Chapter Fifteen
“Ashley—that is to say, Asher—was always an odd boy.” Suzanne Derringer smiled into the camera. “He was quiet. Secretive.”
“He never had a lot of friends,” Lawrence said, picking up the story where his wife had stopped. “He spent a lot of time alone. We worried about him.”
“Understandable.” The camera cut to Landon Dwyer, who had adopted an expression of polite concern. “Can you tell us a little about the night he left?”
“I’d been out shopping.” Here, Suzanne paused to dab her eyes with a crumpled tissue. “I came home, and I remember calling out for him to come help me carry in the groceries. He didn’t answer, but he should have been home from school by then.”
Landon nodded in apparent understanding. “What happened then?”
“I went to his room, thinking maybe he was listening to music and hadn’t heard me.
That happened sometimes.” Her smile might have passed for fondness if not for the tightening around her eyes.
“He didn’t answer when I knocked, so I pushed the door open, and…
” Her words became unintelligible through her sniffles. “I’m sorry. ”
“Please,” Landon said, passing her a fresh tissue , “take your time.”
“I went into his room and saw him kissing another boy.”
“That must have been very upsetting.” There wasn’t a trace of sarcasm in Landon’s tone.
The fucking hypocrite.
Suzanne bobbed her head. “Times were different then. I didn’t understand.”
“What did you do?”
“Well, I sent the other boy straight home.” She glanced sideways at her husband. “Then, I called Lawrence.”
“I left work immediately,” Asher’s father said, his tone carefully neutral. “We honestly didn’t know what to do. Looking back on it now, I realize we handled the situation poorly.”
“Ashley became violent. Lawrence had to physically restrain him.” Suzanne sniffled into her tissue. “It was awful.”
“I lost my temper.” Lawrence hung his head as if deeply ashamed of this. “I told him that if he couldn’t control himself, he needed to leave.”
Landon was nodding like that had all been a perfectly reasonable reaction to finding out their son was gay. “Were you worried for your safety?”
“Not for myself ,” Lawrence answered, “but I was afraid he’d hurt Suzy.”
“So, you gave Asher an ultimatum. What happened next? ”
“He left.” It was Suzanne’s turn again. “He packed a few things into his school bag and just left. We thought maybe he needed time to cool down and clear his head, but he didn’t come back.”
“Did you look for him?”
“We looked everywhere.” Lawrence waved his hands around in big, sweeping motions. “We called the police, put out posters, checked the hospital and the school. No one had seen him.”
“He’d just vanished.” Suzanne’s chest heaved with great, wracking sobs. “I was so frightened for him.”
Landon waited for her to quiet some before charging ahead in his questioning. “Then, seventeen years later, you find out that he’s not only alive but thriving. How did that make you feel?”
“Shocked.” Asher’s father smiled grimly and shook his head. “Grateful. Overjoyed. Proud.”
“It was like our prayers had finally been answered,” Suzanne added.
Moving to the edge of his seat, Landon clasped his hands together between his knees. “It must have been overwhelming.” The camera panned to the Derringers to show them both nodding in agreement. “If you could talk to him right now, if you knew he was listening, what would you say?”
Suzanne stared directly into the camera. “I’d say I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there to protect him. I’d say that I’ve missed him every single day since he left. I’d tell him I love him, and I hope that one day, he can forgive me.”
Cameron had seen enough. With a snort of disgust, he set his laptop aside and shook his head. With parents like that, it was a wonder Asher could function at all.
On the surface, they looked like people who truly loved their son. They said all the right things, and the tears certainly didn’t hurt. Even if Cameron didn’t know Asher, even if he didn’t know the truth, he still didn’t think he’d be convinced by the Derringers’ theatrics.
For starters, there was so much about their version of events that didn’t add up for him.
A teenage boy terrified of his parents finding out he was gay wouldn’t have brought a boy home.
Even if, against all logic, he had, there was no way he would have been distracted enough to miss his mother calling for him.
Moreover, what provocation would he have had to react violently at being discovered, to the point where his parents had feared for their safety?
If anything, he imagined Asher had been frozen in fear, not rampaging through the house.
Cameron accepted that he might hold a small amount of bias to the situation, but honestly, it just didn’t make sense.
It also hadn’t escaped his notice that of all the places Lawrence Derringer had listed, he hadn’t mentioned searching the bus station or questioning the employees there.
Asher had packed a bag before he left, but they had what?
Assumed he was just walking around town in plain sight to clear his head?
Then, there was everything that had happened after he’d made it to New York.
Asher hadn’t gone into details about being picked up for shoplifting at fourteen, but one had to assume that the courts had at least made an effort to contact his family.
A social worker at the group home he’d been sent to had surely done the same.
When he’d been sent to the hospital at seventeen, had no one thought to call his parents? Where had they been then with their tears and apologies? It was rather convenient that the video had skipped over those parts of the story.
To Cameron’s absolute delight, a quick scroll through the comment section proved he wasn’t the only one who questioned Suzanne and Lawrence’s authenticity.
She really needs to take acting lessons.
So, their kid disappeared, and that’s it? They looked at the school, then just said to hell with it? What fucking kid runs away to school?
They kicked their kid out for being gay and are surprised he wants nothing to do with them. God, I’ve never seen anyone more clueless.
The Mitchell Faraday thing came out when Asher ended up in the hospital. He was seventeen when it happened. By law, shouldn’t someone at the hospital have notified his parents?
There was a reply under that one.
Not to mention the police, the courts, his attorney. Sounds fishy to me.
Cameron bobbed his head and grinned. Same, random commenter, he thought. Same.
“You look very pleased with yourself.” Dressed only in a pair of loose-fitting boxers, Asher flopped down on the end of the sofa near Cameron’s feet. He didn’t appear to be completely awake yet. “What are you looking at?”
Cameron hesitated, but they’d agreed not to hide anything from each other for their own good anymore. “I was watching your parents’ interview on Sinematic.”
Asher tensed, all signs of grogginess gone. “How bad was it?”
“About what we expected.” He shrugged at Asher’s raised eyebrow. “Lots of crying. They were wrong. They’re really not bad people, and they miss you. Your mom really hopes you can forgive her.” He couldn’t have kept the sarcasm out of his voice if he’d tried. “You get the idea.”
“Okay,” Asher answered slowly. “Then, why are you smiling?”
“Because it’s bullshit, and people are starting to see it.” Sitting up, he scooted closer and slid his laptop onto Asher’s lap. “Look at the comments. ”
Though he looked skeptical, he took the computer and dutifully began reading, his eyes widening as he scanned the page. After a few silent minutes of this, he threw his head back and snapped out a sharp laugh.
“Did you see this one?” It took a second for him to stop laughing before he could continue. “Their story has more plot holes than a Michael Bay film.”
Cameron chuckled. “Well, they’re not wrong.” It was nice to see some of Asher’s confidence returning. He’d missed this side of him. “Check the subscriber ticker.”
“Oh,” Asher mouthed. “Wow.”
Wow was right. In the past week, the web series had lost nearly ten thousand of its subscribers. Granted, Cameron wouldn’t be really happy until the videos were taken down completely, but in the meantime, seeing things falling apart for Landon and Kyle was extremely satisfying to witness.
“Oh, hey,” Asher said a moment later. “We should probably start getting ready. It’s already after eight.”
Cameron groaned. Talon Andrews was a sick, sadistic bastard. That was the only excuse for setting a meeting so early in the morning the day after Thanksgiving. Didn’t the guy have a life?
The only silver lining was that he had agreed to meet them in Mission Grove, so at least he and Asher didn’t have to drive all the way into the city on Black Friday.
That would have been a fucking nightmare, and he would have probably ended up having an anxiety attack. Not a great way to start the weekend.
Warm fingers slid around the back of his neck, and Asher leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Cheer up, sweetheart. There will be coffee.”
“Fine.” Huffing, he levered himself up from the couch. “I’m going to jump in the stupid shower.”
“That’s the spirit,” Asher called after him, chortling under his breath.
Cameron flipped him off. He’d said he would go. He’d never agreed to like it.
~
A few people waved in greeting when Asher stepped into the Witch’s Brew.
At first, he thought they were waving to Cameron who was just ahead of him, but then he noticed they were all staring in his direction.
He recognized some of them as residents he’d met at the Fall Festival, but he couldn’t remember anyone’s name.
He smiled and waved back.
Three steps later, a perky teenager bounced to a stop in front of him. “Good morning, Mr. Dare.”
Out of her café uniform with her sheet of honey-colored hair falling down around her shoulders, Kimmie Picklesimer was barely recognizable. “Hello, Kimmie. Did you have a good Thanksgiving? ”