Chapter 28

Quinn

I slammed on my brakes, coming to a haphazard stop in front of the apartment building, the wheels were crooked but I didn’t care. There was another need spurring me out of the car and onto my feet, practically sprinting towards the front door. The need for answers. I needed to know the truth. And damn it, I was going to get it, one way or the other.

I shoved the door open, not caring as it slammed against the wall behind it causing a cloud of plaster to crumble to the floor. I didn’t notice. My eyes scanned the apartment looking for one thing and one thing only.

“Jonah! Jonah, get your ass out here right now!” I had to fight not to scream the words, opening my mouth to shout again but a moment later Jonah was there, rushing from the bathroom with a confused look shining in his eyes.

“Quinn? Is everything okay? Is it the baby?”

“No, it’s not the baby. And no, everything is not god damned okay.” I spit out the words like bullets and his expression grew even more confused as he took a few slow steps towards me.

“Alright, just calm down and tell me what the hell is going on? And keep your voice down. I don’t want Lola shouting at me again for being too loud. That old lady is mean when she wants to be.”

“You shouldn’t worry about Lola tearing you a new one, Jonah. You should be worried about me.” I stomped forward, slamming the door shut behind me and it closed with a satisfying crash. Jonah flinched.

“Jesus, Quinn. Are you trying to draw the dragon lady’s wrath?” He looked at me then, really looked at me for the first time since I’d walked inside and his eyes widened. “Quinn? Tell me what the hell is going on.”

“No, Jonah. You tell me!” I lunged forward, planting the end of one finger against his chest so hard he flinched again, “For once, just tell me the truth. Did you blackmail Leo into leaving me?”

Jonah’s mouth gaped open and closed like a fish gasping in air as he struggled to find an answer. Well, his silence was answer enough to convince me. Stella had been telling me the truth about what happened that night.

“How could you?” My voice was soft but honed to razor sharpness as I threw the words at him. “How could you do that to me?”

“Not to you, Quinn.” Jonah pleaded, holding out his hands as if say see? I’m innocent here. I didn’t buy it for a second. “I did it for you.”

“For me.” I snorted on a bitter, humorless laugh, “For me?!”

“Everything I do is for you, you have to know that.”

“I thought I did, Jonah.” I shook my head, staring at him like a stranger, “I love him, Jonah. I love him, and you beat the shit out of him and threatened to sell the bed and breakfast if he didn’t leave.”

“Who told you about that?” Jonah demanded, his face flushing mottled and red. “That was between me and Leo.”

“No! Don’t you get it? This has nothing to do with you, Jonah! I’m not a child anymore that you need to watch out for. Mom and dad are dead! You don’t have to protect me anymore!” Tears, hot and angry, welled behind my eyes but I blinked them back furiously. I wasn’t going to break down. Not this time. This time, I was going to stand up for myself, I was going to be strong. Not for anyone else. Just for me. I could be strong enough on my own.

“Leo did nothing to hurt you,” I spit out the words as Jonah just stared at me, “And he sure as hell did nothing to hurt me. He didn’t deserve–.”

“Nothing to hurt you?” Jonah said on a harsh laugh, pointing to the noticeable swell of my middle, “He knocked you up. And then he left without a word to you! You think If I’d told him about the baby he would have come crawling back? You think he would have just settled down and married you and have the white picket fence and all that bullshit? Those are just dreams, Quinn. Childish dreams.”

My mind turned, catching on something that he’d said but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. After a moment, it finally clicked, but I still couldn’t make sense of it.

“What are you talking about, Jonah? I didn’t even know I was pregnant until a week after he left. A week after you forced him to leave.” As I spoke, other things fell into place. The guilty glances, the way Jonah had been avoiding me, the odd things he’d say whenever I’d bring up Leo.

“Wait a minute, have you talked to him again? Since finding out about the baby?” My eyes widened as certainty settled over me. Jonah’s look of shame just confirmed it. “Oh my god. You have! Do you have his new number? His address? I deserve to talk to him, to let him know.”

Jonah was silent for a long moment and I saw the exact moment he surrendered. His shoulders sank and he let out a drawn-out sigh laced with resignation before finally opening his mouth again.

“He came here looking for you, a few weeks ago. A month maybe.”

“A month…” I trailed off, shock filling me but then it was eaten up by anger as I did the math. “You knew. You knew I was pregnant by then. You knew that Leo was the father.” I swallowed hard past the bile that threatened to rise in the back of my throat. “Did you tell him about the baby?”

“No, of course not.” Jonah shook his head as if it were the most natural thing in the world and I just stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief.

“He’s the father of this child, Jonah. He deserves to know about it. He deserves the truth. It would have been the decent thing to do, but you don’t know anything about that, do you?”

“Hey! That’s not fair–.”

“Fair? I’ll tell you what’s not fair!” I punctuated every word with another stab to his chest, “Not fair is having parents that were drug addicts and didn’t give a shit about us. Not fair is failing at everything I have ever done, but still being stupid enough to try again. Not fair is having an over-protective brother who thinks it’s his job to police my love life! Not fair is that brother beating up and blackmailing the only man I’ve ever loved into leaving me and then finding out I’m pregnant with his child! That’s not fair, Jonah!”

“Look, I told you. Everything I did was for you.”

“NO! It was for you.” I shot out the words like venom, glaring up at him as I spoke. I was shaking but the words came out steady and cold as ice, “You have to be in control. You want everything to play out like you think it should, and damn what anybody else thinks, or feels. You don’t care who gets hurt along the way, as long as it goes the way you deem fit.”

“That’s not true.” Jonah tried to defend himself and I could see that same stubborn anger growing behind his green eyes at my words. I just shook my head.

“You are not allowed to meddle in my life anymore!”

“Fine! Then go ahead and do whatever you want to do! But when you fuck up and come crying back to me, I’m not going to be there to help!”

“Help?! You call this helping? You lied to Leo about his baby! You lied to him about selling the bed and breakfast.”

“That wasn’t a lie.” Jonah said nastily and I sucked in a hard breath, “I would do whatever I must to protect you.”

“I’ve put everything into turning that place around and making it a success. And you would have just taken it away, like a petty child who doesn’t want to share?”

“Just admit it, Quinn. The bed and breakfast is just a pipe dream anyway. It’s going to fail, just like everything else. I’m just telling you the truth.”

Fury filled me, sharp and overwhelming, stealing my breath, choking me until I couldn’t force a word out. It was probably a good thing but anything I might say just then wouldn’t be pretty.

Without another word, I turned on my heel, rushing to my cramped bedroom, the bedroom I’d spent my teenage years in, the bedroom where I’d dreamed about boys and my future. I grabbed a backpack from the closet and threw whatever I could grab inside as hastily as I could. I couldn’t spend another minute there, not another second under the same roof as him.

I threw the bag over my shoulder, still silently fuming as I stalked towards the door but Jonah’s voice stopped me.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I threw a scathing look over my shoulder, my hand on the doorknob. “I’m leaving. I’m going to the Mayhew house.”

Jonah scoffed, rolling his eyes as if I was a child throwing some sort of tantrum and he was put out that he had to deal with it. “Come on, Quinn. You’re pregnant.”

"I know that, you asshole."

“The electricity isn’t even hooked up yet!”

“Then I’ll light a candle! It doesn’t matter, Jonah. Anywhere is better than here. I can’t stay here, not with you. Not now.”

His brows lowered angrily. He opened his mouth to say something else but it didn’t matter. I was already walking down the front steps of the home I’d shared with my brother for over ten years, and into the night, alone but for the first time in a long time, unafraid.