Fishing for a Dean.
If we catch and expose him...
Will you finally show us your face?
We just want the truth.
Axel watches me hit send.
Axel studies me for a long second. “Your own father. You’re really willing to throw him to the wolves? For Jude? For every other name on that list?”
I swallow hard.
Seven years ago, that question would have broken me.
Seven years ago, I would have made excuses.
He was scared.
He was trying to protect us.
He had no choice.
I know better now.
“I’m not throwing him to the wolves,” I say quietly. “I’m making him stand in front of the truth.”
The room goes still.
“My whole life I’ve let everyone else decide who I should protect. My dad. My mom. Jude’s family. Everyone had a reasonfor lying to me, for hiding things, for deciding what I could handle.”
I shake my head.
“I’m done carrying secrets that were never mine to keep.”
Axel studies my face. “Even if it destroys what little family you have left?”
A sad laugh slips out. “I lost my family a long time ago. I just didn’t know it yet.”
Jude reaches for my hand. I lace my fingers through his without looking away from Axel. “My father made his choices. So did yours. So did everyone on that list. They don’t get to keep sacrificing people because they’re afraid of consequences.”
Charlie smiles from the corner of the room. “So,” she says lightly, “we burn the whole thing down?” How typical of her. All or nothing. Kill or save.
I squeeze Jude’s hand. It’s warm, strong, unyielding. “No.” I glance up at him. “We tell the truth. Finally.”
His eyes soften in a way I’ve never seen before. The anger is still there, the grief too, but for the first time it isn’t aimed at me or my past sins.
He steps closer. “You know,” he says, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, “we really suck at this.”
I laugh through the tears threatening to fall. “At what?”
His forehead touches mine. “Being on the same side.” He presses a kiss there. “We should have been here from the beginning.”
“No secrets,” I whisper.
His fingers tighten around mine. “No more lies.”
I rise onto my toes and kiss him on the mouth. It’s nothing like the desperate kisses we’ve shared before. There’s no revenge in it. No guilt. No trying to make up for seven stolen years.
