Amy sat at the dining table, laptop open, glasses sliding down her nose. She was editing a chapter, the soft clacks of her keyboard filling the apartment. Jace was across from her with his own laptop, a mug of coffee beside him, every now and then glancing at her as though waiting for a moment to say something.
Then her phone rang.
Again.
Amy stiffened. She didn't even look at it just reached out, tapped the side button, and muted the call before it finished ringing.
Jace noticed.
He always noticed.
Amy's phone vibrated again.
Jace's eyes flicked up instantly.
He tried not to say anything.
Tried.
But curiosity and concern were not strong enough to hold back the simple, stupid impulse.
Amy got up to refill her glass of water, leaving her phone on the table.
As she walked away, Jace "pretended" to stretch,he leaned in just enough to glance at the name on her screen.
He didn't quite succeed cause Amy came back almost immediately.
It wasn't snooping, he told himself. He just… needed to know.
He tried to keep working, but his eyes wandered again when the phone vibrated quietly for the fourth time within minutes. He swallowed, shut his laptop halfway, and stood. As casually as he could, he walked around the table pretending to look for something but his eyes flicked briefly at the muted screen.
He saw the name. MOM.
He exhaled, deeply, then leaned against the counter behind her.
"Ames," he said softly, "you're… not going to answer it?"
Amy didn't look up. "Jace," she said flatly, "don't do that. Just drop it."
Jace rubbed his palms together slowly, frustration working its way through his chest. He'd held this in for days maybe weeks.
"I can't keep dropping it each time, she's been calling non stop" He said.
"Leave it Jace" She said flatly.
"I wasn't trying to pry," he said carefully. "I just… I've been wanting to talk to you about this for a while. She keeps calling. You don't even try to pick up. You don't want to hear her out....."
Amy slammed her laptop shut.
"Didn't we already talk about this?" she asked sharply. "Didn't we? And it didn't end well then, so why are we doing it again?"
She stood up in one sudden motion and started to walk away.
Jace's hand reached out.....out of instinct and caught her wrist gently.
"Amy....come on. I'm not your enemy. Just talk to me."
She yanked her arm back so hard he let go immediately.
"Jace, don't. Don't hold me like that"
Her voice was trembling,part anger, part pain.
"Amy," he tried again, "I'm not trying to upset you. I'm trying to help. You can't keep pretending she doesn't exist forever. At least hear her out"
Amy turned on him like a storm.
"Stay the hell out of it!"
The volume of her voice startled even her.
Jace's jaw tightened, but he didn't yell back.
"Amy, anything that concerns you concerns me too. You know that."
"Well maybe it shouldn't!" she snapped. "Maybe not everything about my life needs your opinion or your....your lectures...."
"Lectures?" Jace laughed bitter and hurt. "You think I'm lecturing you?"
"You are! You don't even understand"
"And you think I don't understand cutting off a parent?" he fired back.
Silence cracked between them.
Amy stared at him, breathing hard.
"Finally" she whispered. "Atleast you're finally admitting that you're in an estranged relationship with your own father"
"The situations aren't the same," Jace said quietly but firmly. "He....my dad....he killed Emma. My father killed my sister, Amy. Out of negligence. Out of absent-mindedness." His voice cracked. "I'm allowed to feel how I feel about him."
"And I'm not allowed to feel how I feel about my mother?" she yelled.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She paced away from him, her fingers trembling, her breathing uneven.
Then the words ripped out of her:
"My mom killed the love I had for her."
Jace stepped forward, but she stepped back.
"She left me, Jace," she said, voice breaking open. "She left me alone. After my brother died, she just..." she sucked in a shaky breath, "married another man and left a seventeen-year-old girl with a relative who didn't give a damn whether I ate or slept."
"Amy...." Jace called stepping forward but she still backed up.
"She killed the love I had for her! She left me, Jace. She left me! What does that make her? A saint?"
Her hands were shaking now.
"She moved to another city like I didn't exist! I was just seventeen! Seventeen, Jace!"
Jace stepped forward slowly.
"Amy… I know it hurt"
"No you don't!" she shouted.
He froze.
"You don't get it," she whispered, backing away, her breath coming quick and uneven. "Don't tell me to 'calm down.' Don't tell me to 'listen.' Don't tell me she wants to make things right with me. She destroyed me, Jace. She made me believe I ruin everything I touch."
Her voice shrank then, trembling:
"She made me feel like I wasn't worth staying for."
A tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it harshly, as if offended by her own surrender.
"I don't want to talk to her. I don't want to hear her voice. I don't want to remember what it feels like to beg someone who's supposed to love you to… stay."
Her legs gave out a little and she sank to the floor, hugging her knees as if trying to hold herself together.
"I've been doing fine without her for eight years," she whispered. "I built a life without her. I learned how to breathe without her. I can't...."
Her voice broke.
"I can't go backward. I can't."
Jace's chest tightened painfully.
He knelt down slowly in front of her, careful not to touch her until she looked at him and when she did, only then did he reach out, gently brushing a tear off her cheek before wrapping his arms around her.
Amy collapsed into him immediately, sobs shaking through her.
"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I'm sorry, I just....she ruined me, Jace. She ruined everything."
"No," he murmured, holding her tighter.
"She didn't ruin you. She hurt you. But she didn't ruin you."
He kissed the top of her head.
"You're still here. You survived. You became someone strong, someone gentle, someone who loves fiercely even when she's terrified of it. She didn't break you, Amy. You're allowed to be angry. You're allowed to protect your heart."
She buried her face in his shirt, sobbing harder.
Jace closed his eyes, breathing into her hair.
"I'm with you," he whispered. "I'm always with you. Even in the ugly parts."
She held onto him like he was the only steady thing in the world.
And for a while, that's exactly what he was.
"I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair. "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve any of that. You didn't deserve to feel abandoned. You didn't deserve to feel like you ruin things. You don't. You never have."
She sobbed harder.
"I'm here," he whispered. "I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere."
He held her until her breathing softened, until the worst of the storm passed.
And when she finally pulled back, eyes red and exhausted, he cupped her face gently.
"You don't have to forgive her today," he said softly. "Or tomorrow. Or ever. You get to decide your healing."
Amy closed her eyes, leaning into his touch.
"I just… don't want to be broken again," she whispered.
Jace kissed her forehead.
"You're not broken," he said. "You're healing. And that's different."