AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Or go on father-daughter bonding trips. Just the two of us. You’d be okay with that, right? You have no reason to believe he wouldn’t—”
“Enough,” Jayla says. “We get your point.”
“And I get yours,” Madison says. “No one wants a rapist for a dad.Only he’s not my dad. He’s just the biological contributor of half my DNA, and I might have hoped for someone more like Kit—smarter, nicer, cooler—but the guy I thought was my father is no prize either. I’ll deal with it. But I want to know. That guy is going to expect something from me now, some acknowledgment that he’s my father, and I need to know what kind of person he is.”
Madison lifts her hands. “And before anyone says we’ll talk about it later, this isn’t the time, yadda-yadda, are we running after him? Going out there? Doing anything except waiting here and looking out for each other? No? Then you can tell me what happened. I want to know. In case he comes back, in case he tries to pull me off on my own and tell me his story, Ineedto know.”
Kit looks at me, and that look tells me she’s right.
“Let me put dinner in the oven to stay warm,” he says.
TWENTY-SIX
We go into the great room. Outside, dark clouds hover a looming threat over the lake, and I almost laugh at that.
You think we’re afraid of a storm? Right now, that’s the least of our concerns.
Talking about my past is even less of a concern, but I’m doing this for Madison. While she might say she needs the information, that’s only to guilt me into talking. We’re trapped here, and she’s just heard something that rips her world apart and jams it back together in a shape she can barely comprehend. She wants details because that is something she can focus on and, for a few minutes, pretend there is something more critical than being on an island with the undead.
I settle onto the sofa, and Madison takes the other end, turning to face me, her feet up and pressed against my crossed legs. Kit is in the kitchen, where I can see him puttering, giving us a chance to settle in. Jayla is in the recliner with her bare feet on the coffee table.
“I was fifteen,” I say. “Sadie and Jayla and I had just started high school. We were best friends.” I glance at Jayla, who’s waggling her hand. “Fine. Sadie and Jayla weremybest friends. I’d met Sadie in second grade. Then I met Jayla when we went to middle school. It was a slightly awkward three-way friendship, but mostly it worked. Anyway, it was a Saturday night. Jayla and I had been at Sadie’s placethat afternoon. Jayla had to leave right before dinner. I stayed, watching movies with Sadie. I lost track of time, and it was dark as I was leaving, and Garrett was just heading out. He offered me a lift.”
“Was that normal?”
I scrunch my nose. “Notabnormal. He’d given me a lift before, when I was younger, right after he got his license. I didn’t know Garrett well. It wasn’t like with Kit, eighteen months younger than Jayla. Kit hung out with us, and it never felt weird. With Garrett, it would have been weird. He was four years older. Sadie adored him, and he was a good brother, so to me…” I shrug. “I just thought of him as Sadie’s older brother. He didn’t ignore me, but didn’t pay much attention to me either.”
“And you?” Madison asks Jayla.
“Same. He pretty much ignored me, but I got the sense that was more about…” She waves a hand around her face. “I didn’t like going over to Sadie’s. Her parents were…”
“Racists?” Madison says.
“The garden-variety sort. When your parents are rich and Black, people can be weird. Like, how did youreallyget that money? Black folks running a tech company? Who believes that?” Jayla rolls her eyes. “The Emersons didn’t know what to make of me, so I limited my visits. Let’s just say that I didn’tactuallyhave to leave before dinner that night.”
“What?” I twist to look at her. “You never told me you were uncomfortable there. In fact, I remember getting the sense you were, but you insisted their air fresheners gave you a headache.”
Jayla shrugs. “If I told you the truth, you’d have done something about it.”
“Which would have made things harder for you.”
“Nah, but you’d have made sure I never had to go to Sadie’s house again, and at some point she’d have figured it out and demanded answers and…” Another shrug. “Drama.” She turns to Madison. “The point is that Laney didn’t know Garrett well, and neither did I,but she had no reason to think there’d be anything suspicious about him offering her a ride.”
“I didn’t think that,” Madison says. “If there was, she wouldn’t have gotten in.”
“Oh, don’t give me too much credit,” I say. “I wasn’t quite as mature as you at that age. I didwaymore stupid things. Like agreeing to go to a college party when Garrett invited me.” I pull a pillow onto my lap. “Gran and Gramps were out at a party of their own, and your mom was married and gone by then, so if I was a little late getting home, no one would know. Here was a college guy who thought I was mature enough to go to a college party. He wasn’t creepy about it or anything, and that made me feel like maybe I was pulling off this grown-up thing more than I thought.”
“No one’s blaming you for going to the party,” Jayla says. “I’d have gone.”
I meet her gaze, and she knows I’m quietly asking her not to defend me. Let Madison draw her own conclusions. Jayla and I have been through this countless times. Was I wrong to accept a ride? Wrong to go to the party? Wrong to drink at the party?
Jayla would defend my choices to her dying breath, as would Anna and my parents. I would do the same for Jayla, if she were in my shoes. But being in those shoes myself, I can see every angle where my choices could be attacked.
Why did you get in the car?
Why did you go to the party?
Why did you drink?
