Once Upon A Half-Time 2(146)

“Leave me alone!”

“It wasn’t me!”

“Don’t contact me again.”

The call disconnected.

And my life was ruined.

I spent a year in jail for a crime I didn’t commit, but I would’ve stayed for life if she believed I was innocent. I threw the phone. It cracked, but it wasn’t the skull I wanted to fracture. Mine. Nolan’s. The chief’s. I had no idea where to direct my anger, but I couldn’t let it focus on her.

“God damn it!” The nightstand flipped. Then the ice bucket. The shitty coffee pot that hadn’t brewed a hot cup of coffee since I’d rented the room.

Chelsea hadn’t returned yet, but her bags got in my way. I pitched the duffle from my path. It unzipped, scattering bottles of pills and a used syringe.

Christ. Life turned to shit. I’d destroyed everything I had with Josie.

This wasn’t happening.

I couldn’t let her go. I spent too long separated from Josie already, too many hard days and nights imagining our future, our home, our promised baby. It wasn’t ending this way.

I hadn’t bought a car yet—sold my old one to get a lawyer who wasn’t a public defender. I bundled up in my jacket and sprinted from the motel. I didn’t have the room key. I hadn’t pocketed my phone. The skies opened in sheets of pouring rain.

But nothing would stop me from getting to Josie.

Nothing.

My steps pounded against the puddles in the road, and lightning flashed overhead. The thunder was an unwelcomed crash. It muffled my fists banging on Josie’s door.

She didn’t open it for me. Not because she didn’t hear me, but because she didn’t want me.

I’d be sick. The rain drenched me, but I’d stay all night in the soaking downpour if it meant there was a chance she’d open the door. She had to listen to me.

“Josie!” I didn’t recognize my voice. “Please! Let me explain!”

She wouldn’t answer me. Hell, I probably only had a few minutes before the cops showed and Chief Craig finally had a reason to cuff me. He’d salivate over an arrest for a domestic dispute. If Josie pressed charges, it’d prove no one was left in the world who gave a damn about me.

And then what would happen?

Josie would be trapped with Nolan and his lust. Chelsea would be used and discarded by a man who got off on his own power and the woman he molested. And me? Fuck me; I didn’t care what happened to me. Josie could kick me out of her life. Forbid me from speaking to her. Hell, she could run me out of the damn town.

But first she was going to know why I did what I did, and then she could leave me forever.

“Josie!” I leaned against the door, shouting so she could hear me over the rain and thunder and her own grieving betrayal. “You wanted to know where I was the night your store burned down. Open the door and I’ll tell you!”

I listened. One second. Two. Three.

Ten agonizing seconds before she called through the door.

“It won’t matter.”

Like hell it wouldn’t. “The night of the fire, I was getting evidence to blackmail Chief Craig.”

Josie’s words were short, curt. Absolutely heartbroken. “Have you ever done anything honorable in your life, Maddox?”

I gritted my teeth. The rain kicked up, pelting me with shattering drops. I shivered, not from the cold. From the truth. From the shame.

I failed to protect those who deserved it a year ago. It wasn’t happening again.

“I wasn’t blackmailing him for me.” I hated to yell, but I couldn’t let her miss a single word. “I was paying him off.”

“Bribing the Chief of Police?”

“I had to. And I was doing odd jobs for Nolan to earn enough money to keep the chief satisfied. Nolan was a last resort, Josie, I swear it.”

“Why would you bribe the police chief?”

“Because he’s…” I had slammed the door so hard my fists scraped and bled. I let the rain wash it away. “He’s whoring out my sister. He’s got Chelsea, and he’s stuffing her full of drugs and pimping her to his friends. I paid him so he wouldn’t whore her out.”

I heaved a breath, waiting for the door to open. Another ten seconds passed. I gave her a minute.

Nothing.

Either she didn’t believe me or she didn’t care, and I wouldn’t blame her. Not like I was a shining example of a great boyfriend. I could vow my love, promise to be a devoted husband, and pick out baby names, but it wouldn’t make a damn difference. She saw me for who I really was.

Trash. Danger. A mistake rendered from human flesh.

“Please, Josie.” I couldn’t shout anymore. “Please.”

My heart stilled as the door opened. Josie was wrapped in a blanket, staring at me with wide eyes and parted lips. She trembled with either cold or sadness or just disbelief.