“But it wasn’t just about you!”
She fell silent.
“It wasn’t just about you, Jade. You didn’t even once stop to think about how your actions would affect me. How your decision would hurt me. You didn’t even give me a chance, you just left.”
She cast her eyes downwards. “I needed to put me first for once in my life.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “You were selfish, Jade. This wasn’t about your happiness, this was just your bitterness towards your mother.”
She snapped her neck towards me. “You didn’t know what the hell I was going through at the time, Grayson! I was scared and confused and overwhelmed. My life had literally flipped on its axis, and everyone had something to say. I felt like I was suffocating. What did you expect me to do?”
“To not kill our baby,” I seethed.
She stilled as the words left my mouth.
I hadn’t openly talked about this topic in years. I had refused to let myself think about it for too long. I refused to let myself ponder on the what-ifs but there it was. I had said it.
Jade opened and closed her mouth like she was trying to say something, but she just couldn’t find the right words. There were no right words. The decision she had made all those years ago had left a permanent black stain on my heart.
I licked my lips and grabbed Ethan’s folder from the back seat. I grabbed the handle of my door but then stilled and turned to Jade who was still as stone.
“Stop trying to be my friend, Jade. Stop trying to find common ground with me. What you did was unforgivable in my eyes. You killed our baby and never once stopped to think about me. I understand that you were the mother, but I was the father. I had just as much of a right to want to keep them alive as you had just enough of a right to want them dead. We can never be friends and will never be friends. We can’t even be acquaintances. The only common thread we have here is Ethan, and it does not go beyond that. I am dead to you the same way you are dead to me.”
She flinched at my words but still said nothing.
I exited the car and made my way to Ethan’s practice. I just wanted to drop off this folder and make my way back to the shop where I could find peace.
I knew, as soon as Ethan said Jade was coming back into town, that something would arise, and it just had. I needed to stay away from Jade Masters. She was no good for me then and she was no good for me now.