Page 17 of Silent Damage

I shouldn’t say that. Gabe loves me. I can tell.

And I love him.

“Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

I want to ask if I can kiss him so badly it hurts.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” is what comes out of my mouth.

Gabe smiles and inches a little closer. “Likewise.”

But that’s not what Linda was doing. She was fucking Doug, and then he kicked Mom and me out so that he could ask her to move in. Apparently, that was Doug’s plan all along. He just needed her to break things off with Gabe’s dad first.

Well, that certainly didn’t go according to plan.

“You know, Gabe tried to make it out that you were helping.” Linda looks at me, confused, so I explain, “All those Thursdays with Doug... I brought them up one night, and he said that maybe you knew things were bad at home and were trying to help.”

Linda turns white.

“But he was lying. He told me later he knew, but you asked him not to tell me.”

Her face cracks. The brown eyes that match Gabe’s become glassy and guilt-ridden. “We didn’t do anything right.”

“What’s done is done.” There’s a heavy silence between us before I add, “Gabe betrayed me because you asked him to. It’s up to you to fix him. If your murdering-ass fucked up your kid, then that’s on you.”

Her mouth falls open.

“I’d like some space so I can unpack.”

The air in the trailer thickens, forming a wall between us.

Linda tries to speak, but nothing comes out. She rushes out of the trailer, her hands trembling.

Coming back here was a terrible idea.

Chapter 6

Gabe

Itook a walk.

Cooled down.

Then Mom begged me to come to the dinner she planned for Jason.

Fuck my life.

So, I walked across the gravel road from my trailer to Doug’s. The table on the porch was set for a lovely al fresco dining experience for a group of people who hate each other, and there was only one seat available for me.

And it was right next to him.

I’m hot. No, not hot. Burning.

Our legs almost touch beneath the table that sits on Doug’s porch. It’s humid as hell, and being this close to Jason only makes the heat worse.

He stares at his plate—won’t even look at me.