Ethan pushed open the door and rested a neatly folded stack of clothes and a towel over the bathroom counter before he looked up at me. “You have five minutes. There’s one last stop before we head to the airport.”
“The airport?” I asked, taking the towel to dry off. Where were we going? This news was bitter but sweet. It meant flying possibly farther than wherever Ollie was, but also farther from a place without lies and deception.
“I have a plan. There’s a boat waiting for us back in the states,” he explained, eyes following my every move.
I slipped on my panties. “A boat?”
“Yeah, now come on. We haven’t got much time.”
After getting dressed and towel drying my hair, I helped Ethan pack the car and waited in the passenger seat as he went back inside the apartment to finish up some last-minute things. The sun was out, penetrating through the car window and caressing over my sensitive skin. If I wanted to run, now would be the time. Ethan fully trusted me, leaving me abandoned with opportunity. But I had nowhere to go, and no one to go home to. Ollie was doing just fine without me, living out his dream as a poet, meeting people, taking pictures, and signing books. Bruce, my fake father, had Diane, my stepmother, and I was nothing but a burden in their life. A complication. Lynch never bothered to tell me. It made sense now, why Bruce sent me overseas into the hands of my real dad, thinking I was Lynch’s problem to deal with and not his problem anymore.
Though I’d caught Ethan murdering the boy back at Dolor, I was a murderer too.
Maybe he had a good reason—a reason I was determined to learn more about.
Ethan was my safest bet for now until I could figure all this out.
He got into the car, not the least bit surprised I was still sitting here, waiting for him, and cranked the heat. “Are you cold?” he asked, leaning behind the backseat. “Here.”
My hoodie dropped into my lap—my POETIC hoodie. “Where are we going?” I asked, slipping it over my head.
“There’s someone I want you to meet.”
The ride to Wirral was about forty-minutes. Ethan had spilled all his truths, starting with Livy being his sister and ending with the answer to my last question:what day was it?
“April seventeenth. Release day was two weeks ago.”
Two weeks. I’d officially missed my court date and couldn’t go back home now even if I wanted to.
Two weeks. It seemed like decades ago when I’d made love to Ollie, feeling his touch, hearing his voice, smelling his scent.
Two weeks since anyone had lied to me, too.Had I crossed Ollie’s mind since? Was he thinking about me? Did he worry something terrible happened to me?I forced out those thoughts. Of course, he wasn’t thinking about me. Oliver Masters was too busy enjoying his new life. One he never mentioned before because he never planned to share it.
Ethan lied to me too, but for a good reason. He’d told me what happened to his sister, Livy. The four guys at Dolor had murdered her, and he was carrying out justice in her name, taking matters into his own hands. On some sadistic level, I understood Ethan.
“Do you remember when you and I sat under that tree, and we swore we’d always be there for one another even though I was leaving the country? A pinky promise?” Ethan turned to face me, a small smile lighting up his face at the memory. I nodded, pulling the sleeves over my hands for warmth. “These are the circumstances we’re in, Jett, whether you like them or not. I never planned to take you with me, but we’re going to make the most of it. I can make you happy. I know it. You just have to meet me halfway. You’re my family, remember?”
I looked out the window. It was foggy, the heat from inside the car competing against the cold rain pressing from the outside. “Just don’t lie to me. I can’t take any more lies.”
Ethan pulled into a parking lot, passing a brown curved sign, reading, “Birch Tree Manor.” The large brick building reminded me of a school back in the states, yellow brick on the top, orange on the bottom, with white windows. The car came to a stop, and Ethan turned to face me. “From this point on, no more lies. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, and it’s going to be a lot to take in, but all you have to do is ask,” he held out his pinky, “I swear, Jett. And you swear to meet me halfway.”
Our pinky’s linked, but I didn’t like it. Not like I did before.
Side by side, we walked through the doors of Birch Tree Manor, unsure of what was waiting for us. The inside smelled like a daycare dipped in mothballs, and the lady working the front desk greeted the two of us with a skeptical smile, her brown hair neatly parted down the middle and flattened behind her shoulders. “I wondered if I’d ever see you in here again,” she said to Ethan, eyes moving from him to me, deciding whether I was a threat or not. “And who is this?”
“This is my girlfriend, Rebecca,” Ethan introduced me, throwing an arm around my shoulder and looking down at me with a proud smile, “How has my mum been?”
The girl frowned, pushing a clipboard forward. “Oh, you know …” She waved her hand in front of her, trying to mask the disappointment over her face. It had been a long time since I was around strangers, and luckily, I hadn’t lost my ability to read body language entirely. “Not much has changed since you were last here. But, I suppose a lot has changed foryouthis past year.”
I idled in my spot, looking over the colorful interior as the two continued with small talk, then Ethan grabbed my hand as the receptionist lead us down a hall. “Your mum has taken a liking to the media room lately,” she continued to say, and each hall we passed through had different colored walls, doors, and themes. Finally, we entered a room with yellow sunflower wallpaper, matching yellow curtains, and a collection of elderly people. A large window brightened the entire room, where the sun shone after the rain, casting rays over the souls who were on the brink of death.
“Ah, there she is,” the receptionist gestured over to a red-headed lady sitting with a group, playing a game of checkers, “she’ll be so happy to see you.”
Ethan’s hand squeezed mine. “Really?”
“Well, we’ve had some good days this past year. She’s asked about you a time or two. Let’s see if we caught her on a good day.”
It dawned on me the redhead was Ethan’s mom, which he hasn’t seen in over a year, and the entire situation seemed too personal for me to be involved with. I was intruding and shouldn’t be here. Ethan’s palm sweat in mine as he walked toward her, and I turned to stop him. “I can wait in the car. You need this time alone with her.”
