"What exactly happened, Macey?"

"I don't even know. Jack stopped seeing his therapist, taking his pills. Like I knew that he didn't go to therapy but I didn't know he stopped taking his pills?"

"Wait, slow down. Jack saw a therapist? And took pills?"

Macey turned her head to the left to look at Michael. "Ashton never told you?"

Michael simply shook his head.

"Jack has a brother, well, had, Ace, he meant the world to him. He was seven years younger than him, he was a cutie, reminded me a bit of Calum. He was very shy, but he had such a big heart, and Jack loved him so unbelievably much. Jack was just 19 when their parents died, Ace 12. It was such a hard time for them, but none of them had a very good relationship with their parents, they yelled at them and hit them. But Jack then needed to change all his plans. He needed to grow up from one day to the other to look after his little brother, he managed that pretty good. He got a job, quit smoking, he was a role model for that boy. Ace got diagnosed with cancer some time later, it got better at first, but he felt so much worse a year ago, just shortly after Jack and I moved in together, that was when Jack first started to see a therapist."

Macey sighed. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. He went through a lot, and she wished it wouldn't have ended like that.

"It helped him. He stopped again after three months of weekly sessions. But half a year ago Ace..." Macey swallowed hard, "he died. It was extremely suddenly and unexpected. I remember when Jack got the call and we drove to the hospital, it was in the middle of the night. Ashton came just shortly after. I have no idea how he even knew about it, but he was there for Jack. It was horrible, we were all crying all night and..." the girl trailed off, she couldn't even imagine how hard that time must have been for her boyfriend.

"Jack started drinking, he came home late in the evenings, he suddenly became really aggressive. One week after Ace died he came home drunk in the middle of the night, that was the first time he hit me. He then started to criticise everything I do, he made fun of all my mistakes, he yelled at me all the time and hit me for absolutely everything he didn't like... or sometimes for no reason at all."

Michael took Macey's shaking hand in his, drawing small circles at the back of her hand.

"He had those mood swings. Sometimes he would be all cute again, he would call me Sunshine, tell me how much he loves me, we would watch movies together and he would take me out. But sometimes he was just super aggressive towards me. At the beginning he was nice most of the times, but that quickly changed, and he barely was the cute and kind version of him. I forced him to see his therapist again, then he saw a psychologist and he needed to start to take pills, they diagnosed him with... I don't even know what exactly... But it really got better... but I don't know, I guess that wasn't really him when he needed to take pills so he wouldn't yell at me all the time and hit me?"

The girl took a deep breath. "He saw his therapist for not even a month, he then stopped seeing him, what I didn't know at first. He also stopped taking his pills three months ago, then everything just kept getting worse and worse. I didn't know what to do anymore. I didn't want to leave him. I believed that we could work this out, and I wanted to help him. I knew how things were before all this. I remember our first kiss and our dates, and it was all just so perfect. I didn't want to throw this all away, and I also felt sorry for him. I made him see his therapist again, but she called and told me he never showed up. He made me believe he took the pills again, but he just threw them away so that I would think they were getting less, when in reality they were all just in the trash can."

It was quiet for a while, no one of them knew what to say.

"I don't know what to do. Technically we are still together, and I don't even want to leave him, Michael, he meant so much to me, I loved him. Why did this need to happen?"

"You used the past."

"What?" Macey asked a little confused.

"You said he meant so much to you and you loved him."

"Did I say it like that?"

"You did."

"Oh."