"Should we?" Dessa starts to ask, but she's quickly cut off by Ander, who looks around to meet each of their eyes.
"Call 911," Ander says, almost like a demand.
"Tell us what to say to them, Ander! Tell us, and we will. We all know what this was." His mom cries out, pleading for her son. My heart cracks at the sound of desperation in her voice.
"Tell them the truth," Ander sighs in defeat, "Liam fucking tortured us for years, and this time, this time he lost." Ander's voice is distant.
I peer around, noticing everyone else's eyes are on me, waiting for a reaction that will not come. I no longer feel numb. I know damn well it isn't what I'm supposed to feel.
I feel relief and a sense of peace for the first time in my life.
Ander's dad, Mr. Cade, walks up and pulls the gun from Ander's hands as he wraps his arms around his son, drawing him into a hug that clearly conveys his love for him.
A lone tear runs down Ander's cheek, and my heart shatters into a million pieces.
With my chest heaving and my pulse still racing, the only sadness I feel is for the man that I'm inevitably head over heels in love with. The man who almost ruined his entire life to protectme.
"We aren't calling for help, Ander." Jett deadpans in a low, solemn voice, and everyone's eyes flicker to him. Jett drops his head, glare burning flames through Liam lying there. He standsthere momentarily, pulls his phone out of his back pocket, puts it to his ear, and walks away.
Confused after he just said he wasn't calling for help as to who he'd be calling. I don't even have it in me to question.
"We can't leave the chance for him to walk away from this. You know that Ander." Maverick agrees.
I look around at the faces of the people I love most and hold dearest to me and see the look in each of their eyes—a look that says, "We are in this together," without having to speak a single word. We all stand there silently for a beat, accepting what we are about to do—all Together, as a united front.
Ander gives his dad a soft pat on the back, assuring him that he's okay. He pulls out of his dad's grasp and returns to me. Leaning down, he cups my face in his hands, our foreheads resting against one another as he draws lazy circles around the apples of my cheeks with the pads of his thumb. I cling to him, one hand wrapped around and grabbing the back of his neck as the other fists the front of his shirt.
Only then do my tears begin to fall.
"Shh, baby. . ." He whispers, his voice is tender and reassuring.
"I can't believe I was about to let you do that," the tears quickly become sobs. "Y-you almost r-ruined your entire life. . . f-f-for me. Ander."
His shirt, which my face is now buried into, muffles my words, and they come out sputtered through the crying that I don't have the restraint to hold back.
I pull back from him and look around the room, forcing my words to come out definitive as I speak up next. "I can't let any of you be a part of this. This is my fight. Your lives. . . Your lives cannot be ruined because of me."
"Olivia Foley, listen to me. That is where you are wrong. Your fightisour fight." Izzy shouts in defiance as she looks around the room, and everyone nods in unison, agreeing with her.
"I can't—"
"Let's go," Jett says, cutting me off as he walks back into the barn, wrapping one arm around his mother and sister's shoulder. Then his eyes flash to everyone else, "All of us."
"What?" Anders's word spews confusion and even a trace of venom, filling the entire room.
"I've got it handled. It seems Liam owes a lot of money to his good pal Tony, the drug dealer, and they've been looking for him. Mark called Tony, and he's pleased to hear about this situation." Jett shakes his head, his eyes locking with his brothers, and a silent conversation passes between them, but no words are spoken.
Ander nods in understanding and wraps his arm around my waist, his hand resting on the small of my back as he pulls me out of the barn with him. I oblige and follow him, no less confused than a few moments ago. I don't protest.
We all file out of the barn, leaving Liam lying there, barely breathing and unconscious, just as he left me.
I take one last glance back, and for a split second, I mourn the brother I never got to have. The kind of brother that Ander and Izzy both got to experience. The type of bond that protects loves fiercely and will go to any extent to keep you safe. I'll never mourn the brother I had and who Liam was, but I give myself thirty seconds to mourn who he could have been had the darkness not consumed him.
Five… Four… Three… Two… One…
With those thirty seconds up, I followed the man who showed me and taught me what unconditional love and affection are. Something I didn't know or experience from another until his presence was there, not even from my parents.
Ander's love sees no bounds.
