Chapter 11
They showed up at my school after that.
I told them the same thing every time: I wasn’t going back
The last time they came, Dad’s eyes were red. He looked at me with a helpless kind of grief.
“Claire,” he whispered, “can’t you forgive me? Just once? We’re family.”
I looked him dead in the eyes.
If I had a choice, I’d rather not be your daughter at all.”
Maybe it was the finality in my voice.
Because after that, they never came again.
Julian came, though.
He stood in the rain outside my dorm, crying, begging. Said he didn’t know what he had until I was gone. That he loved me, had always loved me. That Harper had tricked him too.
Said he’d do anything for a second chance.
I stood at the window. And watched.
Watched as the hours dragged by. Watched as the rain soaked through his clothes and into his bones.
And still, I didn’t go downI.
Sure, he regretted it.
But that didn’t mean I had to forgive him.
Yes, he’d once been kind. But the betrayal had been real
And permanent.
He deserved to live with that guilt.
He stayed in Westbridge a long time, saying he wouldn’t leave until I forgave him. He only left after his father threatened to cut him off.
And then, news came.
Julian was dead.
After Harper was finally kicked out of my father’s house, she panicked.
She went back to Julian, begging him to marry her.
But he’d seen her for who she really was. He rejected her again.
That night, the stabbed him in the heart with a fruit knife.
Then she snuck back into my father’s estate.
She set it on fire, planning to take him and Logan with h
Logan and Harper died in the blaze.
My father survived–but barely.
The falling beam snapped his spine. He lived, but only as a quadriplegic.
The Evans family was finished.
With Julian gone, and the Ford family furious, Mr. Ford sued and destroyed what was left of my father’s business.
When Dad woke up, he got three pieces of news:
His son was dead.
His company was gone.
And he could never walk again.
He called me, once.
Begged me to come visit.
Said the nursing aide mistreated him. That he’d been wrong about Harper.
Said he regretted everything.
I was in the living room then, surrounded by people who actually loved me, getting ready to celebrate the New Year.
I hung up.
I’d make sure he got a better aide. I’d pay for the home.
But I’d never go back
Just like he hadn’t shown up for me that day I was thrown out…
He could wait, too.
Forever.
