AllFreeNovel
Share Us
WINTER
I walkinto the cemetery and look for my father’s grave. I can already feel the emotions clogging my throat and making it hard to breathe. It feels like all I’ve been doing lately is crying.
After everything that keeps happening to me, I deserve to let it all out. Despite what’s been happening, I’ve been trying to push through, though pushing through has gotten a little bit harder as the days go by.
When I make it to his grave site, I look at the headstone with his name on it. I gently lay the flowers I brought with me onto his headstone and just stare at it for a while. I drop to my knees to the side of his grave, being careful not to be directly on top of it.
“Hi, Daddy. I guess I should start by saying that you have no idea how much I miss you and wish you were here. You have no idea how hard it is to live without you and how much it hurts every time I realize that I’ll never be able to see your face or listen to your jokes—” I break off in a sob as the pain of losing him overwhelms me.
“I’ve made such a mess of things here and I honestly don’t even know if you’d be proud of me anymore. I hate myself when I think about all the things that have happened since you made me move back home. You know I would die to live anywhere else than there. They all hate me. I’ve been hurt more there than anywhere else or at any other point in my life… they broke me,” I sob.
“Mason said I cheated, and that’s why he hates me. You and I both know I still don’t remember anything after being drugged that weekend. Plus, I hurt my friends. I’ve become such a horrible person, Daddy. So yeah, I don’t think you’d be proud to call me your daughter anymore.” I place a hand over my chest and rub at the spot over my heart, willing the pain away but nothing is stopping the chaos circulating through my system.
“I met my brother Hunter. He’s been great so far. I’ve always wanted a brother, you know? I also found some of your secrets. My mother isn’t my mother—”
I hear a snap of twigs behind me and spin around to see who’s there. My mouth falls open at the sight before me. It’s Melanie and Archie.
Two people I never thought I’d see again. I stand up intent on running over to them, but something holds me back. When I look at them closely, they don’t look too good. They’re both skinnier than they used to be when I knew them.
Wait, they both look like drug addicts. Like strung-out addicts, looking for their next fix. I gasp at the sight of them. These are people that I used to know, and it hurts to see them like this. But my fight-or-flight response is activated, and I have no clue why, but something is telling me not to get too close.
“Hey, Winter,” Arch says, giving me a smile that shows all his yellowing teeth. He looks like he’ll fall over at any moment. They both look that way.
“Hey, Arch, hey, Mel. What happened to you guys?” I ask. It’s not polite to ask but I don’t care about being polite right now.
“I’ve been keeping an eye here for months just waiting for you to come back but you took so long,” Archie says as a cough takes over him.
“Are you okay? Should I take you to the hospital or something?” I ask. We’re all still standing a few feet away from each other, no one moving an inch.
“No,” he says.
“Um, why were you looking for me?”
“I um, we have a confession to make—” he says and then cuts himself off. My stomach is doing somersaults. I don’t like the sound of that. It sounds ominous and somehow, I already know whatever it is he’s going to tell me will change my life forever again.
“Um, go ahead then,” I say with a small smile on my face to encourage him to go on.
“That night at the party in the hotel room… we drugged you and it was all planned,” he says, shifting on his feet nervously
“Wha-what do you mean?” I ask, stumbling back a step at his words. The force of his words hit me like a ton of bricks in the chest.
“Your boyfriend’s dad paid us both a million pounds each. He said he’d bring his son to London on the day of the party and all I had to do was make sure I was loud enough to get his attention and he’d follow for sure.”
“Please tell me you didn’t—”
“He followed. All I had to do was drug you and then take you into the room, take your clothes off, and act like I was having sex with you. Mel made sure he found the room and saw what was going on.”
“You assaulted me while I was passed out on drugs?” I croak out as what he’s saying registers in the pit of my stomach.
“I-I didn’t have sex with you. I just made it look like that. The way I had our bodies positioned, well, it looked like we were having sex to anyone watching—” he says and then cuts himself off and gulps at the admission.
“Why would you do that to me? I thought you guys were my friends!”
“We needed the money, and a million is a lot.”
“If you needed money, you could have asked me. I would have given it to you! You didn’t have to hurt me! I treated you guys like my friends, and I never would have betrayed you! You fucked my head up with those drugs!”
“I’m sooo sorry, Winter,” he says with tears streaming down his face.
