Chapter 112
Maple
@mimilittleponyyy, TikTok
Please can someone just save her already?
Jake slumps to the floor. Brandon rears backwards. Blood seeps out of Jake’s chest. Brandon stares wide-eyed.
Wait, no! That doesn’t make any sense!
My ears buzz like a million angry bees. My vision blurs. But there’s a new shadow in the doorway. Another man. Another gun.
‘Dad?!’ I scream.
Dad’s whole body is shaking, and his eyes are wild, like the big cats he loves. But he’s holding a rifle, the one he hunts with. That’s why Jake is bleeding out and Brandon is alive. The double shot was from Dad’s gun. Dad shot the man who was about to kill someone else.
‘Maple!’ he shouts, running in. But then he pulls up. His eyes dart to Brandon, and he lifts the rifle again, aiming it at him.
‘No, wait!’ I cry. ‘He came to help. I mean, I think he did. It’s so confusing! I think …’
‘She’s right,’ Brandon says, scrambling onto his feet and taking a few steps backwards, his hands high and shaking.
‘Listen, I know it looks bad, and I should probably have called the police rather than act the hero, but it all just felt too urgent, and I didn’t think they’d believe me,’ he babbles.
‘I don’t always make the best decisions. ’
Same. Fuck. Am I like him? Is that because he’s my real dad?
‘But I couldn’t let Maple down,’ he goes on. ‘Not again. Not after I’d just found her.’
Dad shakes his head, screws up his face. ‘What do you mean, just found her?’
‘Maple!’
I turn toward the familiar voice. ‘Aspen! Oh jeez, Ash. Dylan, oh my God, you’re all here.’
‘I told you to stay in the car,’ Dad says.
But he doesn’t sound mad, like he knew they had to come.
His rifle is aimed at Brandon, but the guy still risks moving, stepping in front of Jake’s body to hide the dead perv’s injuries from the twins.
It’s more thoughtful than I’d have expected from the sweaty man with the gross stare.
‘There were some keys in the kitchen,’ Dylan says, his voice low and stuttering. ‘Maybe they’re for the cuffs?’ He disappears, then returns a few seconds later. He tries to smile like he’s got this as he pushes the different keys into my handcuffs, but his eyes are wet and his fingers tremble.
I mouth ‘thank you’ as the cuffs finally open. I want to say more, but I don’t know what. I owe you my life? Thinking about you helped me get through all of this? But I can see in his eyes that he already gets it. So I just squeeze his hand for a second and let him gently guide me up to sitting.
‘How did you find me?’ I ask. My eyes dart between them all, not sure who I’m asking.
‘Mainly TikTok, I guess,’ Dylan says. ‘Then a local guy knew Jake, and I recognized this house from his photography website. That half-painted red wall is freaky.’
‘This house?’ I repeat, realizing I don’t have a clue where I am.
‘A creepy building in the middle of the Mojave Desert,’ Dylan explains. ‘But I guess it’s the perfect home for a freak who can pretend to be a teenage girl for months on end.’
Shame scorches my cheeks. ‘You know he’s Coco then,’ I murmur.
‘I know he’s a disgusting, lying pedo,’ Dylan responds. Then he turns to Brandon and gives him an accusing glare. ‘But I’ve no idea who this dude is.’
Brandon looks at me like he’s asking for permission. I force myself to keep eye contact, to try and find something good in his face. Then I take a breath and say it out loud. ‘I think he might be my biological father.’