And it killed him Dewi was right that Jacinta’s baby would’ve suffered, and hehatedthat Dewi was right about all of it, and he hated that he had to agree with her, because he never would have thought like that before his life changed.
He would’ve been unequivocally horrified, without any chance of changing his mind or tempering the force of his horror with mitigating factors.
He ran, knowing there was no way to run fast or far enough to escape all of this mental sewage roaring through him, now forever part of his existence.
Where does it end?
The lab was destroyed, all the records taken or destroyed, all the workers except for the head guy were unalived—and his time on earth was increasingly limited.
Is this it?Was that the worst?
He damned sure hoped so, because he wasn’t certain his sanity could tolerate “more.”
After running for at least another hour, he tripped and landed hard in the dirt, in a full sploot.
But he didn’t get up and brush himself off and keep going.
He lay there, face down in the dirt, and sobbed in rage and horror and grief.
His mother had died at the hands of a monster.He hadn’t yet met Callun and Bryn in person, although they’d video chatted nearly every day.The in-person reunion would happen in a few weeks when he went over with Carl, Mateo, Tamsin, and Aisling for a visit.Hopefully Maya would be ready to come home then, too.Carl had flown over once already, days after she was back, and spent several days there while Mateo stayed behind to help with the kids.
Eventually, he rolled onto his back and stared at the dark sky overhead.Enough clouds scudded past that he couldn’t get more than a glimpse or two of the stars.
Yes, Dewi had fucked up.
But Dewi had also done the right thing.
He had to come to grips with that, figure out how to process and live with it, and with the multitude of other horrors now filtering into his life.
He sat up, arms on his knees, and his head bent with eyes closed as he listened to his breath in his lungs.
To the sounds of nighttime around him.
The gentle breeze rocking the pine trees, the various creaks and softpopsof them giving way to it.
Same, trees.Same.
Worse, he didn’t know where he was right now.
I’m an idiot.
The entire property was fenced; they hadn’t yet installed a proper gate between them.He knew if he found the fence, all he had to do was follow it around until he came to the driveway.Unless he hit the driveway first, that was.
With the breeze he couldn’t hope to hear any traffic to home in on.Resigned, he started walking, following the trail he’d been on.There was a larger trail that ringed the property, following the fenceline, and many of the trails branched into that trail, too.
He didn’t know how long it took him, but he finally emerged at the fenceline, with nothing but woods on the other side, meaning he was likely at the northern boundary.On the western side was the two-lane road, and on the eastern side of the property was a one-lane graded clay road that led to other properties nearby.The southern fenceline also bordered woods, but there were more wetlands than on this end, and this felt like the northern end.
If it were daylight, he’d turn right to head east and approach the house from the backside.But he didn’t trust himself not to miss the trail—or not pick the wrong one—so he opted for what he knew would be the longer but certain way around, and that was to turn left and head west.
Another twenty minutes later, he finally reached the north-south road the driveway fed into on the western side of the property and breathed a sigh of relief.He knew he was less than forty-five minutes out at this point.In the past, several times he’d jogged down the driveway and then turned north and ran along the fence until this point before returning.
Finally, after reaching and following the driveway, the house came into sight.Instead of going inside the front door, he rounded it and entered through the lanai door.Next to the pool he stripped his filthy clothes, dropped them onto the pool deck with his shoes, and jumped in the deep end, naked.
He’d never win any swim meets, but at least he felt comfortable and confident in the water now.After completely dunking himself several times and running his hands through his hair, he floated on his back with his eyes closed.He still wasn’t ready to face Dewi yet.
Did he owe her an apology for yelling at her and taking off?Usually, he was the calmer-ish one of them.
But she had violated his trust.
