JADEN.
Leaving Ithaca had been the only rational choice after that scene at the hospital.
But rational didn’t mean painless.
Hurt didn’t even begin to cover it. What she said, how she said it... It cut deeper than I wanted to admit. She’d looked me in the eye like I was the monster in her story, and maybe I was. But she never gave me a chance to explain what really went down five years ago.
Leaving was difficult, but I had to, just so I could prepare for a better return.
But seeing her at my gate barely three hours after I arrived home looked like another test from fate. And, I'd be doomed if I ever let her set foot out of my sight ever again.
I was fresh out of the shower when Valerie came barging into the room, saying there was a woman causing trouble at the gate and that she wa
