I cleared my throat, wanting to look away, but he caught my chin like he could see that urge in me. His eyes were the deepest shade of blue I’d ever known. They were an ocean of dark and light, just like him. “But sometimes…I fear he made a mistake.”
The admission lifted a weight from me, but the guilt immediately set in. How could I doubt him after everything? Dad had been my rock, my guiding star. I was supposed to back him to the ends of the earth.
“Parents are just people,” Monroe said gently, jolting me out of the dark spiral I was falling into. “And people do bad things sometimes. I’m not saying he did it. And I’m not trying to make you think he did either. But I know you have doubts, because you’re only human. And that’s okay, princess.”
I managed to swallow the ball in my throat at last and Monroe lifted a hand to wipe my tears away. “I’m all he has in the whole world, if I don’t defend him, who will? It’s not right for me to doubt him.”
“Has he given you an explanation?” he asked slowly and I shook my head. “Then of course you feel this way. All of it is totally justifiable. The love, the anger, the guilt, the shame. Frankly, I think you’ve dealt with it all far better than any man or woman I know would. But I don’t want you to carry that burden alone anymore. You can trust me with anything. I mean that. It’s not an empty promise. No matter what it is, no matter how bad, I will keep your secrets and guard them with my wretched soul in this life or the next.”
“Nash,” I breathed, the weight of those words making me feel safer already. “I’m so afraid of hearing what he has to say. When we spoke…he had hardly any time. But he told me things that scare me.”
“What did he say?” he said gently, pulling me closer to him.
I glanced down at the scar on my arm. I’d promised my dad I wouldn’t tell anyone the truth about it. And I would never have considered breaking his trust for just anyone. Except that he wasn’t taking into account that I was all alone at Everlake. He had no idea what I’d been through, how I’d been persecuted and outcasted. Didn’t I have a right to share this with the man who had stood by me through it all? Who’d been there when my dad hadn’t?
“He said...” My lungs were tight and my throat was too thick. I took a heavy breath, making my decision as another tear rolled down my cheek. “He said I’m immune to the Hades Virus.”
I twisted my arm, showing him the scar and Monroe’s brows lifted as he took hold of my elbow, grazing his thumb across the mark.
“Fuck,” he gasped. “How?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t have time to say, he feared someone would trace the call. But, Nash…he said that’s why my sister died. That the vaccine went wrong for her. But I don’t know why, I don’t know anything-”
He cupped my cheek and my panic eased. “Shh, it’s okay.”
“He wants to meet me. To explain.” My hands shook as I gazed down at my scar again, this secret that could change the whole world filling up every space between us.
“Here?” he asked, his eyes still tracing the scar on my arm in fascination.
“No, off campus. Somewhere I used to go with him when I was younger.”
He finally looked up from the scar to meet my gaze and my shoulders dropped. I could see how safe my secret was with him. He wouldn’t tell a soul. I knew it like I knew the sun would rise tomorrow.
“You need to do this,” he said, reading that fact from my expression and I nodded to confirm it.
“I was hoping maybe…you could get me off campus to see him?” I asked, my chest constricting as I pinned all of my hopes on him.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding like he was deep in thought. “I think I can manage it.”
“You can?” I breathed, hope making my heart lift.
He nodded again, his brow creasing. “You need to hear what he has to say, Tatum.”
“I know, but I’m afraid,” I admitted as my lip quivered.
He smiled sadly. “You’re the bravest person I know. No matter what he says, you’ll survive it. I know you will.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, thinking of nothing but how grateful I was and how deeply I needed him in my life. “You have no idea how much this means to me, Nash.”
My heart clenched as I thought of the looming decision I knew I had to make. Or if it would even be mine to make. Would Dad let me go with him when I saw him? Did he want me to? And did I want to go? Once I stepped out of the Everlake gates…was I ever going to come back?
He slowly slid his arms around me, sighing as he held me tight and I bathed in the closeness of him, knowing it would only last for this brief moment in time. “I’d do anything for you, princess. Come hell or high water, I will get you to your dad.”
I stood outside The Temple with the darkness pressing in on me and my heart pounding as I waited to hear from Tatum. I was nervous, but not just because I was seeing her or because we were going to be sneaking off campus, but because my gut was telling me that this was it. That once she got out there into the wild and saw her father, the one person in this world she really loved, she wasn’t going to get back into my car
