Page 65 of Acceptance
“Don’t call me that. I don’t want you to ever call me that again.”
Reaching out, he sighs when she moves away from his touch. “Jamie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore your calls. I’ve been working with Brock, and I get tunnel vision.”
“I called you, and you declined my call. You told Brock it wasn’t important when he asked if you needed to answer it.”
He leans back. “That’s not how I meant it. Wait… How’d you hear that?”
“Because I was here, hoping for some saving grace that you might still love me. I still followed the rulesyouset, and you just didn’t care anymore. That was the last day I stepped foot in that house.”
It hasn’t been two weeks since he last talked to Jamie. It couldn’t be. “I’ve been here because we’ve been following different leads. I need to do right by Aaron and find out who killed his sister. It never occurred to me that you’d have an issue with it.”
Her lip trembles as she shakes her head. “I understand why you want to do this.Haveto, even. And you showed me she’s more important to you than I am.”
“Jamie, come on!” Undertaker shouts, suddenly angrier than he was when they first stepped into the apartment. “If anything happened to you, I’d be doing the same thing. Hell, I’d probably be out of my mind.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” she says, and he sees the tears when she finally meets his gaze. “Anything could have happened to me in the past two weeks, and you never would’ve known. You don’t want me anymore. My dad doesn’t want me. Hell, this killer guy doesn’t even want me. It says something that I can’t even spark interest in a serial killer.”
The way she laughs at the absurdity makes his blood run cold. “I want you, Jamie.”
“No, you don’t. You haven’t talked to me since the night you learned about Nina. You haven’t touched me, and you haven’t told me you love me. It’s like I stopped existing, and you no longer saw me. I mean, I disappeared, and you didn’t even know.”
“Jamie—”
“I went through your phone.”
His eyes widen as he steps back to lean against the bathroom door. “You did what?”
“You sent that picture of Nina a little too quickly to Brock despite not talking to her for over a decade, but I was not prepared for what I found. I never wanted to be that girl, but I had to know, and I regret it.”
“Know what? There’s nothing to find.”
“You have over a hundred pictures of her on your phone. Most of them are half or fully naked. I had to beg you to take one of us. One. But the video is what really broke me.”
“You went through my phone because you’re jealous of Nina?”
When she pulls out her phone, his stomach sinks. The familiar audio fills the room. The video he took one night while he was drunk and having sex with Nina. A video he’d forgotten all about until now.
“You took that from my phone?”
“Yeah, I did. I’mthatgirl. But worse, I still held out hope that you’d come home and tell me you loved me. That I was somehow wrong.”
“Jamie—”
“You called herbaby doll! You said you’d never love anyone but her, and you’ve proved it. I’m not shiny and new anymore, and you lost your true love. I’m so sorry about that, but I will not be a consolation prize. Not when I love you so much I’ve been dying inside while you never once noticed I’d left.”
Her hands shake as she looks at the ground and wipes her eyes. She turns toward the door, and he wants to stop her. “Jamie—”
“You know, I’m actually safe. I don’t need to stay here after I figure out where to go next. It’s kind of pathetic that a serial killer doesn’t even want me. I’d make a great target. Not a single person would miss me if I disappeared one day.”
“I would miss you.”
“Yeah? You haven’t yet. I think it’d be best if I stayed in another apartment or the hotel.”
Jamie walks out of his apartment, and he walks over to drop to the bed.How did we get here? I love her. I love her more than I love Nina, but failed her. I failed both of them.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Griffin’s Beach
