Page 62 of Deceit & Desire

One way or another… I’m going to change his mind, even if it takes me years to do it.

Yours,

The Future Mrs. Cody Jacobson

Her determination was terrifying, her delusion chilling. She’d convinced herself of a future that didn’t exist, built on the back of manipulation and lies.

I slammed the diary shut, clutching it against my chest as though I could keep the horrifying truths it contained from spilling out into the world. My breathing was ragged, my chest rising and falling as I tried to process what I’d just read.

What the hell were you doing, Missy?

For a moment, I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. My mind reeled with questions, theories, and the dawning realization that this diary was a powder keg waiting to explode. If Barton or Landon got their hands on it, it would rip apart everything—the fragile truths we were clinging to, the life I’d built with Roman, the shaky foundation of Cody’s so-called friendship with Michael.

My stomach churned again, but this time it wasn’t just nausea. It was anger. Anger at Missy for dragging all of us into her chaos, for using Roman as a pawn, for leaving behind a mess we were being forced to untangle ten long years after her death.

But underneath the anger was something softer. A pang of sadness that I couldn’t quite shake.

Why didn’t you tell me, Missy? Why didn’t you let someone help you before it came to this?

I took a shaky breath, clutching the diary tighter. There was no time to dwell on the past—not when the present was hurtling toward me like a freight train.

My heart pounded as I waited for Cody to join me in the barn. I couldn’t afford to falter now.

I stood where I knew I’d be dead center in my phone’s video frame, clutching Missy’s diary like a shield. My breaths were shallow, my legs shaky, but I didn’t let myself stop. Not now.

“I’m ready for you,” I whispered, my voice trembling but resolute. “Let’s end this.”

I stood tall in the barn, forcing every ounce of steel I could muster into my voice as Cody stepped over the threshold and joined me. I clutched Missy’s diary tighter to my chest. My heart pounded against my ribs, but I kept my gaze locked on Cody, refusing to let him see my fear.

“You can stop lying, Cody,” I said, my voice steady and unrelenting despite the chaos roaring inside me. “I know about you and Missy.”

Cody froze for a second, his eyes widening before narrowing into a defensive glare.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped, his tone panicked.

“Oh, I know everything,” I countered, letting the words slice through the air like a blade. I held up her diary for him to see. “It’s all here in her diary, your secret affair that started on her sixteenth fucking birthday. And you… you were twenty-three goddamn years old at the time… plenty old enough to know better?—”

“You don’t understand! You don’t know how determined she was, how persuasive she could be when she really wanted to get her way?—”

“She trusted you! She was in love with you and wanted to take your relationship out in the open once she turned eighteen, and it was finally legal. And you strangled her to keep her quiet when she wanted to go public. You killed her, Cody.”

His face twisted, his desperation morphing into something darker—fury. He took a step toward me, and I braced myself, my fingers curling into fists at my sides as I fought to keep my composure. The phone was tucked into the hay behind me, its camera angled perfectly to capture everything. I prayed it was doing its job.

“You don’t know what it was like!” Cody shouted, his voice cracking under the weight of his emotions. “She was going to ruin everything—my friendships—especially with Michael. He was my goddamn best friend, still is to this day. She was going to ruin my family, my whole future! I didn’t mean for it to go that far, but she wouldn’t stop!”

“Wouldn’t be a good little girl and stay quiet like you asked her to, you mean,” I shot back, my tone sharper than I intended, anger bubbling to the surface. “She wanted the truth out there, and you couldn’t handle it.”

His expression contorted, a storm of guilt and rage swirling in his eyes. I could see the moment he snapped, the split-second before he lunged.

“That’s not what did it, you know… that’s not what made me snap. You’re fucking wrong.”

“Oh yeah?” I challenged, taking a half-step toward him. “What was it, then? What pushed you over the edge and made you take my best friend’s life… what was so bad it pushed you to endyourbest friend Michael’s little sister’s life, asshole?”

He moved fast, his hands closing around my neck before I could react. The breath was forced from my lungs as his grip tightened, and the world tilted violently as we crashed against the hay. My phone jostled, landing facedown, but I prayed it was still recording.

I clawed at Cody’s hands, gasping for air as his voice roared in my ears.

“She wouldn’t shut up! That was bad enough,” he bellowed, his words raw and chilling. “But what was over the line is when she had the gall to go and kiss Roman York in front of me.”

---