“For the video Monica sent you. My mom won’t believe me if I don’t have actual proof. So text me the video. He can’t get away with this.”
* * *
Shay texted her mother the video, and she stayed at my house the whole time. KJ wasn’t kidding about thinking Camila would be on his side. He went straight to their place, like he said he would.
Unfortunately for him, Camila had already seen the video. She just played along with him long enough to give the cops time to show up to arrest KJ. I couldn’t be happier about that. He was going exactly where he belonged for a very long time.
Shay’s mom stopped by my house after everything was done that night to check in on Shay. They stayed on the porch talking for a long time. Shay told her mom she was fine and was going to stay the night at my place. Camila tried to change her daughter’s mind, but Shay made it clear she wasn’t ready to be at home yet.
Shay then headed inside to use the bathroom, leaving Camila and me by ourselves. I started to head back into the house when Camila called out to me.
Her eyes looked heavy, as if she’d spent the past few hours crying. I couldn’t blame her. Her whole life had been transformed in a matter of moments. All because of one man’s selfish choices.
“I wanted to say thank you. For what you did, for telling Shay the truth about Kurt. You can imagine that the past fewhours of our lives have been a living hell...” Her words faded away, and she sniffled, wiping her hand beneath her nose.
I saw so much of Shay within her mother. Her same brown eyes, her same dark hair, the same frown lines around her lips. I wanted to hug her and give her comfort, but it didn’t seem right. In a way, I was to blame for the hurt she was experiencing. I was the cause of her current suffering. If she needed comfort, I doubted she wanted it from me.
She shifted back and forth in her tennis shoes and ran her hands against her forearms.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Why do I feel like you have something more to say?”
“I do. I haven’t figured out how to word it correctly.”
“Spit it out, and we’ll go from there.”
She took a deep inhalation. “I need you to stay away from my daughter.”
Welp.
Didn’t see that one coming.
“Wait, what?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, Landon, I really am, but I see it in you. I see the damage in your eyes, in your heart, and I don’t want my daughter going through anything so heavy. Not after this. Not after everything she’s been through. Her heart needs a break.”
I gritted my teeth together, feeling sick to my stomach. “You don’t think I’m good for her heart?”
How was that possible? I did the right thing. I didn’t keep secrets and crap the way Camila’s husband had. I’d been upfront and completely honest about the situation at hand. I did the right thing.
But still, in Camila’s eyes, I was not good enough for Shay.
“It’s not that, sweetheart,” she promised. Calling someone sweetheart while telling them to stay away from your daughterfelt like a new kind of insult. “I just, I can tell you’re troubled. You’ve been through a lot of personal traumas—no fault of your own—but Shay doesn’t need that kind of energy in her life.”
“The same way she didn’t need your energy of not believing her and Maria about your fucked-up husband for years?” I spat out. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, and I definitely didn’t mean to cuss at her, but my chest was hurting. My mind was a mess. I did the right thing. I told her what her husband was doing. I didn’t lie. Yet somehow, I was the troubled one.
“I see why you’re upset. You care about my daughter. Just like I do. But if you really care, you’ll let her go, Landon. Shay needs to focus on her future.”
“I can be her future.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You have to be her past. She deserves a fresh start. A new beginning. Please,” she pleaded, “I’m begging you to leave her alone. In the future, you’ll thank yourself for not placing your heavy bags against her shoulders.”
“You should leave now,” I said, feeling my chest aching from her words.
“I’m sure you think I’m an evil lady, and maybe I am. Maybe my mind is so messed up that I still don’t know right from wrong. But tell me... would you want your daughter dating a boy like you?”
“You don’t know me.”
“No... but I know your kind—damaged. Please, Landon. I’m begging you. Don’t damage my daughter the way my husband damaged me.”