Chapter 21: Life Without Flint

Jared Morgan

*note this chapter is also a special Jared chapter. He just loves all the attention. Hope you enjoy. Next chapter will be Flint's Pov ❤❤❤

Jared stood there in the rubble of his brother. Tears started to well in his steel eyes. Flint was gone. He was really gone. His brother had disappeared and he was just left there watching it all unfold.

He was helpless...he was more than helpless...he was now hopeless.

Jared chastised himself yet again for all of this, in his head.

He was supposed to be stronger than this...

But he wasn't.

He wasn't sure he ever was.

The truth was, even if his eyes "were" steel, he was now made out of straw. Every part of him could be blown away with a strong gust of wind. He was empty. Without Flint, he was nothing. He felt more alone than he ever had in his entire life.

His brother was his only real family. His parents just treated him like a machine. They forced him to work and work at that company...and day by day...he worked away his soul. Flint was the only one he really ever had...and now that was gone with the wind.

As he recounted it all in his head, the guilt burned a silent symphony everywhere in his shaking body. He knew had to do it now. No matter if Flint was here or not. He had to do what he promised himself he would.

Lifting his phone out of his pocket, he slowly dialed the numbers one by one.

Nine.

One.

One.

His hands shook over the call button. The tears that welled in his eyes had broke free of their strains.

Finally he pressed the call button. The line trilled as Jared's heart froze in place. He shouldn't of done this...any of this. It all just felt wrong.

Jared was clouded with doubts but he was interrupted by someone answering his call.

A female voice spoke softly."911, what's your emergency?"

Jared held the phone to closer to his ear. "Uhhhhh...."

"Sir, are you okay? What's your emergency, sir?"

Her sweet voice was so eager to help him. He couldn't lie to her. Or anyone anymore for that matter.

He was sick of pretending. He needed to tell someone.

The phone went silent for a moment.

"Sir..." she questioned.

Jared cleared his throat and then hoarsely replied. "I killed them. Marilyn Bishop. Bob Silver. And Erin Bishop. I shot them all. I want to be arrested. I want to be tried. Please, just stop all of this guilt. Please," he begged. Tears slid down his eyes and his voice became more and more hoarse as he went on.

"What is your name, Sir?"

"My name is Jared Morgan." As he said that a loud gasp echoed from the other line.

"Okay, we triangulated your call and have your location. The police will be there in fifteen minutes."

Then, the dial tone signaled that she had hung up.

Jared sat on Katelyn's couch with his head in his hands. Over and over he saw it. The blood. The agony. The tears. It broke him.

He was a monster. He killed people. He took Marilyn's life and watched it drain from her eyes.

All because he loved Charlie and Wynn.

They were his weakness. He couldn't let them be. Jared couldn't let anyone else care for him. If they did, they would get hurt.

As much as Flint wanted to believe it was all his fault for this, it wasn't.

It was Jared's.

He shot the gun that day.

Twice.

He was a boy then.

He hardly knew anything, but in a moment he knew everything.

In a moment he knew the way blood looked. He knew the way his heart jolted with a sense of control when he held the weapon. He knew the feeling of pushing a trigger and feeling the involuntary kickback with it.

Soon, the sirens rung the thoughts out of his head. Blue and red lights shone through the cheap curtains. Turning on the T.V, he could already see the story in the headlines.

It read: "A Morgan Murder?"

Jared didn't even know how it came out that fast. But there it was for everybody to see.

Suddenly, the door flew open and officers in uniforms stepped in. They eyed the room and then set their sights on Jared.

He laid there frozen. His wrists were upturned and waited for the cuffs assuredly coming.

Soon enough, they put the handcuffs on him. They tightened them around his wrists and walked him out of the apartment in silence. Cameras flashed once he got outside. Random voices asked him questions as he was pulled into the cop car and read his rights.

They asked questions such as, "Were you having an affair with Katelyn Bishop? Did your father know about your criminal history? Will this affect the company's stocks?"

Jared just shook his head and sat in the back of the police cruiser.

Silence pitted him as he heard the tires softly treading away from the crowd. Even though this felt right, something still bothered him. Why did he still feel guilty? He was owning up to his crimes...so why did he still feel like a coward?

He gulped as the officer drying him tried to taunt him.

The male officer said, "You know, they got Al Capone on tax evasion. But you...you wanted to be more popular, didn't ya? I just couldn't believe it when my precinct got the call. I've always hated you Morgans. My wife lost her job at your company and ended up being blackballed from every other business place. She now works at a half-empty bowling alley, thanks to you."

The man gave him a hateful glare through the mirror.

"You probably don't even remember her name, do you?"

Jared didn't respond to anything the officer said. He had nothing to say. His father's company was ruthless. Jared had spent so much time trying to make money so that Wynn wouldn't tell, that he didn't care what he did to other people.

Suddenly, the car jerked as the officer drifted into an empty parking lot of a park.

Jared looked at him confused.

The officer yelled at him. "Get out of the car!"

Jared obeyed. He was just a shell of a man. He didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered. His future was gone. And now he had no ties to Wynn. He gave up the secret willingly so now she didn't have any material to black mail him.

But, all of this wasn't to escape her blackmail. This was to let go of his guilt.

In doing this though, Jared realized it wasn't the guilt that he was still hanging onto.

It was Wynn; because in some strange and utterly messed up way, he was in love with her.

And he only realized that the night he left her.

Stepping out his head, Jared focused on the sight of the officer's wound up his fists.

Jared actually welcomed it. He stepped forward as the officer's fists connected with his face. Pain scorched through his body. Blood broke from his nose and a black and blue eye was surely etching into his face as the officer prepared for his next blow.

The man spat out another taunt at him. "You're just a bunch of worthless narcissists. My wife was just trying to get her career started."

The officer hit him again and Jared winced. His whole face stung and he was a bloody mess.

Finally, the officer's eyes flickered as he came to halt. He was about to deliver a final damning blow...but the look in Jared's eyes stopped him.

"Oh...you really are sorry for all of this." Slowly his fists fell to his sides and a silence passed over them.

Jared didn't say anything, he just nodded at the man.

The officer took a deep breath in and then pointed to the car angrily.

Jared obeyed and got in unsure what to say. His heart pounded as pain clouded around him.

Soon, darkness flooded him from the blows to his head.

His head slowly slipped down to the seat and he passed out with two words digging into his lips.

As he passed out he echoed them coarsely out his body. "I'm Sorry..."

*******

When he finally woke up, handcuffs were on wrists and he was in a holding cell.

The concrete walls surrounded him and everything was grey. It reflected his eyes to exact sheen of the bulky metal bars he was stuck in.

He took a deep breath in. This was it. This was paying for his mistakes. No matter how much Wynn would try to fight this and bail him out, he wouldn't. He would stay here for whatever time they wanted to give him. If it was life, so be it. This life wasn't meant for him anyways.

Though deep in his thoughts, the clack of heels interrupted him.

He knew who those heels belonged to by heart.

Within a couple moments, he was dragged out of his cell and into a visitor center.

Her face made him smile momentarily...but then he remembered what he did.

The jingle of his hand cuffs reminded him as the officers explained the rules to him.

Finally, he was sat across from her beautiful face. Even through the glass, her green eyes sparkled and her brown hair gleamed perfection. He didn't deserve her. He never did. As he looked closer, he saw lines of worry crinkling at every edge of her body.

He picked up the old styled black phone connected to the wall with a spindly circular cord.

Her voice came out worried and jagged. "Why did you do it, Jared?"

She was hurt, Jared could hear it in her voice. Jared swallowed down a feeling so sour and bitter. He hated her feeling that way.

He just put his hand on the glass and spoke earnestly. "I love you, Wynn."

"Then who was that woman's apartment you were at, huh?" Her lips pursed for the answer hidden on Jared's lips.

Then, it hit Jared all over again.

She didn't know who Katelyn was. She knew nothing about Flint. She only knew what she saw in the news. Oh God, this was a mess.

He had to explain. "Look, you know the Kate I kissed from the Lakehouse?"

She sighed and said, "Yes."

"Well, after she ran away from me that night, I kept an eye on her. I had her number in my phone expecting her never to contact me...then, when I was burying the evidence of that night...she called me. I wasn't expecting it all. She said something about me kissing her in an elevator...but I think Jay did that. I swear I never loved anyone but you..."

"But you were at her apartment?"

"Yes. I was...but it's not what you think Wynn. I swear." His heart pounded in his chest hoping she knew that he meant what he said.

A tear crawled from her eyes. "What is your bail set at?"

"It's ten million, but don't do it Wynn. You said it yourself. I deserve to be here."

Another tear jerked from her emerald eyes. Right now though, her eyes looked like the shards of a green bottle thrown at his eyes. He couldn't bear another glance at her. She looked so sure that she was going to bail him out.

"Look, I saved up that much for my surgery. I'm just going to bail you out with it. And don't argue with me. I am going to do it whether or not you like it." Her eyes grilled a strurdy intent as her brows cautioned him not to fight her on this.

"Surgery?" Jared had no clue what she was talking about.

"Yeah. I told you was dying, this surgery was supposed to..." she paused leaving it just hanging there.

"Look, it doesn't matter. I'm bailing you out...but afterwards...don't talk to me! Don't even think of seeing me," she yelled at him.

Jared's grip on the phone tightened. "I thought you were lying about dying."

He rubbed his eyes as tears began to scald his face again. "Please...I'm not worth it Wynn, just get the surgery. I'll be fine."

She shuddered a sure tone. It cut him deeply. "No. I loved you before all this. I can't let you go to jail. None of this was your fault."

Jared tried to convince her. "No it was, Wynn. It was all me. Didn't you hear the news? I killed Marilyn Bishop."

Wynn just shook her head.

Tears just flooded out of those angel-like eyes.

Suddenly, Wynn put her hand to the glass. Jared mirrored her movement and his hands felt the cold glass as he looked right into her teary eyes.

He practically yelled into the phone. "I love you Wynn Silver...but you need to get that surgery. You need to live without me. I'm the beast to your beauty. In all the movies they got it wrong. The beast was never meant to end up with a beauty like you."

"I'm still going to bail you out, whatever it takes, Jared."

Jared kept shaking it off. No. She needed to get the surgery, not pay for his bail out.

Jared gulped.

He knew what he had to do. Looking in those tear ridden emerald eyes, he knew to save her, he had to lie.

"Look...the real reason I don't want you to bail me out is because it's true. I did cheat with Kate. She was my first kiss. You never were anything to me. It wasn't even until recently where I loved you. So yes, I loved Kate, and I kissed Kate. And she was better than you in every aspect...but she didn't want me so I settled for you . There...I said it... now leave, and don't even try to bail me out!"

Another bout of tears swarmed from Wynn's eyes. Quickly, she took her hand off the glass.

Then she let go of the phone and let it dangle as the officer escorted her out.

Jared's heart thickened in his veins like concrete. He took a deep breath in.

He kept repeating to himself over and over again, "It's supposed to be like this".

But, even though he repeated this, it still didn't stricken the breaks and fractures all over his heart.

Jared prepared to be taken back to his cell.

His legs slid from the chair and he almost started walking back to the officer before a voice called out to him.

"Morgan, another visitor."

Hope lit in his eyes for a moment.

Maybe it was Wynn coming back.

However diluted the notion was, he had to try to believe that all his pushing away hadn't affected her.

But it did.

And this wasn't Wynn.

This man looked to be about in his early forties. His hair was brown and his brows tapered a feeling of perpetual anger.

Jared looked at him in confusion. Then the man pointed to the phone indicating Jared had to pick it up.

Curiosity lingered inside of him so Jared angrily picked up the phone.

"Who the hell are you," Jared demanded.

"My name is Carter Michaels...and you're going to help me with a certain 'Kate' problem."

Thank you for reading! So... Jared's in jail and Wynn wanted to bail him out...so he lied to push her away. Will their relationship ever recover from "Kate"? Will Wynn get him out anyways? Also...what is Carter doing here??? Thank you guys so much for the comments. I love reading your response to each of these chapters. It makes me want to push forward with writing this book.

I love all of who are reading this. ❤❤❤