I was ten when I told Georgia that I liked Jace. It was during a sleepover at her house.

She made a face and gave me a gross look on reply before pretending to throw up.

I threw a pillow at her face seconds after. She managed to avoid it by rolling to her right before she laughed. "What do you like about him? He's ugly."

"Everything," I replied, drowning out any further reaction out of her about her brother.

You'll know, mom had said when I had asked her why she had married my father. You'll know who the right person is when you meet him, sweetheart.

Ten year old me was blissful in that one moment that it clicked to me that it was Jace. Ten year old me was thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have to wait too long to meet 'the one' as mom called it.

Ten year old me was stupid.

Delusional and living in dreamland.

So when Tom and Lisa's son said that Jacey liked me while giggling and his eyes glistening with mischief, I played along and laughed it off.

"He's really a miracle baby," I said as Lisa and I made some coffee to pair with her famous pecan pie that they had brought over.

Jace was outside on the deck with Tom and Ian working on starting the grill.

"He really is," Lisa said so softly that i felt my heart warm up. "I was so shocked and a bit worried when I found out, but it was all worth it."

"When Jace told me earlier, I was so happy. He's the spitting image of the both of you. I didn't even have to question who he was when he ran in earlier."

Lisa laughed. "That's what everyone said when they saw him." We smiled as we slipped onto our respective thoughts. She broke the silence after a couple of minutes. "How have you been?"

I smiled at Lisa. I was so happy to see her after all this time. "Good," I replied. "Busy with school and .... but good."

"It's been so long since you've been here. We thought we wouldn't see you again."

"Sorry about that.. it's just..."

"You don't have to say anything, love. Even though I don't know the full details of everything, I managed to gather the reason why you haven't..." her words hung in the air.

"Thanks," I smiled at her, grateful that she didn't make me say the words.

"So..." she leaned in conspiratorially as the smell of well brewed coffee filled the kitchen, "just curious," she cast a look towards the door that led to the deck. "You and Jace ..." she gave me a mischievous smile followed by a suggestive look."

"No! It's not like that! Definitely not like that!"

Lisa laughed at my reaction. "Your red face says otherwise."

I waved my hands back and forth at the same time, shaking my head profusely, so hard that it felt like it could fly off at the momentum.

"Okay, okay, fine. But because he called so out of the blue, we assumed that he had a girl over for..."

I shook my head as I interanlly wondered just how many girls he had over, that had Tom and Lisa drawing that conclusion. "No, that's the furthest thing from the truth."

"Then?" Lisa arched a brow as she placed the steaming cups of coffee onto a tray to take it out to the living room.

I was saved from answering her question when Ian ran into the kitchen and asked if he could have a piece of pie.

I took the tray of coffee and made my way out of the kitchen to avoid her line of questioning.

I don't know what exact story Jace had given them, but explaining how we were here to avoid a threat would've been top much and until Jace and I had sorted out what excuse he had told them, I couldn't say anything.

Lisa and Ian walked in with the pie and plates and placed them on the coffee table beside the coffee.

"Take this for your father and for Jace," Lisa said as she handed it to Ian. Ian nodded as he took off with them.

"I'll take the coffee," I offered, hoping that I could take time so that she could forget her questions.

"Please, can you," Lisa said as she cut out more pieces of the pie to plate up.

I nodded as I grabbed two cups.

Jace had his back towards me as he used a propane torch on the charcoal to start the fire. Tom was setting up the table next to the grill with the meat and sides that they had brought with them.

"How was Oxford?" Tom asked, stopping me in my tracks.

In the short time since our eventful reunion, we had both skated around any discussion of London.

I had once wondered how he was doing in Oxford. How he was dealing with living in a new country, going to school with a lot of new people. At times, I had wondered whether he had ever regretted going hallway across the world for Olive.

"It was...."

Involuntarily, I held my breath as he started speaking, in case I breathed too loud and I couldn't hear what he said, or in case they sensed my presence if I did, eavesdropping on them.

"...cold," he added, before pausing, "and wet."

My eyes literally squinted in confusion at his words. Talk about anticlimactic.

Tom laughed. "You spent four years there, and you summarize it with those two words?"

Jace laughed, too. "That summarizes it perfectly," he replied. "Otherwise, I was too busy studying to notice."

Tom scoffed. "You speak as if that was all you did there. From what I remember Lisa saying, didn't you date some girl... I remember she was named after a food. Clove, was it?"

I held back a laugh that threatened to break free at his mistake.

"Olive," Jace corrected.

"Right," Tom laughed, "Olive, Olive. How is she?"

"She got married last year to one of our good friends."

What?

"Oh," Tom paused, echoing my similar sentiments. "I'm sorry to -"

What?

"We were just friends," Jace's words froze me as if they were liquid nitrogen. "There was noth -"

Friends?

"Phil!" Ian's scream reverberated on the balcony and across the lake, cutting Jace off.

I felt my face burn up as instantly Tom and Jace's eyes were on me who was standing by the door and halfway into the potted plam tree that sat a few feet in front of the door.

I hadn't even realized that I had slowly scooted behind it until I had to step out to present an explanation as to why I had done so.

"I... brought coffee," I simply said as I walked towards them. Tom nodded as he smiled before he turned back to prepping the meat. Jace's eyes remained fixed on me as I walked over.

I did my best to avoid his eyes as I placed the cups on the table.

I was about to rush back in, but my eyes took in the lake, and I couldn't help but stay as if I was a moth being drawn to a flame.

I hadn't had a chance in the time since we arrived to stepped out of the house. If anything, it was to avoid Jace and also the memories that this place incited.

The large lake that we had spent our summers at greeted me back as if it were an old friend, welcoming me back into its warm embrace.

The summers we had spent fishing, swimming across, and scaring each other, saying that there were sharks and the lochness monster in the lake.

I couldn't help but smile at how innocent and free we were back then. In a way, I missed how peaceful it was.

"What are you up to these days, kid?" Tom's voice broke into my reverie as he came and stood beside me.

I smiled at how easily he had slipped back into calling me kid as he always did. Even though I resented when my dad called me, somehow the same didn't apply to Tom.

I guess it was because he said as an endearment while my dad said it to remind me who was in charge.

"School," I replied.

He nodded. "Not giving your old man a headache, are you?"

I turned to him and made an offended face, which he countered with an arched brow as if he dared me to lie. I laughed at how well he knew me, "A bit?"

"Any guys I need to straighten out for you?" He asked and I smiled as I remembered him telling Georgia and I when we were sixteen that if any boy liked us that he would have to meet them first to straighten them out before they could even think of dating us.

"A few..."I smiled at him, "but for now..." I felt Jace's gaze settle on me, "not so much. If anything, I'm done with all the guys in my life."

A couple of hours later, they returned back home because Lisa said that she had forgotten to turn the lights on when they left.

We bidded them goodbye as they took off, and I couldn't help wishing that I was also in that car with them.

Jace was on the phone out on the deck when I came back downstairs.

Even though all I wanted to do was avoid him, I needed to put the leftovers away as Lisa had advised before it went bad.

My thoughts drifted to what Jace had said earlier.

Olive had gotten married? To whom?

Wasn't he dating her?

That's the main reason why he left for Oxford, wasn't it? To be with her?

I felt my heart pound furiously against my chest as I thought over what had happened four years ago. The way he had taken my heart, threw it on the ground, and stomped all over it.

He did all of that, only for his heart to be broken and for him to be ditched?

I slammed the fridge a little too hard once I had put the leftovers inside.

The insufferable, miserable little-"

My insults paused as the subject of those demeaning words walked back into the house.

Our eyes met as he closed the door behind him.

We stared at each other for what was too long. In that moment, the questions that were burning through my mind were threatening to spill out of my lips, but I held back.

"That was Bruce," he broke the silence.

Even though I wanted to give him the silent treatment, my curiosity got the better of me.

"What did he say? We can go back on Thurday, right?"

His face answered the question for me.

"I'm leaving on Thursday!" I more so proclaimed as my words echoed in the house.

"Phillipa, calm down. Let me explain."

"Explain what? How neither my father nor Bruce feel the need to tell me what's going on because all they see is a little girl who can't take care of herself? I at least deserve an explanation from them for whatever mess this is, Jace! I'm being forced to hide away, supposedly because my life is in danger and yet -" My voice faltered a bit. "Yet the two men that I consider very important to me don't think that I deserve to know why."

I realized then. Being here with Jace was a small part of why I had snapped.

I had snapped because Bruce and my father hadn't even called me in the past two days to offer an explanation or an update.

Even though I had my ups and downs with my father, he was still my father. Before my mom had passed away, he and I were close. Yes, in the last couple of years, we had exchanged badly chosen remarks, but we were still family.

And Bruce.

Someone I considered so close to being a father figure in the past couple of years, than sad to say my own.

I expected that he knew me more than this. I thought he knew that I would've much preferred him informing me of what was going on then from my bodyguard.

Jace stopped mere inches from me and wiped away a tear that I hadn't even noticed had fallen.

I froze at the act and would've taken a step back if I hadn't been so shocked.

"They're wrecking their brains trying to find out who it is, Phil. From what I've heard, they've locked themselves in their office and buried themselves in documents and phone calls, trying to find out who it is. I think..." he paused as I locked my eyes onto his, "the reason why they're not calling you right now is because the both of them are barely holding onto any semblance of sanity right now. I think if they do speak to you, they'll break."

I paused as I thought over his words.

As much as I thought it was ridiculous that only they were working on narrowing it down to who it was, I hadn't realized what was at stake for the both of them.

Me.

If they trusted the wrong person, then it could result in things ending badly.

As much as it was an impossible task, I knew that if there were two people who could do it, it was my father and Bruce.

I nodded. "How many more days?"

"He said at least until the weekend," Jace replied before adding, "For now."

I took a deep breath as I considered spending an extra three to four days with him before nodding begrudgingly. "Fine, but is there a way I can get my hands on my coursework? I don't want to fall more behind than I already am right now."

Jace nodded. "I think we can arrange that."

"Can you step back?" I asked him after realizing that he was still a mere few inches away from me.

"Oh," he stepped back as he scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry."

I contemplated heading up to bed, but what I found out today kept bothering me.

Jace walked past me and opened the fridge.

"One question." I said as I turned around to face him.

He arched a brow, confused.

"Can I ask a question?"

He nodded before he turned his attention back to the contents of the fridge.

I took a deep breath before just deciding to just do it as quick as if I was ripping off a bandaid. "What's the real reason you went to Oxford four years ago?"

Jace froze, and I knew.

It had all been a lie.