Chapter 23 #3
“I really care for him, Aimee. I always have. I know how you feel about him, and I know you once told me you wouldn’t interfere if I dated him even though I knew you wouldn’t like it one bit which is why I hadn’t said anything before.
But I can’t hide this from you anymore. There is something I have to do and for you to understand why, you need to understand how strongly I feel for him.
” Nadia pressed her fingers to her temple.
How did she explain that Thomas lived in her chest like a second heartbeat?
She’d tried to hate him for making her keep this secret, but every time she saw him shoulder another burden alone, another piece of her heart fractured in his direction.
“When Dad left,” she said, voice shaking, “everyone told me it would make me stronger, more independent. And it did. But it also made me believe that loving someone meant giving them the power to destroy me. Thomas… he’s already done that.
But not in the way Dad did. He destroyed the walls I built.
And I can’t stand that he did so. That despite everything—the lies, the secrets, the impossible position he’s put me in—I can’t stop myself from—”
“You’re scaring me, Nadia,” Aimee interjected.
“Thomas and I know each other a lot better than I’ve been letting on. I never told you or Kristen how deep our friendship went. Not even my mom knows.”
“Exactly how deep would you say it is?”
“I don’t mean deep. That’s the wrong way to describe it.” She massaged the dull ache in her forehead. She was tired and famished, and she wasn’t thinking straight.
“How would you describe it?” Aimee was getting upset.
“Kristen and Nick were born soulmates. You had James, and I had… There were a lot of times when it was just me and Thomas. You weren’t around but he was. And when he faked James’s death—”
She stopped, realizing her mistake as soon as she’d spoken the words. Leaden dread filled her body.
“Nadia?” There was a quiver in Aimee’s voice.
“Nothing.” She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable other shoe to drop. She was going to throw up.
“Did you know about James?”
“Why would you say that?” Nadia tried to backpedal. Dread pounded a fast rhythm against her chest.
Dead silence greeted her on Aimee’s end of the line. Then a whisper.
“You knew?”
“Aimee.” She spoke the name with a tinge of defeat, her mouth desert-dry. She kicked the porch rail, hating on herself for spilling her secret. At the worst possible time, too. Right before she was going to disappear on her.
“My god! You knew! How could you do that to me?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You did. You chose not to tell me. For ten years!”
“Aimee, please. Try to understand. I never meant to hurt you.”
“You never meant to tell me!” Aimee was shouting now.
“You didn’t want to know. You yourself told me you didn’t want to know the full story—”
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare throw that back at me. That was after I found James—on my own. After I’d suffered for almost two years believing he was dead.”
“We both know you never believed him dead. I was protecting you! Look at what’s happening right now. Look at how I have to hide. The Hidalgos are murderers. Had you known about James when he first disappeared, you would have run off to Mexico looking for him and gotten yourself killed.”
“Stop fooling yourself. You were protecting Thomas. God, you’ve been protecting him all this time. It’s always been about him for you, hasn’t it? It all makes sense now. Why you pushed me to move on. Why you pushed me to go out with Ian.”
“That’s not fair. I wanted you to be happy—”
“Happy? While you and Thomas collaborated behind my back?” She gasped. “The paintings! It was you, wasn’t it? You had a key. You let Thomas into my house. I trusted you, Nadia.” Aimee sobbed. “You were my best friend—”
“I’m still your best friend.”
“—I turned to you when I was falling apart.”
Nadia heard Aimee fight back tears, a blend of rage and pain coloring her words. She said the only thing she could at this point. “I’m sorry. I know you’re angry—”
“Anger doesn’t begin to cover what I’m feeling.” Aimee talked through tears. “You sat with me all those nights I cried myself to sleep. You watched me mourn him. And all that time, you knew!”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she repeated, at a loss for words.
“We always have choices, Nadia. You chose Thomas over me. Over and over again.”
She heard Aimee’s ragged breathing as she fought her own tears. They slipped down both cheeks. She roughly wiped them off, aggravating her wound.
“I called because I don’t know when or if I’ll see you again,” she said quietly.
Aimee stayed silent.
“They’re killing off his family. We have to disappear. I—I have to go away for a really long time.”
“Good.”
The finality of the word slapped Nadia.
“Aimee—”
The line went dead.
Nadia’s chest burned as she tried to breathe through the pain of losing Aimee’s friendship. Her trust. Nadia didn’t have to tell her she’d never see her again because Aimee didn’t want to see her again. Ever.
She closed her eyes and let the tears fall. In seconds, a lifelong friendship imploded under a decade of lies. The truth should have set her free, but freedom had never felt so much like exile.
The porch screen slammed and she jolted.
Quickly wiping her face dry, she turned around, fully expecting to face Thomas. But the porch was empty. She was the only one there.
And time had run out.