather notebook that the couldn’t recall parking. She opened it. It wasn’t her notebook. It was Devlin’s. And the first page was a list. A list of every mistake she had made. Every secret he had found out. Every way he was planning to use it against her. Jennifer dropped the text like it was scalding her. Byron picked it up slowly, yes scanning the first few Pag
“He was watching you for years. Planning something. This wasn’t just a breakup penniler stepped back, her bath coming in shallow bursts. “I don’t understand why keep this? Why leave it?” Byron looked at her with dark serious eyes. “Because he never really let go. And who is sending these messages. They have it now too.” Outside, an engine revved. She moved to the window just in time to see the dark sedan fly away. And then, on the porch, was a second journal. Just Be the first. This one with her name on the cover. Jennifer stared at the journal on the porch as if it was a ghost.
The hardcover dazzled in the late afternoon sunlight, perfectly matching the one Byron now hold in his hand except that it bore the scrawl of her name across the front in a handwriting she ecognized all too well. Devlin’s. The looping cursive. The subtle pressure of the pen strokes.. It was undeniably his. Byron was off and running first. He stepped outside without hesitation grabbing the journal of the porch while scating the street. But it was gone
He came back in and locked the door behind him. Twice.
The book ended up in Jennifer’s hand, trembling fingers combing over the cover.
Her name. Just het name. No title, not even an introduction. No explanation
She gingerly opened it as if it might explode inside.
The first page www vold.
The wrond, too.
And the third
Then the fourth one bedink.
Jennifer,
What you were crally walking away from was never understood. You thought love should be soft. Gearle. Forgiving But I loved you in a way that swallowed me whole. And when you left…you took everything
This book is a mirror, a record of who you were, of what you will are. You think your past can stay burled? You think your secrets won’t surface? Think again.
Already too late if you’re reading the
Jennif, i banged the book shut, her hands shaking so badly that say dropped in Byron took it away from her again, furrowing his brows. “What in the hell?” he asked. “ duratening, you? Blackmail?”
She backed herself against a walled alid down until she was sitting with her knees pulled into her chest. “inputtered a word about these. At all. I didn’t even know they existed What kind of same person writes down the sets of some like a ledger?”
Bytt was craiching next to her.”
who would have had something in mind. So who was expecting to make use of one day.”
Jennider closed her eyes. She could tell pulse beat too guldly. Her thoughts were unfocused.
The journals belonged to Devlin and her. It was a deliberate art, Either left behind or delivered with intention. Almost as if someone was trying to pull her into a game of which she was completely TIT.
Her voice was barely audible: “What if there is me?”
Byron gemained silent for a moment before reopening bei Journal and, with increasing, began Dipping though the pages. What he found, however, died his face of colou “Secret No. These are confessioni. Letters Half–formed plans. A diary entry, too, I think.”
He turned the book toward her, kudicating a parikular passage
He doesn’t know saw the email. I don’t know if I can stay, 111 leave, he’ll take everything, lotil | stay. I lose mysell.
Jenniler stated at the words, the handwriting unmistakably het von “Tarver wide that.”
Byron regarded headdys could be some fared th.”
“Or you did wilte it. But you don’t temend
Chilling awe seeped into her bones. “You think I would forget something like
“I don’t know,” he said gently
“Dari Devlin kept a record of your thoughts, your pain, and your pricate moments he was either manipulating you while you were vulnerable or he was doing something was ar Gaslighting you
