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I put my face in my hands, covering my eyes to stop the burning. They don’t see it. They don’t understand.
A long moment of silence passes between us. I did what she asked of me, I called him and began to lay the trap. But I can’t keep doing this for five more days alone. That’s why I came back this morning. Part of me thought that if I could get some space maybe it wouldn’t be so hard, but sleeping alone in my cold bed felt so much worse.
Finally, Evie kneels in front of me and pulls my hands away. Her lip is trembling, but no tears are falling. I hate that I’m the one who did this to her, but I don’t know what to do. Facing the man who tortured me for years wasn’t something I expected to be forced to do.
“Sunshine,” her voice is gentle, careful, as if she’s talking to a wounded dog backed into a corner. “This plan isn’t worth losing you. If you really don’t want to face him, then let’s talk about what we can do instead.”
“It’s too late,” I say in frustration. “I already started it because you asked this of me.”
“If I would have known how it would affect you, I wouldn’t have asked. You didn’t stay for it to be a discussion.”
“Because I couldn’t look at you!”
She flinches as if I just slapped her, and my breathing stutters as I try to calm down.
“I couldn’t face you and tell you part of me is still afraid of him. Especially not in front of everyone here.”
Understanding crosses her face as she moves to sit next to me, pressing her leg to mine.
“When I made this plan in my head, I didn’t think about what everyone might feel executing it.”
She’s quiet, her voice just above a whisper. “My only thought was staying a step ahead, especially after the graveyard.”
She lets out a sigh of exasperation, and her wet hair soaks my shoulder as she lays on it.
“The only thing I wanted was to keep you safe. I wanted us all to get our shot at revenge.”
My shoulders lose some of their tension as she explains.
“When I pictured you handing me to your father, conning him the same way he tried to con all of us, it was supposed to be a form of revenge for you. I’m sorry I didn’t think more about it. In the future, I promise to be more careful about planning. Maybe moving forward we can go over the plan with just the four of us first, that way we can all feel comfortable to make changes as needed?”
The fact that I still have to face my father doesn’t allow me to relax fully. But the fact that she’s taking steps to make sure things like this don’t happen again proves she really heard me.
“Thank you,” I say as I lean into her as Lev threads his fingers with mine.
“Can we please make a rule about not leaving when we are upset?” Lev asks.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I’m sorry I did that.”
“I’m sorry I made you so uncomfortable you felt like you had to leave,” Evie says.
“I’m sorry I didn’t show you that you were supported,” Lev adds.
We stay like that for a while, until Evie starts to shiver from being wet and cold. I help her get dressed, then undress her because I need her skin on mine. I need to touch her and make up for the part I played in hurting her.
I pull her close on the bed and we all lay together. My fingers trail down her spine as Lev kisses my shoulder.
“So what’s the rest of the plan?” I ask since I didn’t stay to hear much after I found out the first part.
“I think you’re really going to like phase five.” She turns to look at me and grins. “Are you ready to kill your father, Sunshine?”
“I was fucking born ready.”
My father crawls onto the sand, choking on water from his nice little swim. Evie was sure to put Nessa in the trees near the beach where we expected him to wash up. Her sole job was to make sure no one would survive if they tried to pull him into their boat.
He had to suffer through the swim. I was going to be pissed if a shark found him. But honestly, that would have been some poetic justice in a way.
I approach the piece of shit, kicking him in the ribs and making him topple over. The fucker just laughs as he rolls onto his back, looking up at me with humor written across his face.
