Impact (The Fight for Life #2)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or people, living or dead, is coincidental.

To the Collision readers who have been so excited for Leo and Juliette’s continued story, Impact is dedicated to you.

Dartmoor Wellness Centre was no looney bin. I’d envisaged straitjackets and padded cells, but it was more like some sort of fancy health retreat—sprawling gardens, a lake, orange trees. I wanted to see that woman suffer for what she did to Juliette, but this place felt more like a reward. The security was probably to keep people out rather than in.

“Come on.” I tugged Juliette’s hand gently. “Let’s get this over with and then we have a lot of catching up to do.” I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there and to have her all to myself. I’d spent the past two months missing her with every cell in my body and had hoped she felt the same. Our passionate reunion filled me with hope, but I knew we needed to talk about what had happened before she’d left. She knew her mother had offered me money to stay away from her, and she knew I had rejected it. What she didn’t know was why I had pushed her away. I would have to try to find a way to explain it to her, as I was adamant nothing was ever going to come between us again.

Beyond the orchard, two women were sitting on wooden chairs, facing the lake. As we drew nearer, both women stood. When they turned around, my flight instinct gripped my throat as the life I’d spent five years fighting for came crashing down around me.
This can’t be fucking happening.

“What’s wrong?” Juliette whispered. “Who is she?”

“Darling.” Isabel surged forward. “Thank you for coming.”

She wrenched Juliette from me and we locked eyes. The witch knew what she was doing bringing me here, and smug would be an understatement to describe the look on her face.

Juliette pulled out of the awkward hug. “Who’s your friend, Mum?” she asked, sounding extremely uncomfortable.

I knew I had no choice. My hand had been forced as she was about to find out regardless. Five years hadn’t been kind to the virtual stranger standing in front of me. Her dark hair had greyed and frown lines marred her gaunt face. My next two words were something I never thought I’d utter again, and nausea swirled through me on its ruthless path. I took Juliette’s hand and pulled her back to me.

“Hello, Mother.”

Leo’s mother was dead. He’d told me in no uncertain terms on more than one occasion. My heart pounded out of my chest as my mind struggled to process the situation. The fact Leo didn’t sound at all surprised spoke volumes. He’d lied to me. But why? I was face to face with his dead mother. His icy tone told me he wasn’t at all thrilled about it, and her demeanour was hard to read. She wasn’t standoffish, but this definitely wasn’t a happy reunion.

“What’s going on?” Given the silence, I felt the need to whisper.

Nobody said anything. My eyes darted back and forth from Leo to the woman. They were locked in a standoff.

“Juliette.” My mother’s cheery tone broke the uncomfortable silence. “This is Gwendolyn.” She placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Gwendolyn, you have to meet my beautiful daughter, Juliette. Isn’t she just gorgeous?”

Gwendolyn? As in the name of the farmhouse?

“Lovely to meet you, Juliette,” she said, politely extending her hand. “Please call me Gwen. Your mother has told me so much about you.”

“I… um… don’t know what to say.” When I touched her hand, my eyes flitted to Leo. It was the same look I saw on his face the first time I laid eyes on him at fight club. The icy stare was back and my whole body shuddered, but I refused to jump to any false conclusions again. I shook her hand briefly then took a step closer to Leo.

“Juliette.” Leo took hold of my hand and pulled me closer to him. His voice was grave but demanding. “We’re leaving.”

“Juliette isn’t going anywhere.” My mother grabbed my hand and roughly pulled me away from Leo. “You just got here, and we have so much catching up to do.” She looked at Leo, her expression smug. “Leave if you must.” Clearly she'd set this up, and Leo's presence was no longer required. My heart dropped. After all we'd been through, she was still interfering in my life.

He glanced at me with questioning eyes. I was blindsided and confused on top of being horribly jetlagged. Why had he lied to me about his mother when he clearly knew she was alive? Misjudging my hesitation, pain flashed through his eyes. “I have to go.” His voice was strained and laced with anger.

Horrified, I watched him stride purposefully away while I stood there, unable to get my head around the situation.

“I was worried that would happen,” Gwendolyn whispered, snapping me from my paralysed state. I saw what I believed to be genuine sadness flash across her eyes and my curiosity hit fever pitch.

“I’ll be back in two minutes,” I said, holding up two fingers.

I ran up the hill after Leo before my mother could protest.

“Wait!” I called out. He was beyond the orchard when I caught up to him. He stopped but didn’t turn around. “Look at me, Leo.”

I stopped a few feet behind him and waited for him to turn. His shoulders stiffened and he glanced upwards at the darkening clouds. His whole body was so expressive and I realised in that moment just how much I missed him. I missed how his body felt against mine and how he made me feel. Perhaps we’d just taken a giant step back, but I wasn’t going to be the one to run. I was no longer the girl who ran. I would stay and fight because he was worth fighting for.

The look of pain on his face as he turned back was crushing.

“I need to get out of here, Juliette.” His gravelly voice was strained and tortured. His hands were clenching and unclenching. “I’d like to force you to come with me. I’d like to get you the hell away from that woman, but I’m about to lose my shit completely and you don’t need to be around that.”

I took another step forward and waited until he looked me in the eye. “Why did you lie to me about your mother?”

He blew out a long breath. “I’m sorry you had to find out like that. I’m more sorry you had to find out at all, but I told you
my
truth.” He flattened the palm of his hand against his chest. “The only truth I can live with.”

I shook my head, completely confused. “What does that mean?”

“That woman over there is dead to me.” He pierced me with his gaze. “Do you get that? Dead. To. Me.” Despite the determination in his voice, his shoulders slumped.

“Why?” I croaked. “What happened in that goddamned house?”

“I don’t talk about that.” He pushed his shoulders back and stood up straighter. “I
can’t
talk about it and I don’t have to justify myself to you or anyone else. No one could possibly understand, and I don’t feel like explaining it. I’ve managed to avoid her for five years, and your mum, the Queen of Manipulation, managed to set me up. Again. But compared to my mother, yours is Mother Theresa.”

I felt like he’d stabbed me in the chest. Our reunion in the reception had been so full of passion and our magnetic attraction was still irrefutable, but now I could feel him slipping through my fingers. “This is all so messed up, Leo.”

“You’ve obviously found a way to forgive your mother for what she did.” He couldn’t even look me in the eye when he practically spat the words at me. “You have a forgiving heart, Jules, but you and I are not the same.”

“She’s your mother, Leo.” I knew what my own mother had done was reprehensible, but she was still my mother. “It can’t be that bad.”

He just nodded, his hands firmly planted in the pockets of his shorts. “Go back to your mum. She obviously wanted us both to come, but only one of us to stay.” He spoke with zero emotion. “I’m leaving.”

Unsure if my touch would be welcomed, I tentatively placed my hand on his arm. “Don’t shut me out, Leo. Before I left to go overseas six weeks ago, you said you wanted to talk to me when I got back.” I gave his arm a gentle squeeze. “Well, I’m back now.”

He stared down at my hand on his arm, his brow furrowed. I had no idea what he was thinking. When he finally met my eyes, he appeared tortured. “I want to, Jules. I do. I have so much to tell you, and I wanted to hear all about your trip, but I can’t right now. I can’t talk about her and I know you want to. You have to trust me when I tell you to stay away from that woman.”

A sob escaped me, but I managed to win the war against the threatening tears. “I don’t know if I trust you, but I know that I want to.”

I had gutted him with my words, but I had opened my heart to him and he’d pushed me away at the first hurdle. I’d come home ready to fight, but he had to meet me halfway.

“I know. I fucked up with you and I thought we could get past it, but this is different, Jules.” He pushed my hair behind my ears and held my face. “I have my life under control and it hasn’t always been that way.” I covered his hands with mine while he continued. “It’s a chapter of my life that’s best left closed and in the past. No good can come from talking about it.” His hands dropped from my face. “I made a choice almost five years ago to block her out of my life, and that was taken away from me today.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as the realisation hit. Leo was far more damaged than I’d ever suspected. As much as I couldn’t deny I loved him deeply, I knew our happily ever after was now nowhere in sight. I closed my eyes briefly, trying not to appear defeated.

“You’re asking me to trust you, but you’re giving me nothing,” I mumbled.

“Can you just promise me one thing?” he asked.

I met his eyes and the desperation in them floored me. I nodded, knowing I would do just about anything to take away some of his pain.

“Don’t believe anything she says. She’s manipulative and she’s a liar. I can’t force you to come with me now, but I need this to be the end of it. Regardless of whether you want anything to do with me after this, I don’t want you having anything to do with her once you leave here today.”

I stared at my feet, kicking divots in the grass. “I thought this was going to be our new start.”

“I’ll call you in a few days. Okay?” He closed his darkened eyes briefly. My heart ached for the sadness they conveyed. “I need some time to sort things through in my head again. I’m sorry, Jules.”

“Leo.” His name fell from my lips. I didn’t want him to leave, but I could see he couldn’t stay. “Whatever happened to you, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He grazed the back of his hand across my cheekbones. “Just don’t ever mention it again.”

I glanced back before I made it to the first orange tree because I couldn’t resist. I wished I hadn’t. The crazy part of me hoped he’d still be there. Instead, I saw him jogging up the hill, clearly in a hurry to get away. What the hell had happened to make him react like this to his own mother?