“Yeah. And I know I cannot expect you to return that love. I am not deserving of it. I should let you go. Let you live the life that was stolen from you by your father. But I am too selfish, so I will keep driving because as long as I do, you can’t leave,” he says, his voice raspy with emotion.

“Landon, I do love you,” I say softly.

His head whips to face me so fast, I fear he strained a neck muscle. “How can you say that after what you just learned about me? I’m a monster.” The last word comes out a choked sound.

“What are you talking about? Landon, you are not a monster. You’re my hero.”

Landon scoffed. “Brooke, I killed my mother. I am a murderer. And what worse, I’m a murder who walked away scot-free.”

I shake my head. “I don’t believe that.” Tears pool in my eyes at the tormented look he gave me. He truly believes he had killed his mother.

“Well, it’s the truth,” he growls.

I shake my head again. “I don’t believe you,” I whisper again.

Landon takes a sudden right turn. We drive down a narrow dirt road that ended in a parking lot.

“Where are we?” I ask, looking around. The parking lot faces a big grass hill that has wooden stairs up the middle. Then I notice a sign at the top—Rahoon Cemetery.

“My mom is buried on the other side of that hill,” Landon says quietly.

Shocked, I do not know what to do or say, so I just stay quiet. But that seems to be all Landon needed to keep talking.

“The hardest part is that she said she forgave me. How could she do that? I did not deserve her forgiveness. She should have hated me. She should have punished me.” Landon’s voice cuts off with a strangled sob.

I reach out to grasp his hand. “Forgiving is part of healing. I do not know what happened or why you think you killed your mother, but I know you, Landon. I trust you. I love you. Everything else…means nothing to me.”

Landon stays silent. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?” I suggest.

Landon takes in a deep bracing breath before nodding. “It was the day after finals, freshmen year of college. Derik, Jared, and I went to a party celebrating the survival of freshmen year.” Landon shakes his head at himself. “We got hammered pretty early in the night. Went from party to party, and somehow ended up at my parents’ house, where we decided racing classic cars was a good idea.”

I gasp involuntarily, my mind tumbling with possibilities.

“I drove right through the kitchen, pinning my mother between the fridge and the car.” Landon barely scrapes the words out through a clogged throat.

“I…did she… I don’t know what to say,” I stutter.