Page 39 of The Lilac River (Silver Peaks #1)

Stronger Than You Think - Fireflight

Nash

I couldn’t be hearing right.

What Lily had just told me had to be wrong.

No way had the man who fucking created me made sure my future was ruined.

"Say that again."

The words came out like gravel. My throat was dry and burning, my ears buzzing with white noise. Disbelief surged up like bile, tangling with a deep, bone-deep dread I hadn’t felt since the night Loretta left Bertie in my arms and walked away.

I stood up, slamming my glass of bourbon onto the coffee table. The impact made it rattle, amber liquid sloshing against the rim. The room pulsed with tension, like it knew something sacred had just cracked.

Lily rocked slightly where she sat, her arms wrapped around her waist like she was trying to hold herself together with nothing but sheer will. She looked at me like she was terrified I’d shatter into pieces, or worse, explode.

"I’m not lying, Nash," she said, her voice small. Fragile.

"Never said you were," I ground out, jaw clenched so tight it ached.

"Which makes this even more fucked up, because I can easily believe he’d do it.

" The admission made something inside me rot. I forced out a breath, chest heaving like I’d just sprinted across the paddock. "Tell me again what he did."

When a tear slid down her cheek, it tore into my heart like a blade. Sharp. Deep. Brutal. I wanted to reach for her. Wipe it away. Pull her into my arms and never let go. But I didn’t.

Instead, I stood there like a useless bastard, fists clenched at my sides so hard my nails bit into my palms. My whole body vibrated with a rage I didn’t know where to put.

Finally, Lily straightened her spine, trembling like a leaf in the wind. But her voice didn’t waver.

"He demanded that I leave town, and I couldn’t tell you why. The only thing I was allowed to do was leave a note for my mom. He said I was holding you back and if you came to Ohio with me you’d never make it."

Her arms tightened around herself; shoulders curled inward like she was trying to shrink away from the memory.

"He made me leave you, Nash. Made me leave our future."

I staggered back a step, like her words had physically punched me. She wasn’t telling me everything. I could see it, read it in every tremble, every shallow breath.

The poisonous thought of money being involved slithered through my mind, cold and venomous. But darker things crept in too. Sicker ones. Ones that I didn’t want to say out loud in case they were true.

"Lily," I said sharply, the edge in my voice unintentional but impossible to dull, "what did he do?"

"I-I don't…" Her bottom lip quivered as she scrubbed at her cheeks, but the tears kept coming. Silent. Devastating.

"You have to tell me," I said, my voice low and rough, vibrating with things I didn’t know how to name. "Because some of the things running through my head are bad, baby. Real bad."

She flinched at the endearment. That stung more than I was prepared for.

But finally, finally, she opened her mouth to speak.

"No. Don’t tell me," I snapped before she could. I turned away from her, pacing across the room, dragging my hands through my hair like that could stop the fire building in my chest.

"All I need to know is that you left because of him."

But even as I said it, the words burned like acid. I couldn’t stop myself. Couldn’t stop needing it.

I turned back, voice raw and unraveling.

"No. Tell me. Tell me exactly how the hell he made you walk away from me."

My lungs burned. My vision tunneled. I could barely breathe. My chest felt like it was being crushed from the inside like my ribs were trying to collapse under the weight of what she hadn’t said yet.

Lily pushed herself off the couch and reached for me, grabbing my arm with a hand that shook like a leaf in a storm.

"Nash, please sit down. You’re worrying me."

I didn’t want to. Didn’t want to be still, didn’t want to feel caged. But when I looked into her eyes, wide and wet and full of fear, my fury shifted. Just slightly. Just enough.

So, I sat. Rigid. Braced.

She perched back on the sofa, spine straight, hands planted beside her like she needed the anchor. She looked so brave and so broken all at once that it made my heart split wide open.

"There’s something you need to know about my dad," she said, and I opened my mouth, but she rushed ahead.

"My father…he’s in prison. Was in prison, anyway. For murder." Her voice was hollow. "He killed an elderly couple for a hundred dollars and a pocket watch. He’s dead now, killed in prison for a pack of cigarettes."

It barely registered at first. The numbness had started to creep in, crawling across my skin like frostbite.

"Your dad found out. And he said if I didn’t leave town, if I didn’t let you go, he would tell everyone. He would ruin my mom’s life all over again."

Tears streamed down her face now, unchecked and endless. "And I couldn’t do it, Nash. I couldn’t ruin her life again. She had friends. A job. A home she loved. I couldn’t take it from her."

Something inside me snapped.

I wanted to destroy something. No, I wanted to destroy him. Michael fucking Miller.

"I’m so sorry, Lila," I rasped. The words were pitiful. A whisper against a hurricane. But they were all I had.

"He wanted you focused on Alabama. Wanted you free of distractions. I was... collateral damage."

My body buckled beneath the weight of it all. I dropped in front of her, brushing away her tears with trembling fingers.

"You know I would have chosen you over football, right?" I whispered fiercely.

"I do," she sobbed. "And that’s why I’m so ashamed. I should have come to you. I shouldn’t have let him bully me."

I cupped her face between my hands, heart shattering as I watched the guilt ripple through her.

"The saddest thing," I murmured, forehead resting against hers, "is that we lost each other for nothing."

Her broken breath sliced through me as she clutched at my arms. “What happened?”

"It was the last practice before the holidays," I said bitterly. "I busted my knee and lost everything he wanted so badly for me."

Her fingers ghosted across my cheek.

"That soon?"

"That soon," I said. "I was drunk, hungover, a wreck without you. One bad move, and boom. ACL gone."

She buried her face in her hands, shaking with silent sobs. Her whole body folded in on itself, and I pulled her into my arms, anchoring her to me like she was the only thing holding me to this earth.

"No more regrets," I said fiercely. "No more because I believe I have the life I was meant to have all along. Working the land my Mom loved so much. Dad didn’t want football for me.

He wanted it for himself. The power that my success could bring him.

" Tracing the line of her nose with my finger, I told her my truth. “I loved the game, but I loved you more and I would have given it up if I had to. My dad knew that, and he did what he did for him, not me.” Lily’s shoulders sank as she took in my words understanding just how different things could have been.

“When I came home after my surgery,” I continued.

“After I was told my football career was over, do you know what he said to me?” She shook her head, bottom lip trembling.

“He said, ‘You selfish sonofabitch. Do you know how many powerful people in politics I could have reached through your success?’.”

Lily gasped, her face blanching at the realization how low the man who called himself my father would stoop to.

“I’m so sorry that he’s your Dad, Nash and I wish with everything in me I’d been braver and spoken to you.”

“And I should have told you just how much you meant to me,” I whispered, breaking inside as tears started to slowly roll down her cheeks. “What I would have done for you.”

Taking her in my arms, I cradled her, not like a possession, but like something precious. Sacred. Something I’d been trusted with once and failed to protect, but I wouldn’t fail again.

"And he’s going to pay for it," I whispered against her hair. "I swear it."

When our lips met again, it wasn’t frantic or wild. It was a quiet resurrection. A sealing of wounds that had never healed properly.

She clung to me like I was her lifeline. And I held her tighter, promising in every kiss that she’d never face anything alone again.

"I missed you so much," she sobbed. "I hated every second without you."

I tipped her chin up gently.

"You never lost me," I said. "I was always yours."

This time when I kissed her, she didn’t pull away.

She melted into me like she remembered how we used to fit, like her soul recognized mine.

"There’s something else," she whispered.

I steeled myself.

"He visited me when I got back. Threatened to ruin me and my mom if I didn’t stay away from you."

My jaw clenched. I saw red.

"I won’t let him touch you. I swear it."

"He’s the Mayor, Nash. He’s powerful."

"And I’m the man who loves you," I said, voice low and lethal. "That trumps everything."

She sagged into me, and I realized she was finally letting someone else carry the weight.

"We’ll talk to your mom together," I promised. "We’ll protect her."

Tears shimmered in her eyes, but she nodded.

"I’ll stay tonight," I said. "Even if it’s just on the couch. I’m not leaving you alone again."

"You don’t have to," she whispered.

"I want to."

I wrapped her hand in mine, brushing slow, grounding circles across her knuckles.

"You don’t have to be strong with me, Lila. Not anymore. I’ll be strong enough for both of us."

"You always were," she whispered.

"Only when I had you," I murmured.

I kissed her forehead, then scooped her into my arms, carrying her to the bedroom. No sex. No expectations. Just skin against skin, breath against breath. Her heartbeat under my palm.

She clung to me like a girl who’d finally found home. And I held her like a man who’d never let it go again.