“What do you mean, you know?”
“Let’s talk outside.”
“No. What do you me—you knew?” James looks at him, silently begging him to stop. “You knew? Did Mom and Dad know?”
“Teeny.” I hear my dad’s deep voice slice through the kitchen, turning off the chaos like a firm finger snap. “What is he talking about?”
I turn around to see everyone gathered around the entrance to the kitchen, my parents’ shocked faces looking at me with so much sadness and disappointment. I want to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness.
I watch my mom’s eyes well with tears, betrayal painting the edges of her sad frown. “Christine, is this true?”
“I—I, he…” My words are caught in my throat, and I feel like the room is closing in on me. I don’t know how to tell my parents everything that happened. That I was stupid enough to get knocked up at sixteen, and I had to have my brother help me during a time when Everett should’ve been there. That I’ve been keeping this secret for twenty years, struggling with the aftermath of that heartbreak by covering it up with a marriage that feels like a sham now.
Unable to speak, I walk out. I leave the room, avoiding the concerned stares from everyone around us. I hear Josh call after me, James stopping him, and the urgent sounds of footsteps following mine, but I ignore it all as I walk out the front door.
“Teeny!”
I don’t turn around. Instead, I keep walking. Down the narrow pathway that leads into another neighborhood, away from everything that unfolded in my parents’ home.
“Teeny!” I hear again just as strong hands grip my arm. He caught up to me. He came for me this time. Just when I thought it would be like last time, waiting around for him to show up and tell me how sorry he was, he proves me wrong by coming for me. I turn around to face Everett, and he doesn’t let me go. “Where are you going?”
I shake my head. “I just need some air. I need…”
“I’ll take you home,” he offers, his hand lightly tugging me back toward the house.
“No.” I pull my arm from his grip, and a wounded look of uncertainty casts over his features. “Everett, I need time to think. I just need some distance.”
“Okay,” he answers calmly. “Let me take you home. I don’t think you should drive like this. I don’t think it’s safe.”
“No, Everett.” I pace the sidewalk, trying to find the right words because I don’t even know what they are right now. I don’t know what I want to say to him. I don’t know what I want from him, but everything feels wrong. I shouldn’t have kissed him. I shouldn’t have turned to him in a moment of weakness. He shouldn’t have told me he loved me. He shouldn’t have come back. “This was a mistake.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I shouldn’t have kissed you back there. I shouldn’t have slept with you. I should’ve never told you about me and the—It was all in the past, and I should’ve left it as it was.”
“Teeny, don’t say that. I had a right to know.”
“And you should’ve never left!”
His head hangs between his shoulders, and he lets my words hit him at full force. He doesn’t bother to draw up a shield to help dull the pain of the truth. He doesn’t try to argue with me or even show any sign of contradiction. As if he’s willing to take the brunt of it all at once. “You should’ve called. You should’ve come back for me!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t! You have no idea what I went through. And you think you can just come back after all this time and act like nothing happened. As if a simple apology is enough and I’ll run back to your arms?”
“No, Teeny. I don’t think that.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I told you?—”
“Yeah, you told me you missed me,” I cut him off. “So?”
“What do you mean?”
“You think you can just swoop in with your fancy hotel and win me over?” He stays quiet, letting my words sink in. “Well, you can’t. The damage is done. You broke what we had, and there’s nothing you can do to fix it.”
“Teeny.”
