Chapter Fifty-One
Everett
I hear my name being called across the field. When I look up, I see my sister running toward me at full speed.
What the hell?
I straighten up and start jogging in her direction. “What is it? Is Mom okay?”
“Mom’s fine.” She bends at the waist, hands propped on her knees.
“Look at the all-state athlete now.” I smirk at her heavy breathing. But when she picks up her head and looks at me, her expression wipes the smile off my lips. Her skin is red and blotchy, her eyes bloodshot. Tears have left tracks down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she says.
An alarm goes off in my head. “For what?”
“Mila knows.”
Every muscle in my body tenses. “Knows what?”
“That I was there the night of the fire. That I might have left the oven on.”
“You mean you told her?”
Gabi shakes her head. “She found out before I had a chance.”
“Fuck!” I point a finger at my sister’s chest. “You were supposed to tell her today! You told me you were going to do it at lunch!”
“I was!” New tears trace the paths of the old. “But Yasmine was there, and it just didn’t feel right.”
“So how did she find out?”
The story about the necklace tumbles out between sobs and ragged breaths. “And then I accidentally let it slip that you knew.”
“Fuck, Gabi. Fuck!” I lace my fingers and hook them behind my neck, tipping my face to the sky. I want to yell at my sister some more, but it makes me feel like my old man.
And I never want to be like him.
I take a few deep breaths, trying to slow the adrenaline coursing through me and calm my racing heart. “Okay. Was she upset?”
“Yes.” Gabi nods tearfully. “Very.”
“Tell me what she said.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to.”
“You have to!”
Gabi drops her face into her hands. “She said if you loved her, you’d have told her.”
“Fuck!” I pace back and forth, trying to make a plan.
“Everett, I’m sorry. This is all my fault, and I’m going to find a way to make it up to you—and to Mila.”
“You’ve done enough,” I say.
Then I take off running.