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“Dad, can we talk—” I tried again.

He stepped up to me, his face twisted with rage. With a growl, Jenson shoved me behind him and towered over my dad by a few inches. He was seething, every muscle in his body coiled with tension. “Back the fuck up,” Jenson snarled.

“Dad—” I choked out, my voice shaky. My knees were banging together as I clutched onto the back of Jenson’s shirt. Whether to hold him back or hold myself up, I didn’t know.

This couldn’t be happening. My family couldn’t be turning their backs on me. Not like this. Not when I needed them the most.

“I am not your dad,” he sneered in my direction, though his eyes didn’t leave Jenson’s. Neither man backed down. “You were adopted?—”

My mind blanked, and my ears began to ring, preventing me from hearing anything else he had to say to me.

Adopted?

I was fuckingadopted?

I choked on air, stumbling back from them like I’d been hit straight in my chest. Mom wailed from the porch and screamed at my dad to stop. Jenson turned to face me, his face stricken with grief on my behalf. I sobbed, a scream trying to tear from my throat, but I just choked. On air. On my grief. On my pain.

“Baby, I’m here,” Jenson rasped. He gripped the back of my thighs and lifted me, forcing me to wind my arms and legs around him. I buried my face in the crook of his neck, sobbing, my heart breaking. “I’m here. Let me get you home, doll. It’s going to be okay.”

“He—he—” I tried, but I couldn’t get the words past my lips. My entire body shook in Jenson’s arms, and I couldn’t breathe. I gasped, clinging to him like he was the only thing tethering me to the earth. He tightened his hold on me and jogged to his house, opening the door and kicking it shut behind him once we were inside.

He sank to his knees in the foyer and crushed me to him, gently rocking me. “Breathe, Holly. Breathe. You have to breathe.” He rested our foreheads together and grasped my hand, pressing it to his chest. “Breathe with me, doll,” he pleaded, his eyes boring into mine with fear and worry. For me.

My watery eyes focused on his, and with small, gasping breaths, I managed to try to mimic him until my breathing slowed. Exhausted, my entire body sore from the panic attack I’d just endured, I slumped in his arms, silent tears tracking down my sore cheeks.

Without a word, Jenson wrapped me up in his arms and carried me upstairs to his room. He gently laid me on the bed and peeled my shoes off before stripping out of his shirt and shoes. Then, he tenderly moved me over on the mattress and curled his body around mine, holding me together the best he could as my pieces slowly fell back apart.

11

Holly

Iwasn’t homeless, thanks to Jenson, but I also now had nothing. No clothes. No shoes. I didn’t even have a bar of damn soap to my name anymore. With how angry Dad had been, I should’ve been thankful that he hadn’t demanded the clothes I was wearing, too.

I also now had no car to get to school once the fall semester was in. I didn’t have a phone or a laptop to keep a check on my financial aid. I was penniless. Broke. And hanging by a fucking thread.

How had my life come to this?

Oh, yeah. I fell in love with my hot-as-hell neighbor, who was also much older than me, which I knew my parents would highly disapprove of. I’d picked my life and my future over Jenson months ago, but none of it mattered. My choice had been ripped away from me anyway.

“Hey,” Jenson said as he stepped into the bedroom. I looked up at him. He sighed and set his cup of coffee on the nightstand before grasping my face in his hands. “Don’t do that, doll. Don’t go inside your head, you hear me? No matter what happens, I’ve got you.” He pressed his lips to the top of my head. “Get up. Go downstairs and make yourself a cup of coffee. Then, we’re going to go the store real quick, and we’ll grab you some clothes so you can come home and shower.”

My bottom lip trembled. “That shouldn’t be something you have to do,” I croaked, a tear sliding down my cheek. That was my parents’ job, and they just…dropped me. Apparently, as long as I was adopted, they felt like they could just disown me whenever they wanted.

Adopted.

Fuck, that still hurt. That they’d hidden that from me foryears. My entire fucking life. Were they just never planning to tell me until it benefited them—like they had yesterday?

Jenson gently brushed the tear that fell away with his thumb. “You’re mine. It’s my job to take care of you. Iwantto take care of you, so let me do that.” He gently pressed his lips to mine, and some of the tension drained from my shoulders. He was so good at that. “Now come on.”

He released me, and I heaved myself off the comfortable bed, padding out of the room. Jenson sat at the bar and sipped at his coffee as I made myself a to-go cup. Once it was made, I jerked my head toward the door. “I can drink this on the way.”

He stood, downed his coffee, and led me out the door, his massive body shielding me from seeing my parents’ driveway. Once I was in the truck and the door was shut, I glanced over, pain slicing through my chest when I saw my mom staring right back at me, silent tears sliding down her cheeks.

I forced myself to look away. God, just seeing her hurt. Knowing she didn’t fight for me hurt even more. Wasn’t a mother’s love supposed to be unconditional? Or did that only extend to the children they gave birth to?

“Don’t pay them any attention, Holly,” Jenson rumbled as he slid into the driver’s seat, casting a dark look in my mother’s direction. “I know what they did to you fucking hurts, but this istheirloss. The pain will lessen with time,” he promised.

I sighed and leaned my head against the window, shutting my eyes as he began to back out of the driveway.

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