Read Online Word of Honor, Book 2 by Tiana Laveen - Free Book Online Page A

name and all of that, but I’ll be damned if I will apologize to you for being black.”
    “I never asked you to.” He refused to look into those eyes of hers as he steepled his fingers under his chin.
    I might need to call Dr. Owens. I’m trying not to, but I think it’s time for me to go. I felt such rage for her just now… but I also felt… Never mind any of that… I just need to get the fuck out of here…
    “I won’t apologize for trying to help you, for sharing my life with you, for lovin’ you, all the parts of you. I didn’t love the ugliness inside of you, but that ugliness was because you were hurting. I understood you, even when others told me I shouldn’t. I believed that you loved me… I believed that you were sincere.”
    There’s the phone right there on that mantel. I could just stand up and make the call…
    “I knew despite what you’d been doing, there was hope for you. I saw it in your letters… I saw the real you in your letters and they screamed at me; they spelled it out!” She lunged for him, grabbed his wrist. He looked down at her hand, the light brown flesh gripping his fair skin. “They told me that you didn’t hate me because I was black! You hated me because people that looked like me had caused you pain, and you came from a world that told you it was me against you… but it isn’t! It’s just you and me, Aaron. I wanted us to be a team, to work together!”
    “That’s the thing.” He slowly lifted his gaze and dared himself to look at her once more.
    How could God make somethin’ so damn beautiful and the Devil make me hate his creation? She’s a damn field of wild flowers…look at all that freedom and love and light in her eyes… they look like dollops of honey… She’s a walkin’ symphony, and I wanna hear her solo…Stay on track, Aaron…stay on track.
    “Trust is a big thing with me, Mia. Once trust is violated, I can’t… I can’t go back.”
    Why am I not calling Dr. Owens?! Why am I explaining myself to her?
    “Aaron… Listen to me, please.” The muted tone of desperation limped across each syllable that spilled from open, slightly moist lips. He could see she was trying her damndest to make this right, to make it better…
    …Yes, make it better, Mia…
    But he wasn’t sure that she could. Not now, not ever.
    “What I did was wrong. There is no other way to cut, dice, and slice that reality and turn it into something else, something good. I won’t pretend otherwise. But you have to understand that initially I knew I wasn’t supposed to participate in the pen pal program, but hardly anyone was signing up. I wanted to help, so I did it, and I figured there would be no harm in using a fake name and identity. I’d just be your friend, someone to talk to, and then it would be over.”
    “But what about when you realized I was serious and wanted more than a pen pal, Mia? Why didn’t you stop and tell me the truth?”
    She rubbed her hands together and averted her gaze as if she, too, couldn’t bear to face him a moment longer.
    “You had plenty of opportunity. We’ve been correspondin’ for about six months. In that timeframe, I wrote forty-eight letters to you, Mia! Forty fucking eight! You wrote me forty-two, not including all the ones I sent back to you recently. You had almost fifty chances to tell me the truth and now you want another? Well, fuck that shit!”
    And then, he withdrew from her, delved within himself as if an internal stop sign had been thrust into his face. Her face tensed, relaxed a little… and then some more. Like a spider finishing the last of its web in preparation for the perfect prey, the black widow admired her work…
    Fuck.
    I’ve busted myself. She knows now; she knows just how much I adored her. Well, of course she does, but that’s not the problem here. The issue is that I still remember everything and I can’t seem to let it go!
    “I don’t want a 50 th chance. I just want this time with you, to talk