“As fucked up as this may be, there’s a part of me that feels some kind of happiness over the fact that I get to give Jodie something she’s wished she could have done since the day she learned of your death, old man. I’m able to give her the gift of being able to say goodbye to the man she believed was a good, protective father. If she’s lucky, she might even be able to grieve her memory of you instead of the monster I’ve told her you really are.”
“No, please. Jodie,” Dad cries, getting closer to the camera. “Don’t listen to him. It’s all lies. All of it. I’m going to get out of here and the three of us will be a family again. I fucking swear to you, Jojo. Please, listen to me—”
“Say goodbye, Jodie. It’s over.” Toby’s cold voice turns my blood to ice as I curl up into a tighter ball on the floor.
I know without a doubt from Toby’s tone that he’s serious, and a whispered, “Goodbye,” falls from my lips before the screen goes black and Toby marches from the room, an agonising howl ripping through the air as he goes.
My heart fractures. Shatters into a million pieces. And infuriatingly, it’s not just for me and everything I’ve lost, but for everything Toby has endured in his life, too.
The bang that follows makes me flinch before something shatters and the sound of another angry roar echoes around the silent bathroom.
I try to gather my thoughts, to get a grasp on what just happened, but I can’t.
It’s too raw, the pain in my chest, the grief, the disbelief… it all swirls around me, threatening to pull me into its agonising depths.
Things continue to break and shatter somewhere in the flat, but I ignore it, instead focusing on trying to make my body work.
The only thing I know right now is that I need to get away. I can’t be here. I can’t be anywhere near Toby as I try to process everything I’ve just learned.
My legs are weak as I get to my feet and I quickly stumble into the doorframe, pain exploding in my shoulder.
By some miracle, I manage to continue forward, finding the bedroom completely trashed around me. Spotting my bag on the floor where I dropped it, I swipe it up and continue on my quest to escape this headfuck.
Only an hour ago, I was blissed out on Toby’s cock, and now… now I’ve had my world ripped from beneath my feet once more.
It’s not until I emerge in a living area that movement catches my eyes and I find him standing at a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, his palms flat against the glass and his head hanging low between his shoulders. He stills the second I take another step.
“This was meant to make the pain go away,” he says, his voice low and haunted, full of years of pain and abuse.
But I refuse to feel anything for him.I swallow down any concern I have for him and clench my fists.
He did this. He brought this on both of us.
He shattered my life in all the ways Joe and Dad’s deaths never could have.
“You don’t deserve for it to stop hurting, you monster,” I hiss.
I don’t miss the way his entire body jolts at my words before I turn away from him, unable to bear the weakness in his stance and the pained groan that rumbles deep in his chest.
I move as fast as my legs will carry me toward the front door.
“Jodie, please,” he begs behind me. “I’m sorry. Please. Please don’t leave me.”
His voice rips through me, gripping my heart in a vice and crushing it until I can barely breathe.
I hate myself for it, but a second before I rip the door open and run, I look back.
My breath catches when I find him in the middle of the room on his knees, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Please,” he says softly, his eyes boring into mine, searching for something I’m not sure he’s going to find. “I need you.”
Steeling my spine, I push my shoulders back. Desperately trying to find some strength from somewhere, I pull the door open.
“Goodbye, Toby. I hope it was worth it.”