Page 68 of Payback
His gaze shifted toward me, yet there was a distant look in his eyes.
“Food,” I pointed out, gesturing toward the plate in front of him.
He nudged it forward, and I feared he might tell me he no longer wanted to taste it due to its smell. But that wasn’t his intention.
“You go ahead and eat it. I’m not hungry anymore.”
I looked at him in puzzlement. I was indeed hungry, so I was more than willing to devour the meal, yet I couldn’t comprehend why he had suddenly changed his mind. He had requested that I make him lunch, and I had done so, but the sandwich before him remained untouched.
“Are you certain? You don’t want a bite?” I asked.
He shook his head, continuing to nurse his drink. While I hadn’t poured a large amount into his glass, he seemed content gazing at the liquid rather than tasting it. I picked up the food with my hands and began to eat, ravenously. Jared had used up a lot of my energy, and what was even more surprising was that he had barely touched me today. In the morning, he had ordered me to give him a blowjob, as if it were a new ritual. However, apart from that, he hadn’t touched me or forced me to engage in any other activity. It was quite baffling, and I grew more concerned that he was building up to something.
I continued to let my gaze wander over him as I ate, unsure if he might suddenly leap from his seat and pounce on me. Or perhaps he would command me to strip naked, coat myself in whipped cream, and then demand that I pleasure myself in front of him. Shaking my head, I discarded such thoughts. I didn’t want to give him any ideas. His current game of making me obsessed with him was already far too much. I didn’t need to confess my love for him again—even the mere thought sent shivers down my spine.
“You’re keeping a close watch on me,” he observed, glancing up from his drink to meet my gaze.
“Never heard that you should never take your eyes off a predator?” I retorted, noticing a dark smirk tugging at his lips.
“That’s how I always knew where you were back in high school.”
“But I always managed to find you.”
“Only because you had so many spies,” he countered.
“They were friends.”
“People you paid to act like they liked you. Face it, Alison, the only person who had fewer true friends than me was you,” he declared, causing me to narrow my eyes and glare at him. “People feared you. That’s why they were your friends.”
“Yet you wanted to be me,” I snarled.
“I wanted to be free of you, and eventually I was.”
“How did you manage to survive?” I asked, pointing my fork at him. “Honestly, I thought you’d be dead by now.”
He shrugged, seemingly unoffended by my words. “Yeah, many probably thought I was.”
“So how did you survive? You dropped out just three months before graduation and vanished. Your loser father wouldn’t have helped you,” I remarked.
“No, he drowned in his alcoholism.”
“He’s dead?” I asked. I had not kept track of Jared and his family after Jared disappeared, and I moved on with my life.
“He is.”
“When?”
“A few years ago,” he informed me. “A blessing to the world.”
“Oh? He didn’t shower you with love?” I retorted.
“Come on, Alison, are you that slow? Haven’t you connected the dots?”
His words irritated me, and I shot him a glare. “What is there to piece together?”
“You didn’t inflict the scars on my back. So, who the hell do you think did?” he questioned, his voice carrying darkness and intense hatred.
Slowly, the realization dawned on me about what he was revealing. I knew his father was a brutal alcoholic, but I had never known the extent of his cruelty. Jared’s back was marked by permanent scars, evidence of wounds that hadn’t healed properly due to the way they had been inflicted and how they were treated. These scars twisted across his skin, a testimony to his pain.
