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But how did she convince Mason of this? Part of her wondered why she even had to convince him. Why did it matter if he believed her or not?
The only answer she could come up with was because she cared. Because she’d never stopped loving him and wanted another chance with him.
Her heart squeezed.Oh, Lord, don’t let me get hurt again. And open his eyes to the truth. I think only You can do that now.
“Then I’m not going to try to convince you.”
“Lacey…”
“What’s next?”
He sighed. To her frustration—and relief—he let it drop. She’d just have to continue to earn his trust. Show him she would never be like his mother. And pray. Pray that God revealed the truth to him and opened his eyes.
He reached over and opened the passenger door. “All right, let’s go. I’ll take you home. There’s nothing more we can do here.”
Lacey looked back the pay phone. Her last connection with Bethany. She was loathe to leave it, but deep down she knew Bethany wasn’t coming back here.
She climbed in and Mason shut the door with a snap.
When he crawled in the driver’s side, Lacey firmed her jaw and took a deep breath. “Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to try to convince you that I’m telling the truth and Daniel is lying through his teeth. I really wasn’t planning on getting into this, but I want you to hear the whole story. I’ve protested my innocence until I’m blue in the face. If you choose not to believe me, so be it. But here’s the truth whether you want to hear it or not.”
Surprise lifted his brow and he did a double take. She blundered on. “That day, I was going to wait for you after school like I always did. On that bench under the tree behind the gym. That day you told me you’d be running a little late and had to meet with your calculus teacher. Remember?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I do. I’d missed a test because of the flu and had to schedule a time to make it up.”
“So I took my time getting there. When I arrived, Daniel was already there.”
A frown flitted across his forehead, but at least he was listening.
“He knew I was waiting for you because he said ‘Looks like we have a little time to talk before Mason gets here.’”
“Talk about what?”
“I don’t even remember now. He patted the seat beside him, I do remember that. So we talked a bit, then all of a sudden he said he had something in his eye and asked me if I would look at it.”
Mason scoffed, but without heat. “That’s the oldest trick in the book. You fell for that?”
She felt the flush creep up. “I wasn’t thinking anything except he looked like he had something in his eye. Up to that point, he didn’t act like he was hitting on me or anything. I leaned over. He kept leaning farther back. Then all of a sudden, I felt him tug on me and I lost my balance. I landed practically on top of him and he started kissing me. When I tried to pull away, he held me down. And then you were there.”
Silence filled the car. Then she whispered. “You can believe me or not, but that’s the truth.”
“But why?”
His cry nearly ripped her heart in two.
“Because he was jealous of you. He wanted to drive us apart. And he knew the one thing that would do it.” She gulped. She had to tell him all of it. “He saw you coming and said, ‘If I can’t have you, Mason sure isn’t going to.’” A tear dripped off her chin.
* * *
Mason felt the anguish fill him.
She wasn’t lying to him.
After spending the last couple of days together, he’d seen a lot of what she was experiencing go across her face to land in her eyes. Deceit wasn’t one of the things revealed there.
It took him a moment to process that he’d believed a lie all these years. He stared at her. Blinked. “I believe you.”
He’d shocked her into silent stillness.