Chapter 24
A big truck sat at the curb when Emily arrived at her parents’ home. Troy Baker got out, slammed the door, his face dark with fury.
Mentally readying for battle, Emily emerged from her car and met the storm head-on. “Troy? What’s going on?” She’d considered as an afterthought that Marv would tell Troy about their conversation; she just hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.
Troy didn’t stop until he was directly in her personal space. The instinct to back up was overwhelming, but this was Heather’s brother.
“You tell me!” he demanded.
“Tell you what?” Emily said carefully. She wasn’t afraid of him, but the look in his eyes told her this was not going to be a pleasant encounter.
“Marv told me about the questions you were asking him,” Troy snarled. “I can’t believe you would even think that Austin might be innocent, much less say it out loud! Now, you tell me Marv’s wrong!”
The alcohol was heavy on Troy’s breath. Another layer of tension coiled inside Emily. “I didn’t say he might be innocent. I just repeated a crazy rumor.”
Troy shook his head in disgust. “You know what he did. You were there. If you go taking sides with him—”
“What’s going on?”
Emily’s father walked toward them; her mother stood near the front door, the phone clutched in her hand. God. Emily hated that her parents had to see this. Just something else for them to worry about.
“Remember what I said,” Troy warned, shaking a finger at her. “The best thing for you to do is stay away from Austin. I’m gonna take care of that situation personally.”
Before she could respond, Troy strode back to his truck and burned rubber peeling away.
She’d hurt him. Her actions had increased the pain he felt. She hadn’t meant to do that. Everything was all screwed up. This was her confusion. Her problem. Hurting anyone else was the last thing she’d wanted to do.
When Troy had disappeared from sight, Emily turned to her father.
He hadn’t said anything else. Hadn’t asked her if she was okay the way he usually did after something like this.
Part of her understood that he was waiting for her to make the first move.
The dark circles beneath his eyes and the fatigue on his face made her stomach clench with regret.
She was responsible for this too. But she had to know the truth.
“Is there anything you’d like to tell me about you and Fairgate?” She waited, held her breath. She desperately needed someone to do the right thing. To just tell her the truth.
Her father shook his head and said the one word that broke her heart: “No.”
Emily got into her car and left.
That battle would have to wait until she’d gotten used to the painful idea that her parents were lying to her.
What was her father hiding? What was with all these rumors about Austin’s alibi and his possible innocence? None of it made sense anymore. She’d lost direction . . . lost her certainty just like Marv said.
Clint Austin couldn’t be innocent, could he? She couldn’t have been that wrong.
She thought of the way those people had treated him in the Piggly Wiggly and she ached.
That she could feel any sort of tender emotion for him was making her crazy.
Troy hated her for even suggesting Clint’s innocence, which she hadn’t actually done.
Marv likely thought she was nuts. Her parents had lied to her.
Her friends had withheld their true feelings.
Where did she go from here? She couldn’t go back, couldn’t go forward.
She was trapped.