154 Barriers

“You did this, didn’t you? What in the world were you thinking?” Jackson snaps in angry disbelief. But he believes Tobias whole-heartedly, and that says something ugly about his only aunt. Jacqueline sips her wine and sets it down, totally unruffled. “You will thank

me one day.” She looks at him with almost . . . disappointment in her eyes. “You will realise that this was for the best.” She sounds so sure of herself, completely apathetic that she has broken him apart. And like Humpty-Dumpty, he doesn't think he will ever be put back together properly again.

He was already broken but had managed some degree of repair over time, with stitches made of distrust and a protective barrier to keep people at arm’s length. Monica barreled right through the barrier and climbed in between the stitches to make herself at home in hid heart, though, and now . . .he was destroyed from the inside out. Yet Jacqueline sits there, prim and proper as you please, with a smirk on her face like she hasn’t