For too long, Jessica has allowed the men in her life to shadow her dreams. This time she is determined to stand on her own.
But falling in love with the Shaw brother who is a notorious player hadn't been part of her plan.
The struggle between her...
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"So, are you going to explain?" Charlie asked, sounding more furious than Jessica had expected him to be. She had been preparing for this call for a while already but now that it had finally arrived, she felt nervous about what to say.
"I'm sorry, Charlie," she murmured, knowing a spoken apology wasn't going to appease him.
"I didn't say anything when you stopped taking your anxiety medication," he added.
"It didn't work as well anymore." It had helped in the beginning to hold her together and silence her raw emotions but as the weeks had passed, the pills had become less effective, so she had stopped taking them.
"I get it. But you never told me that you had stopped therapy as well. I had to find out from Dr. Reed."
"I'm sorry." She hoped her second apology would go better than the first one.
"That's not good enough. We agreed you needed therapy, and you promised."
She winced at the disappointment laced in his voice. He had discovered she had stopped going to the therapist he had organized for her after she had only gone to a handful of appointments. It was just a matter of time before he would have discovered it.
"I did promise, and I went, but I just don't think it's for me. I got so tired of talking and talking without any kind of breakthrough. It didn't make me feel any different." The sessions had done nothing to ease the guilt she felt for Dylan's death. She had found it impossible to talk about the night Dylan died, which was something she hadn't been able to reveal to Charlie.
"It takes time, Jess." He sighed. "These aren't issues that can be fixed overnight. Losing someone you love is traumatic, and feeling responsible led to a level of guilt that isn't easily dealt with. It'll destroy you if you don't deal with it."
She bit her lip as she kept silent on the other side of the call.
"Jess?" he prompted sternly.
"I'm here," she answered reluctantly.
"Look what happened the last time I didn't make sure you got the help you needed."
She didn't want to remember her meltdown when she had revealed the truth of the secret she had held from Karsyn and Myles.
"I'm fine, Charlie."
He sighed again. "If you don't take the time to work through your guilt, it'll always be there, eating away at you until there's nothing left."
She remained silent, trying to reason what he was saying with her own feelings.
"Are you happy, Jess?"
She found it difficult to answer his question. "I have a good job, I have my own place, and I'm working on things with Myles." She wasn't happy, but she was working toward it.
He scoffed. "Booty calls to him once every couple of weeks isn't what I would term 'working on things' with him."
She frowned. She regretted mentioning it to him now. "I'm trying my best to work on myself, so I don't lose myself in my next relationship."
