He Loved My Fake Self Chapter 21

He Loved My Fake Self Chapter 21

Life settled into something steady and warm.

The day Kyle came home with me to meet my parents, I found Jolene waiting outside.

She stared at me for a long time. Then forced a bitter smile.

“Clover.”

She was buried in a baseball cap and mask. Completely covered.

“I was wrong. At the very beginning, I really did mean to get his Facebook for you. But at the last second, I

changed my mind.

“I wasn’t thinking that hard about it. It was just a joke.

“Then a few days before he confessed, I ran into him. I saw the way he kept looking at me. That’s when I

realized you’d actually caught his attention.

“And I figured… I saved your life once. You could give him to me. Call it even.”

“Did you really save my life?”

My voice was flat.

I watched the panic flicker across her face.

“Before graduation, I found the security guard from that day. He showed me the footage.

“Yeah, I almost got crushed by that display shelf. And you ran over and pulled me back.

“But you know what else was on the tape, a few seconds before it fell?

“You. You were messing around, knocking into people, and you knocked that shelf over.

“You didn’t run over to save me. You ran over for those expensive vases on the table. And then you used it to

guilt-trip me for three years.”

Jolene swayed.

Her mask crumbled.

She turned and fled.

I watched her go. Felt nothing.

I knew why she’d come today.

Same old move. She wanted to tell me her misery was my fault. Wanted to make me feel guilty. Wanted

something from me.

But what goes around comes around.

And when it came for people who hurt others?

It didn’t miss.

“Let’s go in,” Kyle said, tall and steady beside me, fingers lacing through mine.

He smiled.

Light caught in his eyes.

And this time, I stood at the center of it.

At the center of everything.