“What if he hates me?” I ask, but still putting my hand in hers.
She shakes her head. “Are you kidding? He could never hate you.”
“I mean, he could.”
Pulling me down the hallway, she stops outside his room. “He won't. But regardless, we'd get through it. We’re a team, remember?”
She opens the door and goes to our son, and I'm left thinking about how right she is. With her on my side, I feel like I could take on the world.
“Hey, H,” Em says softly as she sits down on Hollis’s bed. “Harland and I have something we have to tell you.”
He rubs his eyes with his little fist and then looks at his mom expectantly, still half asleep from the nap he just woke from. I calm my emotions as much as I can manage and step into the room. The second I sit beside Emery, she interlaces her fingers with mine just out of Hollis’s view.
“Do you remember the time you asked me about your dad?” she questions.
Hollis thinks for a moment then nods. “You said he’s a big rockstar and that I never got to meet him. But you lied, Mommy.”
Her brows furrow. “I lied?”
He nods again. “Aunt Mila told me that my daddy was taken by the Wicked Witch of the West, like the dog in The Wizard of Oz.”
I snort as Emery pinches the bridge of her nose. “Of course, she did.”
“I mean, she wasn’t wrong, per say,” I counter.
Em chuckles and rolls her eyes playfully before composing herself and focusing back on Hollis. “H, did I ever tell you that Harland is in a band?”
He shakes his head, but I can practically see the gears turning. “He is?”
She nods and Hollis turns his attention to me. He crawls into my lap and I release Emery’s hand to hold my son. Neither one of us say a word as his fingers reach up and graze my cheek. He stares into my eyes and I can practically feel the moment it clicks.
“Hawlan, are you my dad?”
A wave of emotion clogs my throat and I almost can’t get the words out, but I do. “Yeah, little man. I am.”
He gasps for a second before wrapping his arms around my neck and hugging me tightly. Tears fill not only my eyes, but Em’s too. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so content as I hold Hollis close.
“Are we going to be a family now?” he asks as he pulls away.
My gaze meets Emery’s and she lets out a wet laugh, swatting away stray tears.
“Yeah, H,” she answers, using our mutual nickname. “We’re a family now.”
Hollis scrambles from my lap to start jumping on his bed and cheering happily. Em and I watch him with warm smiles on our faces, until he stops suddenly and narrows his eyes at me.
“Wait,” he says warily. “Does that mean you’re going to be kissing mommy?”
I chuckle and look over at his mom. “That depends on if she’ll let me.”
Emery scrunches her nose, mocking disgust. I grab her by the arm and pull her close. She giggles just before I cover her mouth with my own and kiss her in front of Hollis for the first time, but certainly not the last.
“Oh, gross!” H groans and collapses on the bed with hands covering his eyes.
We both can’t help but laugh at his dramatics and Em pulls away to pepper kisses all over Hollis’s cheeks. He thrashes around on the bed in a fit of giggles before stopping and pressing a kiss to his mom’s cheek in return.
The happiness that fills the room unlike anything I’ve ever felt before and I know that nothing will ever be able to drag me down. Not when I have them.
They give me strength.
They hold me together.
They calm the storm.
Truth and Lies by J.D. HollyField
Chapter One
The sun beats down, forcing me to shield my eyes as I take in the perfect view before me.
Jake DuPont.
My neighbor.
The person who has owned my heart since the moment I understood what love was.
The water spreads like waves with each rhythmic stroke as he swims across his Olympic-size pool. The side of his face breaks the surface, and he inhales a quick breath, the sun’s rays illuminating his plump lips. He glides through the water like a magical sea creature, and I imagine myself fighting against the current to get to him, escaping the reality that exists above the surface
My stomach twists at the thought of summer ending. Of what tomorrow will bring. I have to prepare for the emptiness that surfaces every time he leaves me—the ache inside my chest when he’s away.
The wind picks up, and the chimes hanging from the trees sing. Leaves fall to the ground—another cruel reminder that summer is over. My legs hang over the edge of the pool, kicking back and forth, needing the water to cool my overheated skin. I inhale the breeze, memorizing the smell of the summer air, locking it deep inside my chest to reminisce on during the days and nights I struggle the most.
It’s foolish, I know. Two kids, forbidden to be together, secretly in love. But he’s all I’ve ever known. He defines love for me. He always has. The one who fills the loneliness inside me. The only one who feels like home.
Jake and I may come from the same world—a society built on stature and prestige—but we might as well be from different planets with the way our parents try to keep us apart.
We’re what people called aristocrats. Well…our parents are. Jake and I are just chess pieces, puppets on strings. With us, they plan to gain access into superior circles. We will blossom into leaders of high society where the wealthy mingle with the wealthier in hopes of becoming the wealthiest.
Jake DuPont is four years older than me, top of his class at university. Dominating anything he touched, he was captain of the Rugby team, head of the debate team … and breathtakingly beautiful. I know, what eighteen-year-old calls a guy beautiful? But he is. He’s every word that describes perfection.
Like everyone else in his family, he’s always been destined to attend an Ivy League school and become a doctor like his father. His parents even had his wife chosen for him by the age of twelve. Rebecca, the daughter of a judge, will help merge two elite families into a fortress of power.
I had my own destiny. Not as high achieving as Jake’s, but that’s because I’m not the perfect, well-mannered, flawless daughter my mother so desperately wished for. The older I got, the more disappointed in me she became until I turned into a lost hope, and their plans for me shifted. My path turned out to be simpler: attend an Ivy League school and marry someone in politics—steal the hearts of Congress while carrying the name of a high society electoral official. The smile on my mother’s face when she imagines herself having tea at the White House is ridiculous.
It’s absolutely atrocious. But it’s our world. We don’t get to choose our path. Jake doesn’t get to be a firefighter like he’s talked about since he was seven, I don’t get to become a ballerina or movie star, and we don’t get to marry for actual love. Those silly dreams stay like that: dreams.
Jake is heading off for med school, and I’m finally starting college. The time has come to walk our separate paths, and I’ve never hated anything more. With both our futures unknown, there are no holiday promises or summer plans to hold on to. My heart squeezes as tears prick my eyes.