Lucas

"Allie, stop!"

Since when is she an Olympic sprinter in the same heels that she tripped in this morning?

My shoulder is screaming at me while I try to catch up to her, and she's already halfway to the car.

"Allie! Just wait, dammit!" I reach for her arm, and she whips her body around, nearly crashing into me.

She lets out a frustrated sob toward the sky and pinches the bridge of her nose. After a few ragged breaths, she looks at me with genuine pain in her eyes. "He lied to me, Lucas. He covered it up for Mark just like everyone else."

The way Allie looks at me sends the shoulder pain to the back of my mind. The tears filling her eyes spill over, painting her cheeks as they fall. Her life makes little sense right now, and I get it. She doesn't know what to do. "Allie, he wanted to tell you. Trust me, he did. That was the first thing he said. Your dad said it hurt him to keep a secret from you."

She nods and wipes her nose. "I know." Allie shrugs away from me when I reach for her. "Stop, Lucas. I need to tell you something, and then I need to leave." She makes a whimpering sound and clears her throat.

Leave? Where does she think she's going to go?

"Allie, he was protecting you. And who cares if he lied? Mark isn't your dad, no matter what–"

"That's not–" Allie sobs into her hands while her shoulders shake. "Lucas, oh my god. It's so bad. All of it. He's part of everything."

I'm not the smartest guy, but it sounds like she's talking about something else. I'm not sure what would be more important right now than her dad keeping a secret like this her whole life.

The lunch bell rings in the background and students flood the halls. Quickly, we're surrounded by screams and laughter and zero privacy. "Allie, let's go talk somewhere. I can get you lunch and we can talk about it."

What the fuck I'm going to tell her, I don't have the slightest idea. However, she seems like she just needs to cry right now.

"No," she says with a firm tone. Her face morphs into some ball of anger, like she used to get around me at the beginning of summer. Only, it's not in the cute way.

"Excuse me?"

"No, Lucas. Listen to me." She straightens her shoulders and wipes her eyes. "Mark. It's all Mark."

I check over our shoulders in case the slimy fuck is somewhere nearby. "What about him?" Other than he's a douche-prick that could use a cannon ball to the mouth.

His name is just offensive to me now. I like filthy words, but his name is just dirt.

She swallows and lowers her voice while students rush past us. "He threatened me, Lucas."

"What?" Students passing by stop and stare when I raise my voice. I grab her wrist and march us out of the halls and away from all the listening ears. When I round the corner of the library building, Allie leans back against the wall with her arms crossed. "Explain yourself. He threatened you?"

She may not mean to, but by covering her face with her hands, she is going to turn me into a violent person. I've seen her upset before, but this is different. If she doesn't tell me, I'm going to find Mark.

"Allie." I grip her wrists and pull her hands down. "Either you tell me, or I'll go find out myself. He threatened you? What the hell did he say to you?" First Tea-bag Ted grabs her arm, and now Mark is threatening her? Fuck no.

"No–well, yeah, but–"

I don't have time for this. I need to call Joel and she can give a statement or something. Fuck if I know how this shit works. "What did Mark say to you?"

She licks her lips and without missing a beat, she tells me, and I'm barely holding on to my sanity by a thread.

"He made it sound like if I didn't leave with Ted, that he would find a way to force me out of here." She arches a brow and scoffs. "He also said that he hand-selected you and planned out your future with Katrina because everybody just loves you." She rolls her glossy eyes at that last part.

He wants me as an accessory to his family tree. Lovely. My hands are trembling with a need to hit something, and Allie manages to further this need to hit someone.

"Lucas, I think he's the one responsible for your injury. He didn't deny it. He said accidents happen."

Just like that, my shoulder throbs again and my jaw ticks on the side. "He wouldn't get some kid to ram into me. That guy said it was an accident." More importantly, this isn't about me.

She shakes her head and straightens up. "So was mine, Lucas. It's not about him being this random man in the background. He's made it clear he doesn't care and he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Apparently, what he wants is you here, and me gone. You're with the wrong daughter, apparently. I've been the problem from the beginning. The night we met? That sealed it for him."

My lips turn down at that. "What do you mean?"

Allie swallows nervously and stares at the ground. She pulls at her dress and laughs, but I can't tell if it's sarcastic or maybe she's losing it. "He saw us, Lucas, that night we met. He saw us in your car."

"You mean he watched us?" What kind of sick son of a bitch watches something like that? Add to that, Allie is his own kid. If he knew who she was, he could have pulled her from inside the car rather than whatever he did. Hold on to the information, I guess.

"Lucas, I can't do this." She's giving in to Mark without a fight. Is she really going to let him ruin her life? She's done nothing wrong.

Allie stares at her car parked in the distance, working her jaw back and forth. She's never wanted to fight for herself before, but surely she would want to do something about this, right? This is her life we are talking about.

"We can say something, Allie. We can tell them what Mark said to you, and he can go to jail or something."

"Who, Lucas? Don't you get it? He covered up an accident. He's friends with important people who would turn the whole thing around on me somehow because he's going to be a president or something. If you think about it, the accident sounds like attempted murder to me. That means he could get away with actual murder. Mark gets whatever he wants and doesn't care who he hurts in the process. This includes, apparently, his own flesh and blood." She pats her hand against her chest.

"So, what? You're just going to let him hurt you? Let him chase you out of fucking town? What kind of weak shit is that, Allie? You're better than this."

She purses her lips and shoots me a glare. "No, actually, I don't care what he does to me. I've never cared about what people say or think about me. I won't let there be another one of his 'accidents' near Jadon out of some sort of retaliation for whatever hairbrained idea you have with telling whoever you think will one, listen, and, two, give a shit."

How does she have no will to fight this? She just wants to run? It's the same as giving up on finding out who hit her when she was pregnant.

"I didn't care before, thinking it really was an accident and maybe that person who hit me was afraid of the consequences. I let it go, Lucas, because I had someone more important to worry about. I still have someone more important to worry about. If it means we need to leave so that he doesn't hurt my son, I won't risk it. I won't, Lucas. He's too important to me."

She pushes away from the wall and walks past me.

Biting off several curses, I rush to keep up with her. "You're fucking running because you think he's untouchable, but he's not. We have that file and you can tell them everything he said. His threats to harm you? He can't get away with that."

"There's no proof, Lucas. I'll say one thing, he'll say another. Don't you get it? He's cautious. He is aware of the steps he needs to take to protect himself."

We make it all the way to her car, and she reaches into my pocket for the keys. "Allie, where are you going?"

"I'm picking up Jadon, and I'm taking him home. I can't deal with this, Lucas. I'll come back and get you after practice."

"Allie, please don't go anywhere." I'm going to find Mark. He's probably still around here somewhere. I don't know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to make damn sure he leaves the two of them alone. "Please, just wait for me at home."

Allie narrows her eyes to slits and pulls her brows together. "That's what I just said. I wasn't going anywhere."

"Just promise me you won't leave or do something stupid, okay? Just..." I swallow the lump in my throat. "Please, just say you'll stay."

I don't trust her right now. She was just threatened and I don't want to let her go off alone. But if Mark is here, she's fine. Once I know where he is, I know Tom will understand if I leave early. I need to talk her out of whatever she's thinking. It's clear on her face she's thinking about running, and we're not doing that.

She offers a small smile and nods. "I need to get Jadon, Lucas. I don't feel right not being near him now." She hugs my neck and holds on tight, sending my stomach to my feet. "I love you."

Allie gets in her car and this time, it's me she's leaving behind while she drives away.