Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Jessica’s POV

Aaron’s eyes held nothing but oblivion; a cold, empty space where I expected to find guilt.

Instead, he looked at me as if he were staring into an alternate reality where none of this made sense.

Was he really that clueless, or was this just another act?

I couldn’t tell anymore. My head was a vortex of exhaustion and grief, but I pushed through the fog.

I wasn’t backing down. Not now, when everything was unraveling.

“Give it up, Aaron. The truth is out. I saw what I saw.”

He let out a dry chuckle, the kind that held no humor, just disbelief, and shook his head slowly.

“Give what up, Jess? The fact that you’re being delusional? That kissed Fiona? Christ.”

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He hissed the name, his fingers tunneling through his hair and tugging at the roots in a gesture of pure, raw frustration.

I crossed my arms, trying to hold my trembling frame together as I glared at him.

My eyes were bloodshot, stinging from the salt of a thousand tears.

“So what were you two doing on the deck that morning, Aaron? know what you were wearing. I know what time it was.”

“I was doing nothing,” he said, his voice dropping into a flat, terrifyingly steady tone. “Because I was never on the deck, Jessica.”

The air left my lungs.

“What do you mean? I saw you both. Your grandfather… he pointed you out to me. I saw it with my own eyes!”

My voice rose into a shriek, echoing off the walls.

Aaron bit his bottom lip, and then a blank, hollow smile curved is mouth. It sent a chill straight to my marrow,

“Whatever

you think you saw, or whoever you thought you saw that person wasn’t me.”

I felt broken-like a puzzle with the most vital pieces suddenly ssed into the sea.

If it wasn’t him, then who?

My mind flashed back to that morning on the cruise; the two figures locked in an embrace that had shattered my world. But now, doubt was worming its way in, eating at my certainty.

“So where were you?” I demanded, my voice cracking.

“I was with my grandma after our breakfast, Jessica,” he said, each word hitting me like a stone.

“There is CCTV footage, Jess. There are logs. I could prove it in en minutes if I had to.”

He stepped closer, his gaze locking onto mine with an intensity hat made me want to shrink away.

“I understand… I was an asshole in high school. I made your life unbearable, and believe me, I was haunted by it. I wanted to make it up to you. I wanted to erase every shitty thing I ever did was at a point in my life where all I wanted was to be a

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09:41 Mon, Jan 26 GB G.

Chapter 108

reasonable human being.”

He paused, staring dead into my eyes, forcing me to look at the incerity I had spent six years trying to deny.

“I had started feeling something for you,” he whispered.

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“I didn’t know what it was yet, but I knew my heart only called out for you. That night… that was the best sex of my life. I wasn’t going to throw that away for a piece of my past.”

He scoffed, his eyes heavy with a crushing disappointment.

“I’m not as monstrous as you think I am, Jess. I knew where to draw the line.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he kept going, the words pouring out of him like a dam breaking.

“If I wanted to play with you, if I wanted to toy with your heart just to go back to Fiona, I promise I would have been much more cruel than whatever you think I did. I asked you to be my girlfriend because the pain of my past was so unbearable I thought I needed something to suppress it.”

His voice dropped low, and in his eyes, I saw it-regret, remorse. I wanted to reach out, to ease his pain…however, I couldn’t.

My body was too heavy to lift, too rooted to move.

“But on that cruise? I realized I was only hurting us both. I wanted to let go of the games. I wanted to turn the ‘fake’ into something real. I saw hope. And you shattered it all because of a lie my grandfather whispered in your ear?”

His voice didn’t crack, but it sounded broken-hollowed out. It wasn’t the anger that pierced through me, it was the magnitude of his disappointment.

I’d hurt him. All these years, I’d painted him as the villain to justify my flight, but I was the one who jumped to conclusions.

My fear had robbed us both of six years.

“Aaron-” I reached out, my hand trembling, wanting to touch his arm, to anchor myself.

He pulled back. He didn’t flinch; he just moved away, a pained smile flickering on his lips.

“Why didn’t you just confront me, Jess? Why did you cower away? Did you not love me enough to trust me? To believe that maybe, just maybe, what you saw was a misunderstanding?”

I shook my head, the tears blurring my vision until he was just a lark shape in the hallway.

“No, no… Aaron, I loved you. I really did. But I was so scared. Your grandfather… he was breathing down my neck. He told me I was just a rebound. I didn’t want to find out the truth because I thought the truth would kill me. You had already broken me once in high school, I couldn’t let you do it again…”

The words felt pathetic even as they left my mouth.

Aaron looked at me for a long beat, his expression hardening in something professional, something distant.

“I hope your aunt gets well, Jess. Truly.” He turned toward the ex. “Tomorrow, I want to spend time with my son.”

My eyes snapped up. Panic, sharp and cold, flooded my chest.

–

“Aaron, please don’t take him from me. Do whatever you want it me, yell at me, hate me for the rest of your life… but please, don’t take Adrian.”

I didn’t even realize I was doing it until my knees hit the cold hospital floor. I was begging.

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Chapter 108

Aaron whirled around, his face twisting in pain.

Once again, you’re judging me. You think I’m the villain in your story” He said, his voice thick with hurt.

Tm not, I sobbed.

I’m not cruel. Jessica. And unlike you, I won’t act on my impulsive emotions.” The words stung like a whip

“I don’t want to take him. I just want to get to know the boy who was stolen from me.”

Without another word, he turned and walked through the sliding doors, leaving me collapsed on the floor.

I cried until my lungs burned, until the world started to go grey at the edges.

A kind nurse stumbled upon me, literally tripping over a chair as she rushed to my side.

She crouched down, her hand warm on my shoulder.

“Hey, honey, it’s gonna be okay. Let’s get you some water.”

But even her kindness couldn’t mend the fracture. Aaron was right. I’d let fear win, and now we were all paying the price.

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