Chapter 1 #3
Something a lot like heartbreak struck her features, and for some reason, it only made Sean’s headache worse. “Oh, Sean,” she whispered.
Irritation descended rapidly into true anger. “Why do you keep so many secrets? Is it all related? Staying in this town. My mother’s death. Your obsession with David Berkeley. It’s driving me insane!”
“Someone just needs to give him a chance,” she murmured.
“Again. The guy has psychopathic hatred toward me, Blaire, so why does that person need to be me?”
“If you don’t, then who will?”
What? “What the hell does that mean?”
“He will be a better friend than enemy, Sean. Trust me.”
Deep in Sean’s chest where the anger had sprouted, something stabbed it with poisoned fertilizer. “Trust you?” he demanded. “Trust you? Why would I trust you when you won’t tell me the truth about anything? This is the same argument from this morning.”
“Sean—”
He spun on his heel and pounded up the stairs, two at a time. In his bedroom, he grabbed a backpack and shoved some clothes into it. Cash. Ibuprofen.
Cole appeared in the doorway, brows drawn low as he watched Sean’s harried division of his scarce belongings. “Are you going somewhere?” he asked, tone carefully flat.
Sean barely spared his cousin a glance. “I have to get out of here.”
Cole blinked. “Alright, then.” He disappeared, and Sean slipped the note from his mother into his wallet.
Sean flew back down the stairs and headed for the front door without looking at Blaire again, though she tried to stop him. “Sean, please wait. Sean! Let’s just talk about this.”
“I’m done trying to talk to you. All I get is more questions.” He swiped up the credit card from the bureau, the one they never used but owned in case of emergency. Blaire did nothing to stop him. He burst through the door, the cool evening air a boon to his overheated skin.
Behind him, Blaire screeched up the stairs, “Cole! Go with him!”
“I’m on it,” Cole replied.
Sean rolled his eyes. He tossed his backpack into his car and slipped into the driver’s seat.
Then he waited.
Because if Cole planned to come with him, Sean wasn’t angry enough to leave him behind. He pressed his palms to his face and breathed, trying to talk sense into himself.
It was irrational to leave.
Dangerous, probably.
What point was he trying to prove?
Where would he even go?
He knew no one. Had no contacts.
No amount of logic would alleviate the anger brewing inside. He couldn’t stay there, shrouded in mystery. He could always come back. It was just a drive. He needed this to clear his head. The packed bag was just in case.
And if it lasted until tomorrow, he’d text his boss. Personal emergency. Whatever it took.
Cole slipped into the car without fanfare, staring straight ahead like this was a planned road trip and not the culmination of a long-awaited temper tantrum.
Sean started the car. Blaire stood in the doorway, palm over her mouth. He spared her one last glance before spinning the car toward the long gravel drive leading to the highway.
“Do you have a plan?” Cole asked about ten minutes later.
“I can’t be there anymore.”
Right on cue, his phone rang. Blaire’s contact photo lit his screen from the cupholder.
“She’s probably freaking out,” Cole said.
Sean didn’t answer, and Cole picked up the phone. He waited a moment while Blaire spoke.
“I don’t think he’s coming back right now, Mom.”
Pause.
“No, I know.”
Pause.
“I understand.”
Pause.
“I will.”
Pause.
Cole glanced at him. “She says she loves you.”
Sean did nothing but grip the steering wheel tighter.
“She’s begging you to come back.”
“If I come back will she give me the truth?”
A longer pause.
“She says the truth isn’t hers to give.”
In the silence of the car, Sean just made out Blaire’s voice through the phone: “This is for his protection!”
He didn’t care. He deserved the truth, whatever it was. Even if it was hard. Even if it was dark.
Sean took the phone from Cole’s hand and hung up on Blaire.
She called back at once.
A sliver of guilt wedged its way in. Blaire had her faults, but she’d always loved him. Her overprotectiveness was annoying, yes, but it stemmed from a good place.
But how much longer could he live under a shroud of mystery? Locked in a role with no future, where the average age of the citizens approached sixty. Working for minimum wage at the town’s tiny gym because college was just a fantasy. Captivated by dreams that made little sense.
The growing itch had become impossible to ignore.
Something else was out there. Something that called to him from the cracks between all the secrets.
Blaire knew what it was—she had to know—and she wouldn’t fucking tell him.
He could understand keeping information from him to protect him when was young, but he was a grown adult now.
“I deserve the truth,” Sean said. “We deserve the truth.”
Cole nodded. “We do.” He paused to stare at his hands in his lap. “But what secret would require them to keep you hidden?”
“She’ll have to tell me eventually,” he said. “Maybe this will force it.”
“Mom isn’t really one to cave under pressure.”
Sean shrugged. “I have to try.”