Page 74 of Dissolving Prejudice

“I had things to do,” he said, his voice slowly getting lower until he quieted down, probably because he realized he sounded like a moron.

“You had things to do?” Looking aside at the ocean, I snorted. “You’re so pathetic, Camilo. So fucking pathetic—”

“Oh, and he’s not?” he cut me off.

“Maybe he is, but at least Jordan is a good man. Unlike us.”

Now, it was his turn to laugh, and my eyes snapped to his.

“Again with that crap?” His brows pulled close as he let go of me. “He’s not a good man, Shay-Lee. He’s a coward and a liar. Did you forget how he lied in my trial?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “It might not have been his best moment, but—”

“Not his best moment?” A broken laugh escaped him. “He spoke for almost an hour on what an abusive man I was.”

“He didn’t mean anything bad by it.”

“The fuck?” Camilo frowned so hard a vein popped in his temple. “He claimed he saw me hitting you the night of the party our classmate held. You know, the one he suddenly showed up to out of nowhere? That same night he found out about us.” He shook his head. “Did you ever stop to think about his timing and how convenient it was for him to appear right after your dad beat the shit out of me?”

Since I wasn’t present for the trial itself, I didn’t know all of the details of how it went. After Camilo left, going back to watch videos of the trial was too painful, so I didn’t. The only thing I knew was that Jordan had lied in his testimony, and I only knew about it because of Soren. For some reason, he never quite liked Jordan, yet he didn’t push me too hard on the subject. And while what Camilo just said did sound like an odd coincidence, that’s all that it was. A coincidence.

“Jordan had nothing to do with my dad.” There was no question about that. “And when he lied about you hitting me at the party, maybe he was drunk that night and confused things?” I said, trying to think of a reasonable explanation. “He was going through a hard time.”

Camilo’s eyes then went wide, like something had snapped inside him. “He went through a hard time?” he snarled. “I was thrown into jail, Shay-Lee.” His tone hardened. “I was locked for months in a cell that smelled of sewage and slept on a mattress stained with piss and blood while being beaten by men your father sent, for you to tell me fucking Jordan went through a hard time?”

His hoarse voice stung my heart, his words twisting my guts as I was filled with shame. This was the first time Camilo had said anything about what he went through in jail, and to be honest, I was so invested in myself and my own anger that I didn’t stop to think about it. While I was lying unconscious in a hospital, Camilo was going through hell of his own.

Out of words, because I knew a simple “sorry” wouldn’t do it, I stayed quiet with my legs rooted to the ground.

I heard him sigh before he turned around and took a few steps away from me.

“You know what the hardest part was?” he then spoke, and I looked up to see him staring at me.

I shook my head.

“The hardest part was the first few weeks, where I had no idea if you were even alive.” He paused as if speaking physically hurt and closed his eyes. “It ruined me. Living on this earth, not knowing if you were still alive or not. It fucking destroyed me.”

By now, my vision had blurred with tears, and I fought hard not to cry again. While he did leave without a word, during the time he was gone, there wasn’t a second where I doubted if he was alive. In fact, I knew he was, as I sent a private investigator to track him down.

His jaw tensed before he averted his eyes away from me and took a deep breath. “I wanted to die so bad that I almost did it.”

My heart stopped, and horrified, his confession made me feel like the floor dropped away beneath me, leaving me in free fall. Knowing what suicide meant to him after the things he went through with his mother as a child only made his statement hit harder. Learning that he’d ever considered taking his life shocked me to my core, but at least I could relate to it. His shocking words also helped me understand that I wasn’t the only one who was still hurting. And if I loved this man as I claimed to, I couldn’t just let his suffering slide.

And the truth was that in those years he was gone, I might have felt lonely, but I wasn’t alone. I had Soren and Blaire, while Camilo had no one but the demons of his past. The mere thought of it broke my heart to pieces.

“I’m hungry,” I said.

Confusion overtook his features. “What?”

“I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m starving.” I flipped my hair back. “Take me to eat.”

Camilo’s shock slowly melted into amusement, and his lips turned up. “What are you hungry for?”

“Anything but bananas.”

Diesel

“So basically, after the internship ended, Vito offered me the job, and I took it,” Shay-Lee said, then popped another fried dumpling into his mouth and chewed it cheerfully.