I’m nothing but a liar and a slut. How dare he jump to conclusions? How dare he judge me? Yeah, I’m not proud of the things I did, but I had no choice. I was alone. I couldn’t go back home; my parents were too wrapped up in their own problems to want to deal with mine. They’d ignored me for years and once they lost my brother, it was as if I didn’t exist.

My brother. The only one in my family who really noticed me. The only one who seemed to care as we got older. Now he was dead. I had no one.

Just myself.

“Friends don’t treat each other like they’re trash. At least, not the ones I know,” I say, turning away from him and walking out of the room. I don’t stop as I head toward the employee room and go to the short row of lockers. I open mine up, grab the old purse I’d started using again after the robbery, and slam the metal door, heading back out into the restaurant. I storm past Colin, my head held high, my gaze anywhere but on him.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he barks after me.

I turn to him, my nose tilted into the air. “I’m leaving.”

“You leave right now and you’re fired,” he threatens.

Oh my God. He means it—I can see the grim determination written all over his face. “So fire me, then.” I drop my gaze, refusing to look at him. If I do, I might break down and cry.

“Jenny.” He whispers my name and I chance a glance at him. “Talk to me.” I see the vulnerability in his eyes, the confusion and the sadness. Maybe some of it is tinged with disgust; I don’t know. I can’t really tell. All I know is that he’s judging me and making me feel even worse about my mistakes than I already do. It’s better for me to cut my losses and run. Just like I originally planned.

“Don’t make me do this,” he continues, his deep voice rumbling with agony. “Don’t make me fire you.”

“Are you serious right now? Go ahead.” I flick my chin at him. “Fire me. It’ll give me the excuse to get the hell out of this place even sooner.”

Chapter 20

Colin

I take Jen’s hand and drag her back to my office, not giving a shit if anyone sees us arguing. I’m not letting her leave like this. Not until I hear everything she has to say.

“Tell me everything,” I say to her when we enter my empty office. Thank God, Dad is gone. My entire body is shaking I’m still so damn angry and agitated over my confrontation with Jen.

“There’s nothing else to tell,” she says, her voice so low I can barely hear her.

She’s lying. There’s more. What my dad told me . . . I want it all to be a lie.

But I’m scared it’s the truth. I remember finding her in that damn car. Hell, I have nightmares about finding her in that guy’s car.

The words Dad said still cloud my brain. I’ll have nightmares about them, too. I fucking know it.

“You’re holding back,” I tell her, desperate for her to be honest with me. I need her trust. I feel like I’ve broken it and I can’t stand it.

She lifts her chin, defiance written all over her pretty features. “You know all that you need to know. You always have. I can’t believe you’re making a big deal about it now.”

The words threaten to burst out of me. I can’t ask her if the story my dad told me is the truth. How he went to Gold Diggers and saw a picture of Jen on the wall. That the bartender told him she was one of their best dancers and rumor had it she took money for sex out in the parking lot when she wasn’t dancing.

Jesus.

I need to hear her say it. I want her to trust me enough to confess all.

But she won’t. I don’t understand why. I won’t judge her.

Will I? Shit, I don’t know.

“All I’m asking is for you to be honest with me,” I say, my tone pleading. I sound downright desperate.

And that’s because I am desperate.

“I already said. There’s nothing else you need to know.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Is that all?”

“You’re not going anywhere,” I threaten.

“The hell I’m not.”

Damn! I can’t believe she’s pushing me to this. “You walk out, I’m firing you.”

“I’m walking out.” Her eyes flicker. I see the worry. The fear. It doesn’t stop her from telling me she’s leaving.

I harden my jaw, glaring at her. “Fine, you’re fired, effectively immediately. I’ll have your final check for you later this evening.”

“Keep it. I don’t want your money,” she flings at me as she turns on her heel to leave. “It’s full of conditions anyway.”

All I’ve ever done is take care of her. Watch over her. “If making sure you’re protected and safe are so-called conditions, then you’ve never protested before,” I call after her as she leaves.

She doesn’t turn around. Doesn’t say another word. I don’t understand her. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t understand me, either.

No one does.

Dad enters my office minutes later, slowly shaking his head, his expression somber. No doubt he notices the devastated look on my face, because I’m barely keeping my shit together.

“She tell you?” he asks.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I start looking through drawers, looking for . . . what? I don’t know. If I look at my dad too long, I might break down and cry like a baby.

He sighs. “She’s nothing but a whore, son. You really want a girl like that in your life?”

I leap out of my chair and lunge at him, ramming his big body against the wall so fast, the back of his head thumps the wall hard. My face in his, I glare into his eyes, see the fear and confusion swirling in them. “You call her a whore again and I will tear you apart. Do you understand me?”

He releases a harsh, stuttering breath. “You really care about her that much? Even after everything I told you?”

“I don’t turn my feelings on and off like a goddamn light switch,” I tell him. “I’m not like you.”

Dad’s eyes darken with anger. “You don’t know me.”

“You’re damn right I don’t know you. You never stuck around much. Hell, it’s been two years since the last time I saw you,” I yell, furious at my dad, at Jen, at myself.

What the fuck is wrong with me? With everyone in my life? Everything’s hard. Nothing’s easy. I’m tired of it. I want my life to be simple. I want to be happy.

I want to be with Jen. But again, it’s not that easy.

“You never seemed to want me around. Your mother deterred me from being a part of your life every chance she got,” he throws back at me.

Stunned by his words, I release my hold on him and step away. “What did you say?”

“You think I didn’t want to be a part of your life? You think I stayed away from you because I wanted to?” He brushes his hands down his front, straightening his shirt that I wrinkled, then runs them through his hair, smoothing out the unruly strands. “Your mother did her best to keep me away from you.”

“Why?” I don’t believe him. I know she hates him, but she wouldn’t force him to stay away from me . . . would she?

I hid away and cried a lot when I was a kid, wishing my dad cared enough to want to spend time with me. She knew this after finding me more than once. I’d been jealous of what Danny had with his dad. A solid, loving father/son relationship. They would go out in the yard and toss a baseball or football back and forth to each other. They’d go fishing together. They included me all the time, always making me feel welcome, but deep down inside, I felt like an intruder. A jealous, unloved interloper.

“She was afraid I’d take you away from her, I think. I don’t know. Our getting together was nothing but a chance encounter gone completely out of control. When she told me she was pregnant with you, I tried to do the right thing and marry her. I looked forward to being a father.” He pauses and takes a deep breath, his shoulders slumping against the wall he’s still leaning against. “Within days of moving in with her, I knew we’d made a bad decision. We didn’t get along. We fought all the time. She hated me, resented that I’d impregnated her and took away her freedom.”