If I Asked You to Stay

Copyright © 2023 by Brianna Remus All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. ALSO BY BRIANNA REMUS The Falling for You Trilogy Dare to Fall Dare to Need Dare to Love For anyone who’s ever been left behind. You’re worth coming back for. CONTENTS Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Epilogue PROLOGUE MELANIE BAXLEY Girls like me never get their happy ending, I thought to myself as hot tears streamed down my face. Having been born into one of the wealthiest families in the Southeast, I had a single job to do. Marry a man equally or more rich than my father. It didn’t matter that my father died from cirrhosis of the liver from his chronic binge drinking before I was even ten years old. I still had a mother to prove my worth to and she wouldn’t be satisfied with me falling in love with a boy from the wrong side of town. Strike that. If I wasn’t her only heiress to our family’s fortune, she would knock me out cold for the sinful deed I had committed. Of course, she wouldn’t lay a hand on me unless we were behind closed doors and she had full-coverage concealer on standby. It was one of her rules—family secrets stayed in the family. And it was the only rule that had made me cry. “What do you mean we’re over?” Landon’s bright blue eyes reflected every ounce of pain I was feeling. When his palm met the side of my face, wiping my tears away, I thought for a second that I might not be strong enough to walk away from him. The only person I’d ever loved and the only person who loved every piece of me. No matter how fucked up those pieces might be. The moment of doubt flickered away, nothing but dust in the wind as I recalled the reason I was leaving him. My mother’s wrath. It was the only thing powerful enough to make me walk away from the boy I loved. “There’s no point in us dragging this out, Landon. We both know there’s no future for us. My mother would never let me marry you and your parents hate me.” “We don’t need them.” His words were a plea that broke my heart. He grasped my hands in his, holding them up to his chest as his eyes searched my face for any hint of reprieve. He wouldn’t find any. Because as much as it pained me to let him go, the thought of my mother raking him over hot coals with her wretched thirst for vengeance on the boy who ‘tainted’ her daughter was something I would never be able to live with. I yanked my hands from his. The flash of hurt in his eyes forced me to look away from him. I was losing my nerve and had to make this quick if I wanted to get out alive. “Wake up, Landon! This”—I gestured erratically between us—“was never going to work. We were never going to work. This isn’t some fairytale. We were always Romeo and Juliet—destined for failure from the start.” “You don’t mean that, Mel.” He tried to reach for my face again, but I swatted his hand away. “I do,” I sniffed. The tears flowing down my cheeks were a betrayal of the words I spoke. He knew me better than anyone. I could see the denial written all over his face. My stomach coiled into a tight knot. I knew what I had to say, even though every cell in my body fought against the words roaring in my mind. It was the only way he would let me go. And I needed him to let me go. For his sake and mine. I loved him too much to see him ruined by my mother. “I’m a Baxley, Landon. And you’re nothing but a boy from across the train tracks. It was fun. But you honestly didn’t think that someone like you would ever end up with someone like me, did you?” The light in his eyes that I had cherished beyond measure burned out. Like a swift blow of breath to a candle’s flame, the only memory of the fire was a trail of black smoke. Fury started to smolder in those frost-blue irises and for the briefest moment, I was scared of what he was capable of. “You’re right, Melanie. You are a Baxley and I’ve been a fool to think you were anything more than a spoiled bitch looking for a pick-me-up because your shiny life got too boring.” It was a slap in the face and I deserved the sting that made my chest ache with regret. He narrowed his gaze on me—assessing—before he turned around and walked out of my life forever. When the image of his body disappeared in the dark of the night, I screamed through the sob that wracked my body. Landon was gone and he was never coming back and it was my fault. We would never get the chance to fulfill our promises to one another. Dreams whispered in the dark on passionate breaths—lost forever. As I fell to my knees under the moonlit sky, my hand found its way to my lower belly where a flicker of life was nestled deep in my core. I had to protect Landon from my world. And our