Morgan slightly adjusted his position, then started to drift off again.
Clatter!
His eyes flew open, and he turned toward the sound. “Lila?”
She knelt on the floor, picking something up. “Sorry. I was trying to be quiet. Looks like I blew that. I knocked my purse over and everything spilled out.”
Morgan rubbed his eyes. “It’s fine. What are you doing here, hon? Why aren’t you home, sleeping?”
Lila put her purse on the chair, then leaned against the bed and took his hand. “I couldn’t sleep with you here.”
“You’re that worried about me?”
She ran her hand over his hair and stared into his eyes. “In a word, yes.”
“Maybe I should’ve gotten shot years ago.” He chuckled softly.
Tears shone in her eyes. “I’m sorry for everything. I’ve been so focused on myself that I couldn’t see what you were going through.”
He squeezed her hand. “It’s not your fault. I was hiding a secret from you all this time.”
“I should’ve known something was wrong. If I had, then I could’ve tried to find out what was bothering you. We could’ve worked through all this so long ago.”
Morgan traced her jawline and kept his gaze on her eyes. “One thing we don’t have room for is regret. There’s too much at stake right now.”
She nodded, and a tear trailed down her cheek. “Are we going to make it through this? Together, I mean?”
“I don’t see any other way.” He traced her lip with his thumb. “Things have been tough for a while, but I can’t get through this without you. I need you, Lila.”
She blinked, and more tears ran down her face. “Can I ask you something?”
“Always.” He wiped away a tear.
Lila took a deep breath. “Has there been anyone else?”
The question jarred him so much that he stiffened. “What?”
“Since we’ve been together, has there ever been anyone else?”
He stared into her eyes, not looking away for even a moment. “Never. You’ve always been the only one. I just didn’t know it until I met you. If I’d known you when I met Ja—” He cleared his throat, remembering she didn’t want to know her name. “—My ex, then I’d have picked you. Hands down. No question. You’re the only one for me.”
Lila rested her head on his chest and sobbed.
Morgan’s heart felt like it was going to shatter. He rubbed her back. “I’m so sorry for everything, Lila. If I could go back in time, I’d tell you everything from the get-go. I wish I could.”
She didn’t respond.
He swallowed. “I meant everything I said about you being the only one. If I’m being honest with myself, I was being a coward by not telling you. I think part of me feared you’d reject me if you knew. I couldn’t risk losing you, so I kept it to myself.”
Lila looked up at him. “I thought you didn’t say anything because it was too painful.”
“That was part of it. I did promise myself I’d never speak of it again, but once we got serious, I should’ve told you. That would’ve been the right thing to do.”
She ran her fingertips along the stubble on his cheek. “I wouldn’t have walked away from you. Our pasts are what make us who we are, and you’ve always been one of the most kind-hearted people I’ve ever met. Now I know why. You’ve experienced a pain that is worse than any other. Not only that, but you went into a profession that made you face that wound every day.”
A lump formed in Morgan’s throat. Tears stung his eyes. This was a conversation they should’ve had two decades earlier.
He scooted over, giving her room to climb on the bed. She did, and snuggled against him, fitting like a glove.
Morgan cleared his throat. “Is this why you called me earlier? Have you been thinking about it all night?”
She sniffled and nodded. “I couldn’t sleep, so I went through some old photo albums. Now I see everything so differently.”
“How so?”
“Looking at you holding our babies, I can see conflict and pain in your eyes whereas before all I saw was a nervous new dad. You were scared of what would happen, but you kept a brave face.”
“For you. I never wanted you to experience what I went through.”
“And for you. I know you didn’t want to go through that kind of a loss again.”
“I never do.” He took a slow and steady breath, trying to keep his voice even. “I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to Atlas.”
“He’s a smart kid. Wherever he is, he’ll find a way home.”
Morgan didn’t respond. He didn’t doubt their son’s intelligence, or even his ability to fight for himself, but he knew the statistics. The chances of Atlas coming back home after forty-eight hours were poor, and it had been a full three days now. He didn’t want to think about that, much less point it out to Lila.
“What does Brielle think about all this?” Morgan asked. “She’s their best friend, and has always been sharp as a tack.” Except for the fact that she thought Morgan could’ve had something to do with the boys’ disappearance. “It seems like if anyone would know anything, it’d be her.”
“She’s as confused and worried about them as we are. And she wants to find them so badly. She headed up that vigil and now she’s printed out a bunch of Missing posters.”
They lay there in silence for a while. Morgan’s mind raced from one thing to the next, constantly coming back to Atlas. Could he survive losing another son? Would focusing on Lila and the girls be enough to get him out of bed each morning?
Or would he be so stuck in his grief that he would be rendered useless?
His eyelids grew heavy, and he was ready to give into sleep. He kissed Lila’s cheek and closed his eyes.
She snuggled closer. “I had an interesting conversation with Violet this evening.”
“Uh-oh.” If any of their kids were going to find trouble, it was usually her. With all their attention on Atlas’s disappearance, who was to guess what she might do to get their focus on her?
“Turns out she and Emmett have been seeing each other behind everyone’s backs.”
Morgan turned to Lila. “What?”
“She didn’t say anything because Layne has been pretending Emmett never broke up with her. She confronted her over at the Powells’ tonight.”
He groaned. “Are teenage girls ever without drama?”
“Scarlet’s pretty good about staying out of it.”
“Until Violet drags her into something.” He sighed. “How long have Emmett and Violet been seeing each other?”
“Long enough for her to say they’re in love.”
“What?” Morgan’s stomach twisted in knots. “Love? There’s no way they’re in love!”
Lila squeezed his hand. “At least it’s Emmett. We know he’s a good kid from a good family. And it makes sense if you think about it. They’ve known each other for nearly their entire lives. They’ve always been friends and gotten along. It’s the best foundation for a relationship.”
“Please don’t call it a relationship.” Morgan closed his eyes. Neither of their girls had ever had a serious relationship—at least as far as he knew—and he didn’t want to think about it now. “And Emmett’s never sleeping over at our house again.”
Morgan racked his mind, trying to recall the last time Emmett had spent the night. If he’d gone into Violet’s room…
One of the machines started beeping louder and faster.
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this now,” Lila said.
“How dare they not tell us?”
“Why don’t we worry about this once Emmett’s safe? He’s like a son to us, so let’s trust him for now. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt Violet. He’s not like that.”
Morgan took a few deep breaths and counted to fifty. The machine returned to normal. “Why do our kids insist on taboo relationships?”
Lila turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“Morgan?”
“I don’t want you to freak out, but—”
“How can I do anything other than freak out when you say that?”
He squeezed her hand. “I could be wrong, but I have reason to think Atlas might be seeing one of his teachers.”
“What?” Lila gasped. “Why haven’t you told me?”
“There hasn’t been time with everything going on.”
“Which teacher?”
“Ms. Johnston. She’s young and looks like the kind of teacher all the boys fantasize about.”
She groaned. “That’s more information than I needed.”
“Sorry.”
“What makes you think they’re together? Was it something she said?”
“No, it was what I saw.” He filled her in on the pens and the necklace. “Unless you can think of another reason she’d have two of those pens, or what else that SJ charm would mean other than the teacher’s initials.”
“And you’re sure it smelled like her perfume?”
“I didn’t get too close to her, but yeah, it smelled the same to me.”
Lila stiffened. “That teacher is going down.”
“We don’t have any proof.”
“You’ve just given me plenty!”
“It’s all conjecture. If we’re going to accuse someone of something this serious, we need to be sure.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. We have good reason to believe she’s guilty. It’s going to be up to her to prove her innocence. What if she has something to do with what happened to the boys? She certainly has motive. If anyone were to find out about her and Atlas, she’d be toast. She’d probably do anything to protect herself—including put our son in danger.”
“I agree, but we need to handle this with care. Otherwise, she could get away with everything. Let’s sleep on it, then figure out what to do once I’ve been released. It’s late.”
“Okay, but I’m not changing my mind. That woman is going down.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less.” He kissed her cheek and closed his eyes. Though the weight of the world rested on his chest and his wound throbbed, the heaviness of sleep enveloped him.
Something pulled him from a deep sleep. At first Morgan thought it was a nurse checking on him, but when he opened his eyes, it was Lila he saw. She was still next to him, but now sitting up, muttering to herself.
“Lila, what’s wrong?” He rubbed her back.
She turned to him, her eyes shining with tears and holding her phone.
“Lila?”
“It… It’s Atlas.”
“What?” Morgan bolted upright, making his wound hurt worse than it already did.
She turned the screen to him. “It’s a video of Atlas begging for us to save him.”
Morgan felt like he’d been slapped. “Let me see that.”
24
Brielle Harrison
* * *
The video ended, and Brielle pressed play again. Her pulse raced as she focused on every word Atlas spoke, pleading for his life. Tears stung her eyes. It cut her heart to see him weak like that. Begging. Crying, even.
For the world to see. The video had already gone viral with close to a million views in less than three hours. That had to be some kind of record. Except that he and Emmett were kind of like celebrities. Everyone knew about them.
It was sadly ironic that they’d gone in search of ghosts to become famous. Now Atlas had a viral video—something he’d wanted for so long—but it was of him sobbing and giving into defeat in front of the world.
Did he know the video would be uploaded to be seen by everyone? Or did he think it was only going to his parents, who the message was directed at? He would be mortified to know everyone was watching it.
Speaking of everyone, Brielle needed to show it to her sister and the twins. She got up and headed for Topaz’s room while texting Violet and Scarlet to come over right away.
Knock, knock!
Brielle walked in.
“Hey!” Topaz pulled the covers over her head.
“You’re supposed to be up.”
“I’m tired. Go away. I have another ten minutes.”
“You won’t want to sleep once you see this.”
Topaz sat up. “What is it?”
“Let’s go downstairs. The twins are coming over.” Brielle checked her phone and saw that Violet had texted back, saying they were.
“You always call them the twins, but we’re twins too.”
“Yeah, but we’re the only ones who call us that. And technically, we’re triplets.”
“Even though the other one died?”
“There were three of us. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m going downstairs to show Violet and Scarlet the video of Atlas going viral.”
“Say what? Like, a video showing he’s alive?”
Brielle gave her a mysterious nod, then made her way downstairs. Topaz caught up with her just as she opened the back door for the twins. The other twins. The twins that people could understand. It blew most people’s minds to think about twins with an almost-three-year age gap. That was something Topaz needed to understand.
“You have news about Atlas?” Scarlet’s wet hair soaked into her shirt.
“Anything about Emmett, too?” Violet asked.
Brielle frowned and shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. It’s just Atlas, and I have to warn you, it’s kind of disturbing.”
Violet covered her mouth. “He’s not being tortured, is he?”
“No, nothing like that.” Brielle led them over to the couch, where everyone gathered around her. She pulled out her phone and went over to the video. It had nearly doubled in views. She shook her head.
“What?” Scarlet scooted closer.
“They wanted a viral video. That’s what they’ve got. Well, Atlas anyway.”
“Play it already!” Topaz tugged on her arm.
Brielle gave Atlas’s sisters sympathetic looks before turning to the screen and pressing play.
A circle spun in the middle of the dark screen, showing that it was trying to load.
“What’s wrong?” Violet asked.
“Probably too many people trying to watch,” Scarlet said. “Look at how many views it has, and it wasn’t uploaded very long ago.”
The circle spun a few more times before stopping. The darkness faded, then the shape of Atlas appeared, brightening and coming in clearer until it focused on his face. The lighting was terrible, but it was definitely him. His shoulder-length hair stuck out in all directions, knotted and stringy. His bangs half-hung in his face, while also sticking out at an odd angle. He’d gained some pimples and looked pale.
“He’s actually alive!” Scarlet wiped at her eyes.
“And he’s not bruised or bloody.” Violet leaned closer to the phone. “Do you see Emmett in the background?”
“Shh!” Topaz leaned closer. “I wanna hear. They’re like brothers to me, too.”
Brielle turned the volume up. On the screen, Atlas cleared his throat. “I’m Atlas James, and I’m being held against my will.”
“This gives me the chills.” Violet shuddered.
Topaz leaned closer to Brielle.
On the screen, Atlas fidgeted for a moment. “I can’t get out of here. Believe me, I’ve tried everything. Now I’ve been given this opportunity to plead for my life.” His voice cracked, then he cleared his throat again. “I don’t know where Emmett is, but he’s in danger. We need help. Please, someone help us.” Tears shone in his eyes. “I want to go back home, and so does Emmett. He’s not here with me, but I know he misses his family as much as I miss mine.”
“I can’t watch this!” Scarlet jumped from the couch and ran out of the room, crying.
Violet sniffled and leaned against Brielle.
Atlas wiped tears from his eyes, then looked back at the camera. It felt like he was looking right at them.
A shiver ran down Brie
lle’s spine.
Atlas pulled some hair from his face. “Please, help us! We can’t do this on our own. This is inhumane, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep going like this.” He shook and looked at something off-screen before turning back. “Mom, Dad, I love you. Please do something. Get me out of here!”
Violet pressed her face against Brielle. “This is heartbreaking! He’s so scared, he’s begging to our parents—in front of the whole world!”
Brielle paused the video. “Maybe we should stop. I barely made it through watching it when I first saw it. I should’ve known it’d be hard on you two.”
Violet sat up and wiped her eyes. “No, I need to see the whole thing. Play it.”
“Yes,” Topaz agreed.
“If you’re sure.” Brielle let her thumb hover over the play button.
“Do it.” Violet pleaded with her eyes.
Brielle pressed it. The circle spun for a moment before refocusing on Atlas.
“We need help. Someone, please save us.” He swallowed and took a deep breath. “Mom, Dad, Scarlet, Violet, Brielle, and my girlfriend—I love you guys.” His voice cracked and a tear ran down his face. “I can’t stop thinking about any of you. I miss you, and I want nothing more than to hold you all in my arms again. I keep thinking about what I’ll do if I can see you all again. I won’t take anyone for granted ever again. In fact, I want to go on a trip with all of you. Maybe to the savanna. I’ve always wanted to go there. Let’s make that happen. I love you.”
Atlas reached for the screen, his hand blocking his face. Then the screen went black and the video ended.
“Is it over?” Scarlet called from the next room.
“Yeah!” Brielle stopped the next video from auto-playing and took a deep breath.
Scarlet came over and sat next to her sister. “How bad did it get?”
Violet wiped her eyes. “He’s begging us to save him, but how do we do that? We don’t even know where he is!”
Lies Never Sleep Page 17
