Page 100 of Tactically Acquired

“My left eye is bad. It’s…There’s just nothing in the center. I can still make out some things, but there are all these blind spots.”

“You didn’t see him standing in the room.”

I shook my head. “My right eye isn’t as bad,” I smiled. “Blurry, but I can still make out a lot of things. It depends on how I look at things.” I smirked at him like this was all a joke. It was a defense mechanism. “If I wiggle my eyes just the right way, I can usually find what I’m looking for.”

“Wiggle your eyes?” he teased.

“Yeah. I wiggle my eyes.”

His soft smile nearly broke me as he brushed my hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “It’s time to tell the studio. No more hiding.”

“I know,” I whispered softly. “They’re going to sue me.”

“Let them try. It’s a medical condition.”

“One that I hid from them. I knew it was coming and I didn’t tell them. I knew it would end my career, and they’ll argue that I deceived them. Which I did,” I admitted.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live the way you want for as long as possible.”

This was why I loved Spencer so much. When I got the diagnosis, he let me wallow in my sadness. He let me get angry and scream at the heavens for stripping me of something so vital at such a young age, and then he held me as I broke down and cried in his arms. And ever since then, he’d done everythingpossible to help me achieve my dreams and make sure I had no regrets.

He had been my rock at the expense of everything he wanted, and as I sat in this room with him, thinking of all the years I’d dragged him along with me, all I felt was sadness that I had been so selfish.

“When this is over, I need you to move out.”

“What?” The anger in his voice only pushed me to go through with this. I wasn’t being fair to him.

“Spencer, I love you for everything you’ve done for me, but it’s time you live your life for you. Go audition for the theater and find whatever it is that will make your dreams come true. Find the love of your life and raise a family. It’s time that you stopped living only for me.”

“Audrey—” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it, but I pulled it away from him, needing for once in my life to make him a priority. “What are you doing?”

“I’m giving you your life back.”

“That’s not your choice to make,” he snapped.

“It has to be. Because all this time, you’ve given up everything for me.”

“You need me,” he argued. “Things are just getting bad. How are you going to get around without me?”

“I’m not completely blind,” I scoffed. “I never will be. Besides, blind people have been walking around by themselves for centuries and somehow have survived. I need to do this on my own.”

“And get yourself injured?” he snapped.

“Spencer, I can’t lean on you forever. You can’t always be there to guide me everywhere. Besides, if I really need help, I can hire someone.”

He scoffed, shoving to his feet. “You’d rather hire a stranger to look after you than have me there with you? I’m your family!What about me? You can’t just shove me away! Is this about your mother?”

“This has nothing to do with her,” I argued. “This has to do with me and you. I’ve been selfish since this whole thing started. How many nights have you stayed up with me and studied lines because I couldn’t read the script? How many times have you covered for me because I screwed up on set? And now the studio is going to come after me, and you’re going to get dragged into my mess! You don’t deserve any of this!”

“That’s my choice. You don’t get to tell me what I take on. If I didn’t want to help you, I would have walked away. I would have chosen to leave you all those years ago. Audrey, you’re my family. You’re?—”

He pulled me into his arms and held me tight. I could feel his chest constricting as my own tears fell. My fingers dug into his back as I held on for dear life. I didn’t want to let him go. I didn’t want to think of how much my life would change without him in it on a day-to-day basis. But I couldn’t hold him back any longer. I couldn’t stand to think of him waiting by my side, refusing to take jobs because he didn’t want to leave me. And I knew he would do it in an instant.

“I love you, Audrey. I love you so much,” he whispered.

“I know. I love you, too.”

“I can’t lose you.”

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