by Emelia Blair
But he doesn’t say anything, instead closing the door behind him and leaning against it. “You look just like her, you know,” he says, his tone gentle.
I blink, starting to sense that something is off. “W-what? Like who? What are you talking about?”
His eyes move to my left and the sight has me freezing.
I’ve never seen a rotting corpse before, and as my eyes take in the sight before me, I feel faint with an emotion I can’t identify. It’s beyond horror. It feels like somebody has reached into my chest and is squeezing my heart so hard that I can’t breathe.
‘Run, Halley! Run!’
I stumble over a man I know who is no longer breathing, his body twisted recognition.
My mother is struggling with somebody, desperation and grief in her voice as she keeps screaming, “Keep running!”
My hands are over my ears as I weave through the woods, the rain almost blinding in its fervor.
The screams are now filled with agony and I run faster, trying to outrun the sound of my mother being murdered.
The bodies look like they have been here for a very long time, leaning against each other like lovers would, and I don’t hear my quickened breathing as I see the limp red hair on the smaller one, hair that I had loved to play with as a child.
“No.” The anguished moan is torn from my throat. “No. No. No. Mom!” I scream out, pulling at my shackles, trying to reach her, dimly aware that she can no longer hear me. “Mom, no!”
Somebody is making horrific animalistic sounds, keening in heart-shattering misery. It takes me a minute to realize that the sounds are coming from me as tears trail down my cheeks. I can’t reach her. She’s been here all this time.
“She shouldn’t have tried to leave,” Uncle Raymond says, his tone deceptively soft.
I stare at him, bewildered, my mind unable to comprehend the words coming out of his mouth. “What?” I say, hoarsely.
“I told her to stay. All she had to do was stay.” He walks over and gently cups my cheek as he’d done thousands of times.
Only now, do I see the twisted love in his eyes, tainted with a hint of insanity.
And I remember.
I remember my mother waking me up, crying.
“Oh, God! He’s dead. We need to run. We need to leave now!”
My confusion had been rampant as I had been tossed into the car. She had taken the road out of town, the one that passed the old church. The rain had been so loud that I had played with the dials of the radio. But nothing could tune out the broken sobs of my mother and the crashing of the rain on the hood of the car.
The way the car swerved as something hit us.
My mother taking me and trying to run, only to be hit by the car that was chasing us.
I remember the man who got out of the driver’s side. I remember his face as he approached us, my injured mother on the muddy road, crawling away, pushing me, begging me to run.
The body that slid out of the passenger seat, the face of the man I had seen only a few hours before that day when he and my mother had discussed something in urgent tones.
The monster who walked towards us, stretching out his arms to catch me.
My mother throwing herself at him, shrieking at me to keep running.
Only now, I remember the face the monster had been wearing.
“Don’t touch me!” I scream out, my mind in shambles as everything I’ve believed in, shatters.
“Don’t be like that, Halley.” Uncle Raymond’s voice is filled with hurt.
I twist in his grip, only knowing fear at his touch.
“I didn’t want this to happen any more than you do. But how was I to know that Lily would find a way to get into your head after so long?”
My breathing is ragged as I stare at his face, my thoughts making no sense. This kind of betrayal, how am I supposed to recover from it?
He smiles at me, lovingly. “But it’s all right now. You’ll stay here and we’ll always be together.”
“Why is Cam here?” I don’t know how I get my voice to sound so calm even when I can’t manage to regulate my breathing.
Uncle Raymond glances in the direction of my trussed-up friend and sighs, regretfully. “He managed to figure some things out. He’ll have to go, of course.” When he sees the horrified look on my face, he immediately says, trying to comfort me, “I know he’s your friend but you don’t need him anymore. You’ve got me. You won’t need anyone anymore.”
You’re crazy!
But the words don’t leave my lips because you don’t tell a crazy person that.
“You killed Hashem. You were the person in the car…” It had been him all along. “My—why did you—Mom?” Why can’t I get the words through my burning throat?
“She was leaving me. She wasn’t supposed to leave me.” An ugly expression settles on his face, the kind of fury that has me quivering in fear. “Even after I made sure that she had no home to return to. Even after I ran her parents off the road, showing her that I was always going to be what she needed, the only one she could depend on, she had the gall to fall in love with that man and try to run.” He giggles.
I’ve never heard a more chilling sound.
“She’s never running anywhere now, is she?”
“Jet…” And another sort of pain flashes through me. “You killed my father as well?”
This surprises Uncle Raymond and he blinks. “Your father? Who, him?” He gives me a patient smile. “You silly child. I’m right here.”
His words take me a few minutes to comprehend—this is a new kind of horror that descends on me, and I want to scream.
It’s not possible!
Uncle Raymond—no—my father, sees the look on my face and he pats my cheek, ignoring the way I’m tugging at my chains. “I had always loved Lily, you know. Back in college, we had dated for a while, but she broke up with me. Then after I met Angela, I thought that if I married her, Lily would realize she was losing out on something wonderful and she would come to me. But she didn’t.” He sounds disappointed. “And then Angela got pregnant and I went to see Lily, to tell her, to get her to… We got drunk and had sex and you were conceived. I sent a letter to her parents, making sure that they kicked her out and then I convinced her to come back here, so I could take care of her. She agreed but she refused to be more than just friends. I did try, Halley. I took away her bank accounts from her, tried to teach her what life without me would be like, but she wouldn’t break. And then she met Jet.”
I cannot believe what I’m hearing. All these years, he was never who I believed him to be.
That cold look once again enters his eyes as he goes on, “Lily and you always belonged to me. I found the fake IDs that she had gotten made. It wasn’t hard to get Ange to make the call. All I had to do was tune her up a little and she was willing to do whatever it took to keep her and that brat alive. But the man wouldn’t answer her, so I paid a kid to make the call.” He shakes his head. “I had no choice but to track down the man and look for the rest of the IDs.”
Are my hands shaking?
Who is this man before me?
Why didn’t I recognize this monster before?
“You killed Mom,” I breathe out, as if still trying to believe it.
“I didn’t want to,” my father says, reproachfully. “She was alive for two months and I tried to convince her to stay. But I couldn’t let her out of here. But she didn’t want me. And if she didn’t want me, she couldn’t have anybody else.”
I sway at his calm words, trying not to flinch. “Why didn’t you kill me? Why take me in?”
He looks thoughtful. “I was going to. But you ran towards me the minute you saw me. You didn’t remember a thing and you were something Lily and I made together. I had to keep you alive.” He sighs. “It was a pity that Angela followed me to the church that night and saw me sitting with Lily.”
“A-Aunt Ange knew?” I choke out.
My father waves away my shocked words. “T
he night of her accident. She certainly suspected since she knew that I often brought Lily here on certain nights to try to teach her to accept me. But she never said anything, and all those years later, she decided to follow me out. She tried to run with that brat, so I took care of it.”
I recall Suzie’s laughter as she counted out to ten before coming and looking for me. Tears spill out of my eyes, burning my skin. “She was your daughter!”
My father gives me a serious look. “No, Halley. You were my only daughter.”
I see the flash of something in my peripheral vision and I don’t know why but I think of Jace waiting for me at home, probably grinning at the note I left for him.
I’ll never see him again, will I? I think to myself, dully.
“I recorded everything, you know. It’s a pity my phone got damaged but I wanted to keep all those memories alive.” He caresses my hair.
This makes me cringe away from him.
“But it’s all right. Once I go back, I’ll use the one you got me and I’ll deal with that man you’ve been inviting into your bed. Just like I dealt with the others.”
I open my mouth to scram, “Stay away from Jace!” I’m startled with the vehemence in my tone, the raw fury. “Leave him alone!”
“I can’t do that, Halley.” My father looks at me, sadly. “He touched you. You didn’t belong to him and he tried to take you from me.”
I struggle even more viciously now. “You’ve already got me, you bastard. Stay—”
A painful slap lands on my face, the sound echoing in the room.
“Watch your language.”
Stunned, I stare at him, and once again, I see movement behind him.
Then there is a small click and a cool voice speaks, “I’m sure you can forgive her this one transgression.” Jace steps into the light, his face hard, a small handgun pointed towards my father. He doesn’t move his eyes away from Raymond.
My father’s face grows red as he spits out, “What are you doing here?”
“Getting my woman back.” There isn’t a trace of nerves in Jace’s eyes.
I know for sure he wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
He steps further into the room. “Halley, are you all right?”
I don’t trust my voice and I whimper, grief, shock, and pain rendering me mute. However, I can’t take my eyes off of him. I hear footsteps.
Caleb, Oliver, Lucas, and Duke file into the room.
Lucas and Oliver surround Raymond and Caleb approaches me.
“You’re safe now,” he murmurs.
Raymond turns around and screams, “Don’t touch her!”
The sound of flesh striking flesh echoes in the basement room and I hear a thud as the monster collapses, unconscious.
Caleb picks the lock on the cuffs, and suddenly, he’s replaced by Jace, who drags me into his arms, rocking me back and forth.
I’m still as a doll, my mind numb, and then I feel his body shaking around mine and it brings me out of my shock enough to realize what had just transpired. My hands slowly wrap around his waist and then I’m crying.
And I can’t stop.
He just holds me and doesn’t let go even as I wail like a child who has lost everything. I cry myself hoarse, and when no more tears are left, he pulls away just enough to wipe my face and press a kiss on my forehead. “I thought I lost you,” he whispers, hoarsely.
“Raymond, he—” I try to speak, to tell him of the depravities of the man who had raised me.
Jace shakes his head. “I know what he’s done. There was enough evidence on his phone that you left behind. And I heard most of what he said.” He looks over my shoulder.
I know he’s looking at the bodies of my mother and her lover. I close my eyes, an integral part of me, completely shattered today.
I’d never seen the way Raymond had always been obsessed with my mother. He was so beloved in town, who would have believed her if she had tried to tell them of how he’d been treating her.
My mother had been a beautiful caged bird that had tried to protect me at the cost of her dignity, her self-respect, and her life. And then she had fallen in love with a man who had believed her pleas and then they both paid the ultimate price.
“Jace.” I watch him
He looks at me with eyes full of love.
“Can you help me bury them?” My voice breaks, “I—I want them to have a funeral and a proper grave. But not here.”
“We’ll take them back home,” he says, gently.
Cameron’s voice in the background and then Jace is pushed aside as my friend envelops me in a hug and he’s crying. The only other time I’ve ever heard Cam cry was at his father’s funeral. But this is somehow worse than that. I wrap my hands around his neck and I feel my own tears rise up again.
Leaving this hell hole isn’t easy but I refuse to let Jace carry me out. I watch as Lucas and Oliver carry out the bodies that are now ready to be buried, then Duke drags out the unconscious monster who was behind all of this.
Jace’s arm is around me as I watch the ambulance approach from the distance and hear the sirens…I feel empty inside.
“Halley.”
I look up at him.
He studies me with a blazing intensity. “You will get past this, sweetheart. I swear to you. Even if I have to spend my whole life making sure that you do.”
I see a glimmer of something red behind him, and when I look over his shoulder, for a moment, I think I see my mother standing behind him in the center of the road, wearing her favorite dress. Her long red hair flowing freely like it always did, her eyes are sparkling, and there’s a smile on her lips as she meets my gaze.
Then she turns around.
I blink.
She’s gone.
Am I hallucinating?
I stare at the spot she had been standing in but there’s nothing there.
“What is it?” Jace looks over his shoulder, alert.
I mumble, “I thought I saw…” My voice trails off. “Never mind.” I preserve the image in my mind. She looked happy and I’d like to believe that she was and that this was her way of telling me that she was finally at peace.
Jace holds me tighter to him.
I ask, “What’s going to happen now?” My eyes are roaming over the police sprawling over the area, and the medic that has Cam sitting in the back of the ambulance, a frantic Mia by his side. I don’t even have the strength to ask how she got here. My heart is in tatters and I stare at where my handcuffed father is laying in the ambulance, two policemen sitting right next to him to act as guards.
“There’ll be a trial,” comes Lucas’s voice.
Both me and Jace look over at where the lawyer is standing.
“He’ll try to plead insanity but I won’t let that happen. They’ll probably ask you to take the stand—”
“No!” I shake my head, my lips trembling. “I never want to see him again.” I can’t bear to see him again. It’s like my heart would burst with the agony of this betrayal that’s cutting so deep inside of me. I bury myself into Jace’s warmth, seeking comfort from the man who hasn’t left my side throughout. His scent is familiar and reassuring and it reminds me I’m not alone.
Lucas studies me. “I’ll try to arrange something.”
This whole situation seems unreal and my eyes move towards the second ambulance whose doors are closed. “They’re going to do an autopsy, aren’t they? On Mom and Jet.”
Jace nods, gripping me tighter as if he’s afraid I’ll scatter away like the leaves in Fall.
My heart is heavy, filled with the kind of grief that just leaves you exhausted, making you want to curl up somewhere and just be left alone forever.
But I know I can’t do that.
If I do, I’ll lose myself.
“Jet and Mom, they really loved each other. They were going to take me and run. Jet wanted to give me his last name.” The memories have been coming back in a steady stream and each one hits me like a punch in the gut.
/>
Jace is silent for a few minutes and then he forces me to look up at him, holding my chin. “If you want to leave, Halley, I’d understand. We can go somewhere far away that won’t hold any reminders of your past. You just have to say the word.”
I stare at him and I know he’ll do it. For me, he would walk away from the sister he’d just found and the friends who loved him.
And in that moment, I know.
I reach out to cup his face and pull it down towards me, pressing a kiss to his lips. “I love you.”
He stiffens at my words and then holds me closer as if he wants to sink into me, his lips loving and affectionate, tearing at my heart, trying to heal what he can, and I adore him for it.
When we part, I murmur, “I want to stay.” I look around me, before saying slowly, “I don’t ever want to come back to this town, but I’ll stay in DC. Mia and Cam are there. And Kendall, Elise, Lana, they’re all there. I don’t want to run.”
We watch the proceedings and feeling Jace’s arm around me, I know that maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday, I’ll be able to put this whole thing behind me. And he will be right here with me.
Love is like a balm on a wounded soul, and right now I need it the most. And I know that Jace will provide it. He’ll drag me out of my darkness bit by bit, teach me to trust again, show me how to be myself.
I hold his hand and he presses a kiss to my forehead, his eyes filled with tenderness and love.
And my lips curve, softly, a smile not completely whole, but willing to be healed.
Epilogue
Jace
“Halley, we’re going to be—What are you wearing?”
I stare at the woman I’m supposed to be marrying today.
Her dress is a stunning white, embedded with diamonds that Kendall assured me were fake while Caleb had just smirked in the background. But it’s not the dress that has me gaping at her—I did enough gaping last night when I stripped it off her after she’d modeled it for me—it’s the two blue things that are dangling from her ears.
The only word I have to describe them are fluffballs.
I’m not annoyed.
Walking over, I flick one with my finger.
Halley grins at me. “You like?”
