Free Divinely Living (Surviving Series) by Courtney Cross

forgotten easily.
    As I continued to stare, he stirred from his state of slumber, reaching out to the vacant space beside him where I had previously laid. Feeling that I was gone, his blue eyes flew open in panic as he pushed himself into a sitting position and scoured the room wildly searching for me. A wave of relief swept across his face as he caught sight of me, his entire body relaxing.
    “Christ, I thought I’d dreamt last night for a second,” he cursed while scrubbing the remainder of sleep from his face with both hands.
    “It’s okay, I’m here,” I reassured him. The look of almost desolation in is eyes cut through my heart. We both felt the insecurity that being apart had left us with. Jonah’s clear show of that flaw was both touching and endearing and made the conversation we were about to have all the more poignant.
    “Is everything okay?” He questioned as his glazed eyes focused directly on me.
    “That depends,” I said in a low voice. “It’s time Jonah. No more covering over the problem with sex. I need to know why your Uncle has such an unhealthy interest in my life and my inheritance. If you want to be in my life, then it’s time to spill. No more secrets, no more lies and no more deceit. I can’t be with you while doubt is hanging over us. It’s just too painful.”
    Relief switched to concern then resolve as he pulled the silk top sheet up to his waist and leaned into the antique oak bed frame at the head of the bed. With a nod, he swallowed violently, ran a hand through his sleep-tousled hair and looked back at me with a look of desperation that set my pulse racing frantically.
    “Before I tell you anything, you need to know one thing Ava. Regardless of my agreeing to Benjamin’s ask for help, everything I have done and every word I have spoken to you since the day we met as been the truth. When I say I love you, I mean it. Don’t forget that.”
    “The only thing that will force me to leave you now is if you continue to withhold the truth from me. I’m not running anymore Jonah. I believe you’re worth fighting for, that we are worth fighting for. But we can’t live without trust. You broke that once, we won’t survive if you choose to break it again.”
    Clenching his jaw and gritting his teeth, he began to speak. “Benjamin has no interest in you personally, Ava; you were seen merely as a means to an end. Alex is the reason Benjamin asked me to become involved. He believes Alex owes him and our family as a whole, and out of loyalty to the Jacobson name I owed it to him to help achieve revenge on the man he blames for my fathers death and my mothers leaving.”
    I stared wide eyed in disbelief. “I don’t understand.”
    Arching his neck against the wall he inhaled a lungful of air before continuing. “Benjamin studied law at Harvard in the States. Money has always flowed throughout the Jacobson family and education was made a priority in all our lives from an early age. His parents paid for top education and Harvard was viewed as one of the top law university’s in the world. That’s where he met Alex.”
    I shook my head in confusion. “Alex never practiced law. It was a profession he despised and made no secret of it.”
    “He despised it because he failed at it miserably. After cheating his way through school, when he was gifted a scholarship to Harvard the bastard was way out of his depth. Benjamin carried his arse for the first two years, gave him extra tutoring and even doctored essays and assignments for him. They were close from what I can gather, before Alex flunked crucial exams and was kicked out for not attaining the scholarship requirements. Benjamin refused to help him cheat the exams he failed and Alex blamed Benjamin for his own failure. It seems war was waged between the two of them from that day on.”
    Tucking my knees beneath my chin, I struggled to process his words. “So what happened between them after Alex left?”
    “Benjamin continued,