26
Haven
I'm notsure I've ever felt so many emotions at one time. Anger is the one topping them all, though. I have been angry with Dad all of these years, disgusted at the person he became, but never could I have imagined he would do this to an innocent person. Without a care in the world, he ripped Raine's life away, leaving him with nothing. I wonder how much Mom knows. Could she possibly go along with Dad stealing from an innocent man? Actually, a kid, he wasn't even a man then.
While we walk down the street side by side, whispers grow louder as people take note of who I'm walking with. They are staring at us, shaking their heads with shame, or maybe worry. I want to scream at them, tell each one what kind of monster is running this town. How could no one know? Dad has slowly kicked every lower-middle-class person out of this town over the past decade, raising the taxes to an unaffordable rate. Water, sewer, electric, phone, cable, internet—everything is priced three times as high as any surrounding town. All Dad ever wanted was to live in a high-class, upstanding-citizen type of town. He's got it. Ironically, he is the only one who is not an upstanding citizen. He’s a liar and a thief. Everyone else here walks around with their noses pointed to the sky. There is not a speck of trash to be seen. There are no homeless people. There are no shelters for the abused or poor. We are a model town that every rich-want-to-be in the surrounding area strives to be a part of. Here I am in the midst of it all…I've had the wool pulled over my eyes. I've conformed, and I've shut my beliefs off just to survive here without stepping out of turn and embarrassing my family.
I should have left like I planned to do. I should have disowned my family like they deserve. I should have tried to force Dad to right his wrongs. Instead, I let him talk down to me, point a finger, and tell me he's in charge. His rules are the only rules that matter.
Well, not anymore.
I take Raine's arm, veering off the sidewalk toward the small pond in the park. We need to be alone. The looks from everyone around us are causing a pit to form in my stomach, and I know it's only a matter of time before Dad hears who I've been seen with. He probably already knows. I'm convinced Bennett ran to him, and God knows Dad will take Bennett's side over mine. "So, what's this great plan of yours?" Raine asks me as we sit down on the bench overlooking the water.
"I need some time to plan it out," I tell him. Right now, my only plan is to rip Dad's office into pieces until I find proof.
"You're probably not going to find much, you know," Raine says, resting his arm on the rim of the bench and behind my shoulders.
"I have to try, though," I tell him. I realize Dad is good at covering his tracks, but I also know he doesn't throw away a bill or a cashed check. "He files everything and keeps records of each dime spent. There has to be something in his office."
"Don't get caught," he says. "It's not worth it."
Angered, I whip my head toward him, wondering how he could even think he isn't worth it. "I don't know much about epilepsy, Raine, but what is the outcome when you're not medicated?" I realize there is a harshness to my question, but if he isn't going to care about his own health, I will. His health is only the top layer of this issue, but it's more concerning than anything else.
"I will continue to have seizures," he says as if it's no big deal.
"Will they kill you?"
"Probably not," he says.
"And if we get you medication?"
"Most of the episodes will go away," he says.
"Then, this is a priority."
I have refused to become like Dad—be a product of what he has produced, but I know well that desperation can make for an ugly situation and cause people to do things they wouldn’t do otherwise. Raine places his hand down on my knee and grips gently. "You don't need to worry about me, but I appreciate the thought."
"I know I don't need to worry, but I still care about you. A lot." I reach over and touch my thumb to the scabbed cut on his lip. "It hurt watching you go through that last night. I can't get the images out of my head, and knowing there's a way to avoid it, I will do whatever it takes to help you, no matter how you feel about me."
Raine takes my thumb from his lip and places my hand on his chest. "Knowing you care is enough for me." His heart is pounding against his chest, and I can feel each beat thump against my hand. "Maybe it's not the best way to think, but I've come to the point where I've given up hope on winning this battle, Haven. I used to be a fighter, but I don't have it in me anymore." He pulls my hand down to his lap, and his focus follows as we both watch his thumb draws circles over the cluster of freckles on my knuckles. "You know, I fought against my parents for so long, needing to show the ghost of their existences that they can't ruin my life the way they destroyed theirs. I was supposed to win, be the person who survived the odds and overcame hurdles no one expected me to overcome, but I've come to realize…I am who I was born to be, and it doesn't matter if I had a say in it or not."
"But, you have so much good inside of you, and that's all I've ever seen. Everyone around you can think what they want, but you and I both know the truth, and that should be all that matters."
Raine pulls his hand away from mine and sweeps the tips of his fingers against my cheek, the warmth of his skin melting the chill I feel on my face. His touch makes my heart ache and my stomach twist into knots. I had often thought about our connection—the one he mentioned back before everything went south. I haven't been able to push that thought out of my mind–because it's true. "I missed you more than I was angry at you," he says. "There was a constant ache in my chest from the thought of never seeing you again. I didn't have much else to think about while I was locked up, so thoughts of you were on replay day after day, night after night. I never got sick of the memories or reliving them in the darkness of my mind." With caution in his eyes, he slowly—cautiously—leans forward and lightly touches his lips to my mine. My breaths drain from my lungs, and my pulse quickens throughout every inch of my body.
His lips are overwhelming and can devour mine with little force. I feel his abrasion from last night scratch against my lip, and the feeling of pain I had felt mixed with the sense of need I have right now is creating a tornado of emotions within my gut. I just have to be with him because...I can't be without him. I clutch at his tight, black t-shirt, pressing my knuckles into his hard chest, needing something to grab and hold onto as I become lightheaded from a lack of air.
His grip tightens against my face, holding me in place like I'm an anchor to something good. Yet, we both know that I'm the anchor to all terrible things in his life, and it's hard to understand why he still wants to be this close to me.
The tip of his tongue sweeps across my bottom lip, igniting every nerve ending in my body. When air is no longer an option, he parts his lips from mine, catching his breath less than an inch away. A smile perks at his lips. It’s a smile I only saw the few other times he’s kissed me in my life. "The—the feeling I get when I'm with you has never changed." He brushes his knuckles down the side of my face. "I'd go to prison for another seven years for that kind of kiss."
"I can make that happen," a familiar voice booms from behind us. Bennett, in all his glory, is standing less than ten feet away, holding up his phone as if he were taking a picture. "Daddy will love to see this–huh, Haven? Good thing I got it all on video for him."
Ignoring the lightheaded sensation running through me, I stand up and rush toward Bennett— consumed by fury. I've acted like a goddamn lady for so long now; he has no clue what I'm capable of.
The second his last word oozes from his chapped lips to the moment I sucker punch him, forcing him to drop his phone, has to be less than ten seconds. As he's recoiling from the blow of my fist, which was packed with way more adrenaline than I thought possible, I grab the phone from the grass and race toward the pond with it. "What the hell are you doing?" Bennett yells.
I hear his footsteps plunging into the dew-covered grass, the sound growing closer by the second, but as I'm less than a few feet away from the water's edge, I toss his phone as far as I can, watching it land directly in the center of the pond. "Step away from her now," Raine says calmly.
