She barges past me into my apartment. “I need to talk to you.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
She whirls around to face me. She looks terrible, with hollow eyes, bitten nails, and unwashed hair.
“I’ll go to the police. I’ll tell them what happened,” she says.
I freeze. “What?”
“If that’s what you want, I will go to the police, and I will tell them the truth about the accident.”
I blink. “But you’ll lose your license, and that will make it harder for you to look after Emmy.”
“Yes, it will. But I’ll do it. I’ll do anything if it will help my brother right now. Because he loves you so fucking much, you know that, right? I’ve never seen him like this with anyone else. Not even close.”
“Don’t.” The word comes out sharp. “Don’t you dare come here and tell me about his love when both of you?—”
“He’s devastated,” she cuts me off.
“Good. He lied to me.”
“He lied for me. Because in case you haven’t figured it out, Jared will do anything for the people he loves.”
She moves closer, leaning against the edge of my dining table, her eyes boring into mine. “You want to know about your Givealittle page? He gave you everything he had. Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
I blink. “What are you talking about?”
“Jared gave you his entire savings. He used his paramedic contacts in Hamilton to find out your full name, and when he saw there was a Givealittle page for you, he didn’t hesitate.”
I freeze. “That money was from him?”
“Yes. He felt so guilty that he’d let me drive and I’d caused your accident.”
My chest feels like it’s caving in. Jared gave me the twenty-five thousand dollars? The money that allowed me to train as a vet nurse.
“He’d been saving since he was eighteen for a house deposit, but he gave it to you instead,” Sophie continues.
“As guilt money.”
“As an attempt to help you.” Sophie’s voice softens. “He told me about those three hours in the dark. How you made him laugh while you were literally dying. How brave you were. How your spirit just…captured him completely.”
“Don’t.”
“Being caught between his loyalty to me and his feelings for you for the last few months has been tearing him apart.”
I want to tell her I don’t care, but the words stick in my throat.
“Can’t you see that?” She steps closer, her voice dropping. “Can you even begin to imagine what it’s been like for him?”
I think about all the times something flickered across Jared’s face when I mentioned the accident. The way he held me tighter after I talked about my slow driving. How he’d change the subject whenever I brought up the Givealittle page and how it had allowed me to retrain.
“He should have told me.”
“Yes. He should have. And I should have been honest from the start.”
“Then why?—”
“Because we made choices based on fear.” Her voice cracks slightly. “And now we’re all paying for them.”
