Thirty-One Grace
I can’t sleep. I’m sick about everything. The fight with Geny. The fact that she knows something that could get her killed. The way she screamed it so carelessly when Frank was inside tells me she has no clue just how much danger she’s put herself in.
How long has she known my horrible secret? Since before I disappeared? Or did she recently find out? But more than any of that, I need to know how she knows.
Wyatt swears he didn’t tell her and I believe him.
And that’s part of the story Geny can never know.
She can’t know Wyatt helped me, that he knew the truth while she and my family grieved me.
She can’t know that Frank tried to have me killed to keep our secret, and Wyatt put himself in the middle of a murder plot to protect me.
She’d never understand why she wasn’t told.
I give up on sleep for the moment and grab my car keys from my purse before putting on my running shoes. I can’t count on Geny taking me to get my car in the morning after our fight and I need to blow off some steam.
Murphy’s house is a nice long run from my parents’ place. It feels good to let all the thoughts drift away, even if it’s only temporary. I’m out of breath by the time I arrive. The lights are all off at Murphy’s house and I try my best to be silent as I retrieve my car.
When I’m back home, I collapse into bed. I was hoping the run would be enough to exhaust me. That I would lay down and be asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. But it was wishful thinking.
I spend the rest of the night tossing and turning.
My nose aches now that the adrenaline from the fight has started to wear off.
That night at the lake keeps replaying in my mind, like if I just run through it enough times I can go back and change something.
I still don’t know how things got as bad as they did so fast. I’ve thought about it a million times, and in all those times I can’t find where things went from bad to worse.