Recap: Jace's birthday party. Emma broke up with Jace. Or was it Jace with her? It was a mutual dumping :)

Emma
"Em?"

I turned my head to see Jace perched beside me on my bed. His was watching me with a beautiful smile on his face.

"Jace?"

"Morning, beautiful."

Why was he smiling at me? In my bedroom? I thought...

"Aren't you mad at me?" I sat up.

"Of course not" he said softly. "I  could never be mad at you."

"But.. but I told you.. You left..."

"I didn't leave" he softly stroked my cheek. "You did."

"No.. I didn't.. I didn't mean to.."

"It's fine" he smiled at me. Suddenly his face turned into a blinding light and I had to shield my eyes with my hand.

What the hell?

"Rise and shine, sweetheart!"

I opened my eyes and sheltered it from the blinding sunlight with my hands. Emily was standing there with her hands on her hips and a wide smile on her face.

"Would you please go away?" I groaned and rolled over in bed.

"Hmm.. let me think about it" she stroked her chin. "Since you asked so nicely.. no."

"Leave me alone."

She sighed and I felt my bed dip as she sat on it. "Emma."

I ignored her and hoped she would take the hint. Is it too much to ask to be alone?

"Come down for breakfast. Please?"

"I really want to be left alone right now."

"It's been a week, Emma" she said. "Mom and Dad are worried. As am I."

I stayed quiet hoping she would just leave but instead I felt my blanket being dragged away.

I turned to her and she raised an eyebrow at me, daring me. I sat up with a sigh and she smiled.

"What do you want?"

"Look, I know it's sad you lost the love of your life and all, which is, quite frankly, your fault" I glared at her but she continued "but you can't stay here feeling sorry for yourself forever."

"How about a week?"

She gave me a look and I sighed. "Look I'm not really in the mood right now so can you just please let me sleep?"

"Fine. But can you please pass a message to my sister. You know, the bubbly Emma we all know and love" my chest tightened at her statement. "Tell her I miss her. Mom and Dad miss her. Tell her to come back."

I stayed silent and she got up with a sigh. She was already at the door when I finally spoke. "It hurts so much, Emily. You don't know."

Emily climbed into the bed beside as I sat up. "I'm sorry."

"God" I let out a shaky breath. "I miss him so much."

"I know but you staying in here is not going to make it better."

"He hates me. Oh God. What did I do?" I choke out a sob and she pulls me into a hug.

"Are you really going to leave things like that? With him hating you?"

"What do you mean?" I pull back, wiping my tears.

"He's leaving but he doesn't have to leave hating you." I just continued to stare at her as she spoke. "You can still fix this Emma."

"Oh my God!" I practically flew off my bed. "You're right. He's leaving in like two weeks so...."

"There's still time" she stood with a smile.

I dragged her into a hug. "Thank you so much."

"You are most welcome my dear. Now" she said, grinning, "let's go get your boyfriend back."

***

As I stated in the mirror an hour and a half later, I was very satisfied with my look.

I had curled my hair and applied makeup and was wearing a white skirt and pink blouse Emily picked out for me.

Grabbing my leather jacket and purse, I left my room.

I went straight to the living room where my mom sat watching a show with Emily. They both turned to me at the same time and had the exact same looks.

"Oh my God, mom. Stop looking so surprised" I laughed.

"I see your sister has been busy" she smiles and gives my sister a look.

"Yeah" I laugh. "She convinced me to get up and go."

"That's great" she said. "Go where?"

"To.. To see Jace."

My mom took in a breath and sat down.

"I know what you're going to say but let me just say I've given a lot of thought to this and it doesn't matter what you're going to say. I'm still going."

"Baby" my mom approached me. "I don't want you getting hurt all over again."

"I know Mom. But what's love without hurt?" I smile at her. "I don't think it can get more worse than this."

"That's not an excuse to hurt yourself over and over again."

"I did this Mom. I have to fix it" I said, my eyes tearing up. "Please."

"Okay" she nodded. I smiled, hugging her.

"I love you, Mom" I whispered in her ear.

"I know. Me too."

"Jesus Christ. Enough with this already, we need to leave."

I laughed and turned to Emily. "Really?"

"Come on, let's bounce" she walked towards me. "And by the way, you look amazing. Breathtaking. Gorgeous. You must have a killer stylist."

"Oh shut up" I shushed her. "Bye mom."

"I'm serious" she babbled on as I followed her to the front door. "Your stylist deserves an award or something-- Hey Landon."

Landon was standing on our porch his hand raised as if he was about to knock.

"Oh. Uh, hi."

I held back a laugh as Emily just stared at him like he was an alien or something. I nudged her with my elbow and she blinked, coming out of her trance.

"Oh, yeah. Um.. what are you doing?"

"I came by to ask whether you wanted to hang out later."

"Really? The two of us?" She squeaked.

"Yeah. Maybe we could catch a movie or something" he smiled at her.

"Me? Um.. I mean.. I have to check with my mom and.. but.."

"I'm sure she would love to" I interjected, placing my hands on her shoulders. "Now if you don't mind, we have somewhere to be."

"Oh, okay." he nodded, looking uncertain.

Emily had regained her speech now and said, "Um.. I'll catch you later."

I had to take her hand and drag her away from him. "Okay, bye Landon."

"You look pretty by the way" he called out.

There was nothing pretty about her right now. She was wearing dungarees for God's sake.

"Um, you too Emma."

Of course. "Thank you."

I got into the car with Emma who was bright red by now. "Don't say anything. Drive."

"I'm not" I grinned, starting the car and driving onto the street.

Twenty-five minutes later, I was parked across Jace's house having a debate with myself on whether or not to go inside.

"Emma, we've been here for the past five minutes. Either you walk up to that house right now or I do."

Well, more like a debate with Emily.

"What if he just slams the door in my face?" I asked worriedly. "Or maybe he's not home? We should come back another time."

"Alright that's it" she threw open the car door and was about to step out when I stopped her.

"Okay, fine. I'll go" I said and she sat down, closing the door.

I opened the door and stepped out, mumbling, "Weren't so brave with Landon."

"Hey!"

I slammed the door and began walking towards his house. It felt like I was walking across a football field towards my doom.

I finally arrived at the front door and I took a deep breath. I turned to the car and Emily signaled me to knock. I faced the door, took a deep breath and knocked.

I held my breath when I heard footsteps approaching the door. I steadied myself for anything as the door was opened. By a maid.

"Hello. How can I help you?" She smiled warmly.

"Hi. I'm Emma Davies. I'm here to see--"

"Emma."

Mrs Williams approached us and I felt myself weaken even more. God give me strength.

"Thank you, Diane" she gestured to the maid. "I'll take it from here."

The maid nodded and smiled at me before leaving us alone. No. Don't leave me with the Bitch in Versace. Credit to Emily for that.

"Hi, Mrs Williams" I smiled tightly.

"Why don't you come in?" She opened the door wider and I stepped in.

She closed the door and led me to the living room. Then she turned to me again.

"Emma, can I talk to you alone for a moment?"

"Um, sure" I said uncertainly. "But, is Jace here?"

"That's what I would like to talk about. If you don't mind."

I was a bit wary as I sat beside her on a couch. What the hell is going on?

"Can I offer you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water?"

"I'm okay, thank you" I shook my head. Why the hell is she acting so nice?

"Are you sure? Diane makes the best coffee you will ever taste."

Is she trying to poison me?

"No, thanks. I'm good."

She looks defeated and sighs deeply. "You're probably wondering why I'm being so nice to you, right?"

"Honestly, yes" I say and she nods.

"This past week has been.. well, hectic. After Jace's birthday, I noticed he was a bit withdrawn and he hadn't left the house nor his room in three days and no one had come to see him. Except Logan but he left shortly after. I'm not proud to say this but Jace had never stayed in the house for three days straight. And if you weren't here, then Logan was, or some friends from school. And I just knew something was wrong. And I know you might think I don't have feelings but I do love my son. And a mother knows when something is wrong."

"So I asked him what was wrong. And imagine my delight when he told me you had broke up with him. I was ecstatic. I thought he had finally seen what I was talking about. That you weren't worthy of his love. That you were just a little good-for-nothing who wasn't good enough for him. And I told him. But he did not appreciate that."

"He lost it. He started yelling at me not to call you that. He asked me if I was happy you had left him. He told me that he still loved you. He kept yelling and I'm sure the neighbors heard him. Oh God, it was horrible. Emma, I won't lie to you, Jace and I might not have the best relationship and we argue all the time but I have never seen anything like that. His eyes were full of anger. At me. In that moment I looked at him and didn't see my son. I just saw someone who despised me. In that moment I knew I had lost my son."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Jace still stood up for me despite what I did. He still loved me.

"And I also hated you at that moment. I thought, "This is all her fault. She did this." But later it hit me. I did this. I pushed my son away" she wiped the tears that were streaming down her face and I realized I was doing the same. "I failed as a mother. I didn't deserve a son like him. Gary would be so disappointed."

I looked at her and all I saw was a mother in pain. A woman who was hurt inside.

"Jace always thought I blamed him for his father's death. And maybe I did. But that was because I was to scared to face the truth. That it was all my fault."

"I'm sorry I don't follow" I said calmly when I really wanted to scream, "Wait, what?!"

"Gary was complaining about his health and I told him not to worry. That he was just stressed out. That he should just take a day off or something. I'm guessing Jace told you what happened with his dad" she said and I nodded. "Gary asked me to take Jace to the water park that day but I refused because I had a spa day planned which could not be shifted unlike his appointment. So he shifted his appointment and took him to the park when he could have been in the hospital. He probably wouldn't have died if I just took Jace to the damn water park. I killed my husband" she said, sobbing.

Although it felt totally weird, I moved closer to her and hugged her. "You didn't kill you husband, Mrs Williams. A disease did. And Jace might have never said it but I can bet you he loved you. Or still loves you."

I let her go and she sniffed, "Do you really think so?"

"I know Jace. He might not show it but he's really vulnerable and gets hurt very, very easily. But give him some time, he'll come around."

She sighed, looking relieved. "Thank you, Emma. I really appreciate you saying that."

"No problem, Mrs Williams."

"No, please call me Kate" she smiled at me.

"Oh, okay.. Kate" I said and she laughed. "So..."

You probably want to know where Jace is, right? The day after our argument he told me he would be going to London early. By the end of the week. Today."

I felt all the blood rush out of my face as my heart dropped down to my stomach. "W..what?"

"I'm sorry, Emma. Jace left for London this morning."

Hello, my lovely loves. Long time no see is an of the year. Speaking of years, happy new year.

I'm not going to go into a long note explaining why I haven't been around so I'll just cut straight to the chase. The next chapter is in Jace's POV and might be the last. That or the second to last. And I don't know when it'll come. This book I supposed to go on for much longer but I've realized that I don't have it in me anymore so....

Anyways.. I hope you guys enjoyed this. I cried writing this because it felt so amazing uncovering Kate's soul, taking a peek into her mind and learning she isn't really a monster. I cried for Jace. I cried for Emma. I cried for the fact that I can't believe my book is coming to an end. (More sentiments next chapter)

I really just want to say I love you guys so much. Like 20%. The other 80% is taken by Noah Schnapp, Cole Sprouse, Noah Centineo, Many Rios, Asher Angel, Chris Hemsworth, Liam Hemsworth, Miles Brown, Zac Efron, Ryan Gosling, Ansel Elgort, Michael Jordan, Zayn Malik etc. Just know that 20% is a lot :) <3