Quit Me If You Can

33. Cade

33

CADE

“ Y our dad is the reason I ended things between us.”

“What? No.” Kennedy shakes her head. “What?”

I just nod.

“What do you mean?” she asks. “He would never get in the way of my happiness. What are you talking about?”

I remain quiet for a long time before finally blowing out a long breath. I have to think very carefully about what I can say. I vowed to keep silent on the matter, but the circumstances are entirely different now.

I can’t fucking lose her.

“I was at a bar with some friends,” I say, starting slowly. “It was right after midterms, and that was a big weight off my shoulders. We were celebrating, and I couldn’t wait to see you. I had your ring ready. I was so excited about asking you to marry me.”

That was just a few days before I told her that we were over.

“I remember that night,” she interjects softly.

“We were in the middle of the crowd, dancing and laughing, when suddenly, the dance floor cleared a bit. And there he was. My brother.”

“Joey?” she asks.

“Yeah, Joey,” I confirm, the memory flooding back. “He said he needed to show me something and he was really insistent. I let him drag me outside to this black Chevy truck with reinforced suspensions that was parked around the corner. I recognized it immediately. It belonged to Rafael Herron, a real lowlife piece of work who used to hang around our neighborhood then. He and his gang were into every illegal activity you could think of. My brother hated him and so did I. Back then, we didn’t know that Herron came from money, not that it would have mattered. Turns out, he was just a pampered rich kid playing a tough guy.”

I blow out a frustrated breath, remembering the little piece of shit. “He was the bastard who killed our parents and drove off. Joey knew it. I knew it. Everyone in the neighborhood knew it, but no one dared to challenge him. We all knew how vicious Herron could be, how ruthless his tactics were, and we had zero proof. But there’s no doubt it was deliberate. His lawyer had the audacity to suggest our deceased parents were responsible for the accident.” I swallow hard. The pain feels just as raw as ever. Herron hadn’t just taken my parents from me. In a way he took my life with Kennedy too.

“The Chevy doors were unlocked, and just as I was asking Joey what the hell was going on, he opened the door and jumped in. He yelled at me to get in the car. And I did.” I attempt a smile but can’t quite master it. “Joey thought he could find the evidence that would nail Herron. Of something, at least. For one crazy minute, I believed it too.”

She swallows. “You were supposed to come over that night, but you didn’t.”

“Yeah,” I answer. The bitterness is noticeable in my voice. “Anyway, it was a dumb idea. Everything felt off. I tried to stop Joey from doing something reckless, but then we spotted a small red shoebox at my feet on the passenger side. Joey reached over and opened it, and my heart sank at the sight. It was full of drugs. A distinctive white powder, in packaging marked by a crude logo. Joey whispered that it was fentanyl, and I had enough street smarts to know he was right. The plastic bags were packed tight. There was enough product to really make waves on the streets. When I turned back to Joey, I saw the loose wires dangling under the dashboard. Clearly, someone had attempted to hotwire the car. And it only took that second to realize we were in deep trouble. That’s when I told him we needed to get the hell out of there.”

“Cade, wait! What?”

“I know! It sounds crazy,” I say, gripping her hands, hoping against hope that she’ll believe me. “Old grudges don’t die, do they? It wasn’t Herron’s car. It was a part of his setup, plain and simple. A sick, calculated trap. Herron knew exactly what he was doing. Joey had keyed his car once before during their countless back-and-forths—and for Joey to see this car that looked exactly like Herron’s, right down to those key scratches and that matching skull figurine hanging from the rearview mirror, was enough to rekindle his fury. It made him reckless. Our fingerprints were everywhere, and the car was full of drugs. Our best shot was to get out of there. Fast.”

“What? The car wasn’t yours, and the drugs sure as hell weren’t yours! No crime was committed.”

“Kennedy, that’s not how it works, and you know it. We’re talking about a car full of illegal drugs. That’s a possession charge waiting to happen. ‘Constructive possession,’ remember?”

Kennedy shakes her head slowly, then nods. “Right… So, just being in that car could be used against you, suggesting you had control over everything inside…” She bites her lip as she processes the implications. “That opens the door to serious legal trouble, possibly even felony charges, depending on what they find. And… fentanyl carries the harshest penalties in the jurisdiction.”

“Plus, we’d be looking at charges for unlawful entry. And attempted theft.”

“You could have claimed you stumbled into the wrong car.”

“Sure, but let’s not forget about the wires. Any law enforcement officer would see it as an attempted hotwire gone wrong. Like we tried to steal the car, couldn’t pull it off, and then abandoned it. They would dig deeper, and Joey wasn’t exactly a blank slate when it came to occasionally indulging in, let’s say,a little recreational herb . So, we got out of there, and I told Joey to head home, sober up, and keep his mouth shut. Not my best call, I’ll admit. He took my advice and bolted while I tried to wipe down the fingerprints. But there was a witness.”

Her expression shifts to concern. “Who saw you?”

“Your dad.”

Her gasp is audible.

“He was on his way home from some community outreach event, as I found out later,” I say. “It was organized to address the recent spike in crime. He happened to be passing by when he saw us get into the Chevy, which had caught his attention. He thought it looked like a drug dealer’s vehicle, with the tinted windows and reinforced suspensions. So he kept an eye on us from a distance. When Joey ran off, your father came to confront me. Life can be a cruel joke, can’t it?”

“And then what?” she asks. Her eyes are dry now, but I can see, feel, almost taste the unshed tears. The memory still burns bright in my mind.

“He couldn’t stop shouting at me, accusing me of being a criminal and a drug dealer, and how could I do that to you. He wanted to know if grand theft auto was my nighttime hobby, and who the other guy was that fled the scene. I assured him it wasn’t what it looked like, but he didn’t believe me. He insisted that you and I were over.”

Her face falls, and she withdraws her hands from mine. “Stop right there, Cade. You decided to break up with me because of my dad ? I cannot believe you! How can you be so smart about some things, and then, that!” She shakes her head. “All these years, and neither of you ever said a word to me.” Her voice cracks with disbelief. “You should have told me. I would have been right with you. With you ! Always!”

“And then what? Let’s say I did tell you. I racked my brain over all this, tearing the whole situation apart piece by piece. Wouldn’t you have turned a blind eye to the rift between me and your father, and said nothing to him?”

“I would never ignore a problem between you two. And of course, I’d side with you. Why wouldn’t I speak up? Dad’s not a threat.”

I nod, because of course she would say that. “He told me to break things off with you, or he was going to call the cops.”

“What? No. He’s… he was a judge !” The last word feels like it was squeezed out of her. “And the cops would have believed you!”

“Sure.” A dry laugh escapes me. “Grand theft auto, a drunk dude, a car full of drugs, with our fingerprints all over the goddamn contraband… and a hit-and-run that Joey and I are obsessed with—plus, a judge as witness for the prosecution? What’s not to believe?”

“A lot, actually. What would my father have told the cops? ‘I saw these boys exit a car that looks like a drug dealer’s vehicle’? That’s not a felony. Even if Dad had called the cops, mere suspicion isn’t enough to constitute a crime. You know that, Cade.”

“Just one hint of suspicion, and they’d call in the drug dogs. No warrant, no questions. My brother got away, but they’d eventually be onto him. He took off like I told him to, and fleeing the scene would only be seen as an attempt to evade law enforcement. Too sketchy. They’d say his departure clearly indicated consciousness of guilt. We were up against,” I raise a hand, ticking off each charge on my fingers, “possession charges. Attempted theft. Evading law enforcement. Tampering with evidence. Witness testimony, and compelling evidence neatly stacked against us. At least 250 grams of pure fentanyl, for Christ’s sake. Given all that, jail time was a certain outcome. Back then, I was still wet behind the ears, definitely not the kind of lawyer who could have stood a chance. Even if I’d gone free, Joey wouldn’t have. Everyone knew he had beef with that bastard Herron. Things were spiraling out of my control. We’d just lost our parents, and Joey wasn’t thinking straight. I wasn’t thinking straight. Herron fucking set him up, and he waltzed right in, right along with me.”

“I still don’t fully understand.What made you think it was Herron framing you? And why ?”

“Who else could it be? It was Herron’s way of reminding us who’s in charge. Killing our parents wasn’t enough. He wanted to keep us on a tight leash. He had his fingers in every shady deal around the neighborhood, and planting sealed plastic bags not with just any street drug, but filled with fentanyl , in an unregistered ‘ghost car’ to frame us was child’s play for him. It clicked when I saw that skull figurine hanging from the rearview. It was just too perfect. He wanted Joey to lose it, to walk right into his trap. This was a warning, a power play. It was personal.”

“Even so, this doesn’t excuse why you didn’t tell me .” She stabs my chest with her index finger. “You weren’t dating my father , you were with me . And you knew me in a different way than he does. Neither one of you had the right to decide how I would or should react, without giving me a chance to make up my own mind.”

“Yes. And I also know how close your family is. You’ve always talked about them, about the bond you share, about how nothing is more important than the family connections. At the very least, this whole situation would have driven a wedge between you and your father. And for what? I didn’t want to hurt you, ever.”

“For what?” she shrieks. “We could have stayed together!”

“For fuck’s sake, woman. Don’t you understand that’s what I wanted, too? To be with you, and fuck everything and everybody else? But we couldn’t be together. It was impossible. If your dad had called the cops, I would have ended up in jail. Your father didn’t just want me gone, Kennedy. He made it crystal clear that nothing would stop him from making sure I was out of the picture. He threatened me, my scholarship, my career, my life, everything. He didn’t want you to suffer the embarrassment of being with a ‘loser’ and a ‘criminal,’ he didn’t want you hanging out with ‘scum from the wrong side of the tracks.’”

I take a moment to steady myself. “I never thought I’d escape that godforsaken shithole I grew up in. Every bad decision comes at a cost, and the stakes were higher than ever right then. With us getting tangled in Herron’s mess, we were digging ourselves deeper—our parents were gone, and I couldn’t fucking bear the thought of losing my brother too.” I shake my head, looking into Kennedy’s wide eyes. “Don’t you get it? I wouldn’t ever throw my brother under the bus, not in a million years. The only way was to take the blame and agree to your father’s terms.”

“You chose your career over me?” she scoffs. “By not telling me, that’s exactly what you did.”

“I didn’t give a fuck about my career. I was young, and desperate. I felt like I was trapped with no way out. I did what I had to do. And I’d do it all over again if I had to.”

There’s silence.

She stares at me, taken aback.

“I understand,” she finally whispers. She looks like she’s been stabbed in the back for a second time. “I understand,” she repeats.

“No. No, you don’t. For fuck’s sake, don’t you get it? I believed your dad when he said you deserved better than me.”

She looks up and tilts her head. “You think I expected a flawless boyfriend?”

“No. I thought you deserved one.”