“This isn’t about Joey.” My brows furrow when she looks up and to the right. “This is about us needing some time apart. We are too dependent on each other. It isn’t healthy.”
I both sign and shout my reply, “You are lying. You looked up and to the right. That is a clear sign that you are lying.”
Her squeal only rumbles in her chest, but it’s almost deafening. “Don’t read me. He didn’t teach you everything he knew so you could use his skills against me.”
“Okay. Just don’t cry. Please,” I beg when the tears welling in her eyes threaten to spill. I’ve never seen her like this. Usually, she’s controlled even when she’s upset. A sense of normality isn’t a vibe she’s giving right now.
“Talk to me.” When she steps forward to hand her boarding pass to the gate agent, I get desperate. “Please, Mellowy.”
My nickname works as it usually does. “I can’t, BJ. I can’t do this right now.”
“Then wait and let me come with you. Don’t run.” When she ignores my request, the anger and hurt that has festered inside of me the past five days spills over. “Can you at least pretend you fucking care about me. My brother died, Melody, he fucking died, but you can’t even give me a goddamn excuse as to why you are leaving me—”
My rant ends in the worst way possible when she discloses, “I slept with someone.”
“What?” I don’t sign this reply. I can barely get my mouth to follow the commands of my brain, much less my hands. “You’re lying. You’re not telling the truth. You would never do that to me. You’re not that type of person. I only just told the courts that a few months ago. This can’t be true. It can’t.”
“It is. I slept with someone else. I cheated on you.”
I stare at her, praying for her eyes to look up and to the right, for her to scratch her face, to sweat, to do something that will indicate she isn’t telling the truth.
All I get in an apology. “I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”
After squeezing my hand like she always did when we were kids, she accepts her scanned boarding pass from the ticket agent, spins on her heels, and walks away from me. She doesn’t glance back to check I’m okay or mouth that she loves me. She just leaves me standing in the middle of the airport with a shattered heart and the determination to destroy anyone and everyone responsible for it.
Don’t underestimate the power of a vigilante. He only shows you want he wants you to see, but he’ll have you paying attention the instant his mask goes on.
To be continued in Hushed Guardian
