Sean didn’t answer, and Cole picked up the phone. He waited a moment while Blaire spoke.
“I don’t think he’s coming back right now, Mom.”
Pause.
“No, I know.”
Pause.
“I understand.”
Pause.
“I will.”
Pause.
Cole glanced at him. “She says she loves you.”
Sean did nothing but grip the steering wheel tighter.
“She’s begging you to come back.”
“If I come back will she give me the truth?”
A longer pause.
“She says the truth isn’t hers to give.”
In the silence of the car, Sean just made out Blaire’s voice through the phone: “This is for his protection!”
He didn’t care. He deserved the truth, whatever it was. Even if it was hard. Even if it was dark.
Sean took the phone from Cole’s hand and hung up on Blaire.
She called back at once.
A sliver of guilt wedged its way in. Blaire had her faults, but she’dalways loved him. Her overprotectiveness was annoying, yes, but it stemmed from a good place.
But how much longer could he live under a shroud of mystery? Locked in a role with no future, where the average age of the citizens approached sixty. Working for minimum wage at the town’s tiny gym because college was just a fantasy. Captivated by dreams that made little sense.
The growing itch had become impossible to ignore. Something else was out there. Something that called to him from the cracks between all the secrets. Blaire knew what it was—shehadto know—and she wouldn’t fucking tell him. He could understand keeping information from him to protect him when was young, but he was a grown adult now.
“I deserve the truth,” Sean said. “Wedeserve the truth.”
Cole nodded. “We do.” He paused to stare at his hands in his lap. “But what secret would require them to keep you hidden?”
“She’ll have to tell me eventually,” he said. “Maybe this will force it.”
“Mom isn’t really one to cave under pressure.”
Sean shrugged. “I have to try.”
CHAPTER 2
DAVID
Hands were strange things, David thought as he stared at his own, flat against the black granite countertop in his father’s kitchen. Thin. Long-fingered. A few scars.
