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“Senna?”
“Jaden!”
The next second, the door blasts open, and Jaden’s eyes land on us. It takes him only a moment to understand, and darkness rolls over his face.
Fury. Anger.
He leaps forward, his fast jab crashing into the other man’s face, sending him over the table. He grabs him again and holds him up while putting his fist into his flesh again.
He lets him drop to the floor.
“Let him go,” I beg, panting, as I edge closer to them.
He straightens. His eyes flaring, his face burning, his fist bleeding.
“Who the fuck is this?” he motions to the semi-conscious body.
“That’s him. Evelyne’s husband.”
* * *
He slamsthe car door and shoves the key into the ignition, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“You could’ve fucking told me, Senna. For fuck’s sake, he was there a year ago at Isabel’s engagement party.”
His eyes blaze, dark.
“I couldn’t tell you. And it wouldn’t have made a fucking difference.”
“He’s part of your fucking family, and he could do that to anyone,” he says, exasperated.
“I already told them, and nobody believed me. When I told Mom, she said I was nuts, and when I went to Evelyne, she looked at me as if I was crazy. Up to this day, she still hates me for saying that. She said I had made things up because I was jealous of her. They both made up their minds and turned a deaf ear to me. They didn’t care about what I had to say. It was always his word against mine. I was an eighteen-year-old virgin, and he was an adult. Married to my older sister.”
“We’re not going back then.”
“We can’t leave, and I don’t want to ruin it for Isabel. It’s her wedding. And if we leave now, they’ll know something happened. If I tell them the truth, I’ll have to go through the same bullshit with them, and I’ll accomplish nothing.”
“Okay, then. We’ll stay at a hotel.”
“We can stay at the chalet. All my clothes are in the trunk.”
Without a word, he spins the car around.
We arrive at the cabin around noon. We buy food on our way over. The air is crisp, and the forest is white and buried beneath the snow, like then.
Sunlight filters through the trees.
Memories pour down on me as we walk into the house.
The caretaker hasn’t removed the few things we left behind. A cigarette pack, Jaden’s drawing pad, and a few books he bought at a vintage books store last year.
With the good comes the bad, and the memory of our last night together in this cabin flashes in front of my eyes, vivid as if it happened yesterday.
It makes something collapse inside me.
“I’ll make coffee,” I say, sneaking into the kitchen, evading his eyes.
I put the food in the refrigerator and lean against the counter, waiting for the coffee machine.
