Page 166 of The Exit Strategy

Just one.

“Do you remember the night three weeks after Nolan’s college graduation party? Do you remember coming in at three a.m. with your jaw clenched and your eyes red, and you wouldn’t tell us where you’d been? The night that we pulled an all-nighter because we were terrified that you’d do something we couldn’t rescue you from?”

“Yes.” It’s the nightmare that’s plagued me ever since.

“You’d been erratic for a full week before that night, then you came home with your hands bloodied and swollen, and you wouldn’t tell us what happened. But that night, the night we all stood watch over you because you were breaking and we didn’t know why, that’s the night Natalie did it, wasn’t it? The blackmail. This whole fucking mess started that night, and you chose.You.Chose. Not to tell us.”

“Yes.”

It’s also the night I beat Junie’s dad in a back alley.

He climbs another step. “Did you know that the three of us didn’t sleep for days after that? Each one of us taking turns talking the others off the ledge of what’s happened to our brother. We watched you lose yourself. We felt you pull away. We did everything to cling to you, to tie you to us, so we didn’t lose you forever. We were there. We’ve always been there, this entire time, and you never once said a word. You absorbed the cost of their shitty decisions when it was always a price we could’ve afforded if we’d paid it together. Don’t you get that, you giant fucking asshole?”

Where Hudson is calm and composed, Fen is full of emotion and fiery to a fault.

Two explanations for the same hurt that I caused.

He takes another step, then flops down dramatically next to me as though he’s already expended all his energy. “You let us love you wrong for years, Cole. We were loving you wrong because you didn’t trust us to love you whole.”

Fenway wraps his arm around my shoulder and hangs on tight. Hudson sits on my other side.

“We’re here now,” Fen says. “And this time, we’re going to erase all those years of fuckups.”

I’m not sure where Fen’s going, so I stay silent. He could be planning a literal attack or ordering takeout…it’s just that hard to tell with him sometimes.

“What’s the plan?” Hudson asks.

“Protect Junie with everything I have and hope that someday she might be able to forgive me.”

“This is…a different kind of love, Cole.” Hudson’s controlled in a different way now—quieter, maybe. “You and her. If you don’t fight for it now, you’ll lose it forever.”

“I’ll never stop fighting for her. I never have.”

“Good,” Fen says. “Because the fight is just beginning. Now that she knows the truly fucking terrible thing you’ve been trying to shield her from, the emotional wreckage will take time. Hud, I’m assuming you’ve got the legal side of this covered?”

Hudson nods. “I don’t trust Tommy Mercer as far as I can throw him, but so far, it appears that he finally did right by her because her name isn’t appearing on any of the defaulted loans. But I doubt any of that happened…legally.”

“That’s what I’ve always feared most,” I admit.

“I’m working on it,” Hudson promises.

“And now that I have all the pieces, I’m going to do my actual job. Unlock your phone, Cole.”

I do, then hand it over to him.

Hudson and I lean in as Fen opens Instagram and types in Natalie’s name.

It’s a sucker punch I wasn’t ready for.

“Fucking hell,” Hudson growls. “I threatened her withthe illegal shit. I didn’t think I’d have to threaten this too. She’s lost her damn mind.”

Natalie’s taking a page out of Grace’s fucked-up handbook.

She’s posted a picture of herself—her face arranged in studied devastation.

“What the hell is wrong with our generation?” Hudson growls. “This is why I don’t do social media.”

Fen flicks to the next slide, and her fictional tale unfolds.