I Stripped to Keep My Boyfriend in School, and He Sold Me to the Man My Brother Died Owing novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Open Gate

I told him no on the porch at seven in the morning, with the sun coming up gray over the lake and my brother asleep in a chair behind us.

Toby had not slept either.

He stood at the rail in his flannel shirt with a split lip and a black eye coming up.

He looked at the road.

He had known what I would say before I said it.

"I'm going home," I said.

"Yes," Toby said.

"I'm not asking you."

"I know," he said.

"I'm going to my mother's kitchen, and I'm going to tell her what I found in a shed. Then I'm going to sit there."

"I'll drive you," he said.

"No," I said.

"The gate's open," Toby said.

"I know it's open. I walked to it."

He turned his head.

It was the first time he had looked at me since the shed, and his eyes were an awful clear blue in the flat light.

"Say what you came to say," he said.

"I don't forgive you," I said.

"Good," Toby said.

"Don't say good."

"I won't."

"I'll tell you what I don't forgive, so you don't spend a year guessing," I said. "Not the trunk. Not the men with the glove. The funeral."

"I know," he said.

"I would have been a better liar than you think."

"You're a better liar than anyone I've met," Toby said. "That wasn't the problem."

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend