Half-Truths: New York Times Bestselling Author

by Contreras, Claire

  “Dude,” another one said. “She’s going to know what you look like.”

  “Shut the fuck up. She’s one of us,” he said, his blue eyes familiar, so familiar. Mine widened. Nolan. He looked exactly like Nolan. “Call my brother,” he said. “If we call Logan, he’ll total his car on the way over here.” He leaned closer with the water, but the sight of the clear bottle made me shudder. I shook my head. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to be drugged again. “Hey, it’s just water,” he coaxed. “It’s just water.”

  My mouth opened, my lips breaking as they parted. I could taste the blood in my mouth as the water trickled down, slowly at first, and then faster, pouring down the sides of my cheeks. I licked my lips. Nolan’s lookalike was staring at me like he was afraid to move me.

  “We’re going to help you get out of there, okay?”

  I nodded, emotion clogging my throat. They were helping me. They were lifting me out of the darkness.

  “Spoke to Nolan,” the other guy said. “They’re stitching Logan up and then heading over.”

  “Oh, that’s right, they had a game.”

  “Something you would think you’d know about your brother,” the third guy said.

  Nolan’s lookalike glared over his shoulder before looking back at me. “How the fuck are we going to lift her without breaking any of her bones?”

  “How long has she been missing?”

  “Five days.”

  The two guys looked at each other with a shocked expression on their faces. I closed my eyes. I was so tired. So tired. I coughed, then wheezed, then coughed. My chest sounded like a beat up old car.

  “Get the nebulizer and Albuterol. Now.” Nolan lookalike pointed. He looked at the other guy. “Recruit, make yourself useful and help me lift her. Carefully. If you hurt her, you’re going to have to deal with her boyfriend.”

  I only felt pain. Every touch, every movement, just pain. They lifted me carefully, slowly, and one of them carried me. The Nolan lookalike. I held onto him, grabbing his shirt so there was no way he could toss me into another hole, no way he could leave me out here in the woods. We walked forever. My eyes wanted to shut but I wouldn’t let them. I wasn’t losing sight of where we were going, even if I couldn’t see anything.

  “Hey, fuckface, hold the flashlight right. If we fall into a ditch you’re not getting in,” the guy carrying me shouted.

  I couldn’t tell where they were taking me, but I knew we were close because I could see more lights now. I squinted.

  “Oh my God.” The voice was Nora’s. I knew it was. “Oh my God. Where was she?”

  “One of our plots.”

  “What?” Nora screamed. “She fell in?” He didn’t say anything. Nora didn’t seem to notice. She put her hand on my cheek, on my forehead. “Oh my God. We’ve been going crazy, Mae.”

  “I think she’s in shock,” Nolan lookalike said.

  “She’s been missing for five fucking days. Of course, she’s in shock. Did you call Logan? I’m calling Logan.”

  “He’s on his way.”

  I was still swaying in the guy’s arms. He set me down on something soft, a couch? A bed?

  “I got the albuterol,” the other guy said.

  “Did you bring Atrovent? Get some and mix it,” Nolan lookalike said.

  “Adam, you better know what you’re doing. Logan will kill you for not calling an ambulance,” Nora said. “Fuck. We need to get her to a hospital.”

  Adam, Nolan’s lookalike, put a mask on my face and turned on a machine. I froze. He must have sensed it, because he set a hand on my shoulder to keep me from panicking.

  “Relax. This will help you.”

  Hailey’s words replayed in my head. The water that was drugged and supposed to help me. My entire body started to shake.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  There was something about hospitals that gave away where you were even before you knew you were actually in one. Maybe it was the smell. Maybe it was the beds, thin and uncomfortable. Maybe it was the air of predetermined life and death. Whatever the case, I knew before I opened my eyes fully that I was in a hospital. Someone was holding my hand. I tried to tug it away. I didn’t want anyone touching me. When my eyes opened fully, I saw that it was Logan sitting by my side. He looked disheveled—his hair, his wrinkled t-shirt, his untended beard, and somehow seeing him still brought me some semblance of peace.

  “Oh my God,” he said, his voice hoarse. He looked up at the ceiling. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  Tears formed in my eyes, and then more formed when I realized I had tears left after all. Logan threw his arms around me and I started to sob against his shoulder. His own body shook with mine.

  “Oh my God.” The voice was my mother’s, her shrill making Logan and I pull apart slightly. She ran up to me and threw her arms around me. I cringed.

  “Mrs. Bastón,” Logan said, and I could hear the warning in his tone even though he tried to keep it neutral. “She’s in pain.”

  “I’m sorry.” Mom wiped her face. “The doctors are coming. The nurses.” She looked around wildly. “Where’s your father? Where’s Lincoln?” She looked around again. “Where’s the police officer. There’s a police officer here who has questions.”

  “Mrs. Bastón.” Logan’s voice was no longer neutral. Mom’s eyes widened. “Please. She just woke up.”

  “I’m going to get her father.” She walked back out of the room with the same frenzy as she’d walked in.

  Logan sat on the bed beside me, taking my hand in his again. “I was so worried.”

  I tried to smile a little, but wasn’t sure if I was successful.

  “Do you need anything? Do you want to sit up more? Lay down?”

  I shook my head.

  “Mae.” He sighed heavily. “What happened?”

  My eyes widened. He didn’t know?

  The doors opened again and my mother walked in with my father in tow. The minute I saw him, I started kicking. I was trying to tell him to get out, but the noise coming out of my mouth sounded more like a feral cat in heat, sharp cries, no words. Logan held my hand tighter as he turned around.

  “Can you please leave the room?” he asked in a kind voice. “Leave the room. Get Lincoln.”

  “What happened?” My mom asked, eyes wide.

  Dad moved from behind her, trying to come up to me. I started kicking again, making that sound. Kicking harder, pinching Logan.

  “You need to get the fuck out.” Logan stood.

  “She’s my daughter. Last I checked you were here out of the kindness of my heart. That can change very quickly.” Dad raised an eyebrow. “You’re not family.”

  “Keep talking like that, old man, and I’ll make sure when I put a ring on her finger and change her last name she never sees you again.” Logan paused. “She probably won’t want to anyway.”

  “I’ll get security.” Dad’s eyebrows furrowed as he walked out.

  I shook my head, shook my legs. The nurses walked inside, tending to me quickly.

  “You need to calm down,” one of them said. “She can’t be like this.”

  “What’s happening?” the other asked.

  “She got like this when she saw her father,” Mom said quietly. “They must have had a fight.”

  I shook my head. The door opened again. Lincoln walked into the room using a walker to lean on as he pushed forward. He paused by the door, his eyes meeting mine. He exhaled and kept walking over to me.

  “Jesus, Mae.” He sat on the other side of my bed. “You scared the hell out of us.” I raised my eyebrows. He chuckled. “Yeah, I know. Payback is a bitch, huh?”

  I started crying again, my chest heaving dry sobs.

  “You can have ice chips, but you need to go slow,” the nurse said, bringing over a white foam cup. She handed it to Logan. “And please keep her calm.”

  “You don’t want to see dad?” Lincoln asked. “You finally came around to realizing he’s the devil?”

  I nodded, tears
welling in my eyes. My chest heaved again.

  “Oh my God,” Mom gasped, looking up at the television, which was muted on the news. Lana’s picture was on there. Mom grabbed the control attached to my bed and turned up the volume.

  “Lana Ly’s body has been found after months of searching,” the news reporter said in her best sympathetic voice. “The police chief is expected to hold a press conference on the matter later today. Our thoughts are with the Le family.”

  Lincoln buried his face in his hands. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed, then squeezed again, and again until he looked at me. His eyes were shining. I shook my head, licking my lips.

  “She was alive,” I said. My voice sounded foreign and scratchy, barely audible. “I saw her alive.”

  “That’s impossible, Mae.” The words came from Logan. I looked at him and nodded.

  “Hailey,” I said, but as soon as I said her name, I started sobbing uncontrollably. I looked up at Mom, who’d aged a hundred years in one and was about to age one hundred more and I couldn’t bring myself to say anything other than, “Hailey.”

  “Your friend from the coffee shop?” Mom asked.

  I tried to shake my head, but my entire body shook, the bed creaking with it. Not even Lincoln’s weight on it could hold it steady. She was not my friend. She was not my friend.

  “Baby, calm down.” Logan got closer to me, setting a hand on my shoulder. “Calm down.”

  I stopped shaking the bed and nodded, tears streaming down my face. Through the haze, I could make out the marks on my wrists. I imagined my ankles looked similar. I felt sore all over, but especially on my wrists and ankles. I cried again. I tried to close my eyes to spare them from my sadness, but when I did, it was dark and I couldn’t bear to deal with that either. Hailey hadn’t killed me, but she’d managed to break me, and sometimes being broken felt like a heavier burden than the idea of not being here at all. The nurses walked back into the room, one checking my vitals while the other placed a mask over my face and switched on the nebulizer. I breathed in and out. The door opened and my father walked back inside, this time with a security guard. My eyes widened. He’d said he’d kick Logan out.

  “Get out.” Lincoln stood, his legs shaky as he leaned on his walker.

  “He needs to get out.” Dad pointed at Logan.

  “You’re going to have to make me. I’m not leaving her side.” Logan’s entire body seemed to flex, from his neck to his forearms.

  “Felipe. You need to get out.” That was Lincoln.

  “Felipe?” Dad raised an eyebrow.

  He also looked like shit, like he hadn’t slept in days and days. I thought of Lana on the news and how they said they’d found her body. Her body. Not alive. Tears sprung in my eyes. She didn’t deserve that. Had he killed her? Had Hailey? Had Deacon? Had she done it to herself? Did it matter? She was gone, for good this time. I took the mask off.

  “Get the fuck out of my room.”

  The six of them—mom, dad, Lincoln, Logan, the security guard, and the straggling nurse—whipped their heads in my direction.

  “You killed Lana,” I said.

  “What?” Dad’s eyes widened. He staggered back.

  “You were having an affair with her. I saw her. She was alive before they . . . .” my lip trembled. “Before they put me in that hole.”

  The security guard left the room and walked back inside with a police officer. They must have been standing right outside my door, waiting. I kept talking. I didn’t fucking care anymore. Let them arrest my father. Let him pay for his own sins. I was tired of the rest of us taking the fall for him.

  “She was alive. Hailey kept her in a house. A farm. Deacon’s.” I could barely form words, but I continued saying the flashes of what I remembered from that dreadful night. “Hailey is our sister.” I looked at Lincoln when I said that, new tears spilling out of my eyes. He sat down on the edge of my bed, jaw hanging open.

  “We asked Hailey,” Logan said. “She was helping search for you.” He stopped talking, brows pulled in. He cast a glare at my father just before he lunged at him, fist closed, aiming for his face. “You mother fucker.”

  Logan took dad down easily. The police officer and security scrambled to get him off. There was screaming. The door opened again, more people walked inside—another officer, then another. I couldn’t see what was happening on the floor, but between mom’s screams and cries, the grunting, the clear sound of bones breaking, and the police officers yelling as they tried to pull Logan off of my father, I knew enough. Two officers held Logan up and pinned him against the wall. The third one and the security guard helped dad up. His eyes were wild. Logan’s were wilder.

  “I will end you for this.” Dad wiped blood off his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked like he was struggling to stand upright, his other hand pressing up on his side.

  “Not if I end you first,” Logan said, smiling. He looked terrifying.

  “Tell the officers what you said,” the security guard said, breathing heavily.

  “Lana Ly was having an affair with my father.” My entire arm shook as I raised it to point at him, so that there wouldn’t be any room for confusion. It dropped onto my lap with a light thump. I had no strength. “She was alive. She was there when they buried me in that hole. She . . . she was alive.”

  “Who buried you?”

  “Hailey Valentine.” My lower lip wobbled again.

  Logan pushed the police officers off him and walked to the side of my bed, lifting my hand in his. His knuckles were bloody. I squeezed his hand nevertheless because I needed it. I needed someone to carry this burden with me and I knew if anyone could, it was him.

  “Take your time, baby.” He leaned in and wiped the tears that wouldn’t stop cascading down my face.

  “Hailey Valentine is m . . . m . . . my half-sister.” I took a deep breath. “She tried to kill me because of him.” I glared at my father.

  “Oh, God.” Mom wailed, pressing a hand to her mouth and another to her stomach. “Oh, God. What have you done, Felipe? What have you done?”

  “We’re going to need you to come down to the station with us,” the officer closest to dad said.

  The other two stepped forward, in case he put up a fight. He didn’t. They all walked out of the room. Mom continued to cry. Lincoln stood shakily and went over to her, his walker and her sobs the only sound in the room as he reached her and wrapped an arm around her. I felt like shit. If there was anyone I could have spared it was her. When the doors opened again, I nearly screamed. I wanted everyone to leave me alone. My brothers George and Edward walked in, dressed in suits, looking desperate and confused.

  “Dad got arrested?” George asked.

  “What the fuck is happening?” Ed followed. He got a good look at me and walked over. “Jesus, Mae.”

  “Dad’s daughter tried to kill me,” I said, my voice hoarse.

  The truth liberated me. The more I said it aloud, the lighter I felt. I was coming to terms with my father’s actions. Not to say I’d forgive him, because right now, I couldn’t imagine doing that.

  George looked at mom and Lincoln. “What the hell is she talking about?”

  “Your father had a daughter with Elle Valentine,” Logan said.

  George paused, seemingly just noticing Logan. “What’s your role in all this?”

  “I’m her boyfriend.”

  George’s brows furrowed. He looked just like dad when he did that. My stomach coiled.

  “Jesus,” Ed breathed. “Fuck.”

  My older brothers shared a look. It was something Lincoln and I could do, and they could do, but the four of us really couldn’t do together.

  “Go down to the station and find out what’s happening,” Mom said after a long time.

  She’d stopped crying, though she didn’t look any less disturbed. Ed and George walked up to me, both saying goodbye to me and shooting warning looks to Logan. He didn’t even flinch. The minute they left, Lincoln exhaled loudly.


  “Wow.” He glanced up at me. “She was really alive?”

  I nodded slowly. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I didn’t want to talk about it or recall the way things played out, but for my brother, I would. For his peace, I’d give up my own. Mom and Lincoln left shortly after, promising they’d be back soon. Mom said she needed a shower. Lincoln agreed that she needed a break from things. I felt awful and when she hugged me goodbye, I held her as tight as my weak arms would allow and apologized into her perfectly brushed back hair. She wiped her tears as she left the room and thanked Logan before closing the door behind her.

  “You can take a break too if you want.” I glanced at Logan, who was now sitting in the chair beside my bed.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Do you have a game?”

  “No.”

  I watched him. “You do, don’t you?”

  “I’m not going, so what does it matter?”

  “You can—”

  “Amelia. Stop talking. I’m not moving from this chair unless I need to pee and even then I may just call the nurse and have her bring the pan.” He stared at me. “I’m not leaving your side.”

  “Okay,” I whispered. Who was I to argue with him? I didn’t want him to leave my side anyway.

  “You should probably get some rest.”

  “I can’t.” My voice was a broken whisper. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m back in that coffin.”

  “I’m sorry.” His eyes glazed over as he caressed my hand. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered.” I shook my head. I’d thought about that a lot.

  Hailey had planned this meticulously. I wasn’t sure where she was now, but I was grateful for the police officers guarding my door because at least I knew I was safe in here, with Logan. She would’ve found a way to hurt me anyway though.

  “She could have killed you.”

  I stayed quiet. A part of me felt like she had. Maybe I would feel better once she was caught. Maybe I would feel like I could close my eyes once I knew she was no longer around the corner from me. As I lay there, I thought about all of it—from my first day here to today. She’d probably purposely planted that flyer of the coffee shop right in my apartment door, knowing that I’d take the bait and go seek it out. I thought of her mother and wondered if she was complicit in all of this? Had her jealousy led to her daughter’s obsession? Had she known? I shivered again. I wanted to graduate and get my degree from Ellis, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stick around long enough.