24. Chapter Twenty-Four ~ Mia
Chapter Twenty-Four ~ Mia
After Brayden told me the whole truth about the accident, I felt sick to my stomach. Thinking about the sex we had and the emotions I shared with him made me want to throw up everything I ate. I felt betrayed; lied to. Fooled.
In the heat of the moment, I rushed back to the driver and demanded he take me back to the cabin. Brayden ran out to try and stop me, but it was no use. I wanted nothing to do with him at that moment. I couldn’t even look at him without feeling a burning desire to run him over.
When I got to the cabin, I packed all of my things, stuffed them into the back seat of my car and raced out of there before he had a chance to get back. I stopped at the closest hotel and tried to book a room and while I waited, I overheard the clerks talking about how Uncle Joe conjured this plan to keep me from booking a room anywhere, so that I'd have to stay at the cabin with Brayden.
I was livid. I couldn't believe what he’d done. I couldn’t believe what Brayden had done. I couldn't believe the reality of my life after finding out that he was the one driving. As I drove in the direction of my mom's place, I started to think about Uncle Joe; what role he played in keeping Brayden safe and I got even more angry with everyone. Trent included.
What he did wasn’t worth where he ended up. If he had just been honest and cut himself some slack, he might have stood a chance at being a free man. But he didn’t. He wanted to save Brayden, and I started to hate him for it.
The tears wouldn't stop falling. Nick was right. My mom was right. I was in denial and didn’t want to believe the truth had been hidden in plain sight. And my poor mom. She drove herself insane searching for the truth and everyone shunned her and called her crazy for it. I felt terrible; I was disgusted.
When I got to her house, I sat in the driveway and cried for what felt like forever. It wasn’t until Nick came out to see why I hadn’t come in yet, that I stopped crying. When I told him what happened, his first reaction was to rush over to the cabin and give Brayden a beating. Which wouldn’t happen even if he tried with all of his might.
“It’s not worth the trouble,” I said. “I’m done with him. Uncle Joe too.”
“That man is no uncle of mine!” Nick griped. “I knew it! I knew mom was right all this time and he covered it up. They both did! The cops too.”
I wondered how much Uncle Joe paid them to keep their family’s secret. I wondered why he allowed Brayden and Trent to make that stupid pact. I wondered why Trent thought that was the smartest move to make. He could have stood a chance.
“Mom’s inside, by the way.” My heart skipped a beat. “They let her out a few hours ago.”
“Really?” I sniffled. “That’s good. I can tell her the news and we can finally start to get some help for Trent.”
“Yeah,” Nick shook his head. “All this time they’ve been hiding the truth, and Trent went along with it. Do you think Brayden’s uncle bribed him into doing so?”
Nick raised a good question. I had no idea though. Uncle Joe was a very rich man and made a lot of promises that he had fulfilled, so I thought it was possible that he had bribed Trent. Then again, Trent and Brayden were best friends, and he would have done anything to protect him. So, I wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know. Shit, at this point I guess I should believe anything is possible, huh?”
“You should have believed it from the very beginning.”
I always had my doubts about that night, but I didn’t think Brayden would lie to me about something so serious. I should have trusted my gut and pushed for the truth just like my mom did, but I guess I was blinded by the facade of what I called love.
I didn’t bother taking my things out of the car before going inside. I was too weak from crying and just wanted to lay down and wrap my head around things. I was fortunate that neither my mom nor Nick pushed me to tell them any details right then and there. They knew I needed some time to myself to get my head right again.
While I wallowed in my pain and the betrayal from Brayden, I questioned why? Why would he keep something like that from me? We told each other everything once upon a time. He was my savior; the person I went to with all of my problems and he always helped me through them.
My brain couldn’t seem to understand why the secret between him and Trent was more important than telling me. I wanted to hate Brayden, but the truth was, it wasn’t my place to hate him if Trent also wanted the secret to remain theirs.
I sat in Trent’s old room for hours trying to understand. I didn’t want to understand. I wanted to be angry and lash out at someone; anyone. But what good would that do? The sentence had been handed out and there was nothing that could be done to turn back the hands of time.
When night fell, I heard a gentle tap at the door and thought it was Nick coming to check in on me. But it was my mom. Surprisingly, she looked a lot better after spending a few days in jail. She was clean, her hair was combed and placed into a nice ponytail, and the smell of booze didn't enter the room before she did.
What did come with her was a heavy presence, like there was a lot to be discussed and no directions on where to start. There was certainly a lot I wanted to say to her; a lot of questions to ask, but I too had no direction. Before, I got angry and started wherever that anger burned the most. But that night, a gentler approach sat on the horizon.
“Hey, mom,” I said.
“Hi.”
She sat at the foot of the bed and kept her eyes planted toward the floor. I could sense that being in Trent’s room was hard for her. According to Nick, mom hadn’t stepped foot in that room for a long time.
“It doesn’t smell like him anymore,” she said.
I sat up in the bed and stared at her softly. I wanted to hug, maybe rub her back and tell her everything would be fine, but I clammed up and waited for her to speak again.
“It’s been a long time since I've been in here,” she said. “I think the last time was three years ago. After the sheriff told me if I came back to the precinct asking questions, he would arrest me.”
That made me angry again. I hated knowing that my mom had been right about someone covering up the truth and she was threatened and made to believe she was crazy for following her instincts.
“You were right to keep asking questions,” I said. “Brayden came clean about it all and Uncle Joe had a hand in helping them cover it up. But don’t worry, I’m going to hire a lawyer and see what we can do to fix this.”
She looked at me with so much hope in her eyes it made mine swell with tears. After so much agony and grief, my mother looked like she wanted to smile again.
“Brayden and Trent were best friends,” Mom said. “If I knew my son, this is what he wanted. It isn’t right and he shouldn’t be away from his family for so many years, but he’s bullheaded and does what he sees fit. So.”
“He gets that from you,” I said. “And it isn’t right. Even if it is what he wanted, it’s not the truth and it isn’t fair. The least someone could have done was tell us.”
“They couldn’t,” she smiled for a split second. “They knew we’d speak up about it. Besides, Big Bear sheriffs wouldn’t have done a thing to make it right. Trent was always seen as a problem for them. They wanted him gone a long time ago.”
That night was the first night my mom and I had a real conversation without either of us getting angry and saying nasty things to each other. It felt good to have that again. It felt good to be able to share opinions with my mom and laugh, and cry. I missed her.
“You know I love you, Mia,” she said. “I haven’t been the best mom or person to be around for a very long time, but I do love my children. All of you. And at some point in this lifetime, I'm going to make things right. I can’t go back in time and change the way I was, and I can’t make you believe that I'll finally get it together but somehow, this tiny bit of information has opened my eyes to a lot.”
I was proud to hear her say that she was ready to step into her old self and get back to who she was before her addiction took over. I was proud to hear her say she loved me, and she wanted to change. It had been a long time since my mom said those words to me and I held onto them for dear life. That tiny bit of information did something for me too; it made me realize that I needed my mom more than I thought I knew.
“I know this is a trying time for you right now, with Brayden and everything, but I really think you should give him a chance,” Mom said. “He really cares for you, Mia. You may not like what he did, but he did it for Trent. Keep that in mind.”
“I’m done with Brayden,” I said. “I can’t be with someone who keeps a promise to someone else over me. I can’t trust that he won't do it again.”
My mouth spoke the words, but my heart felt something completely different. The love I had for him wouldn't go away for a long time, I knew that to be true. But I was still angry.