His hand was tangled in her hair, keeping her head back.
I knew about sex. We’d learned about it in health class.
But I didn’t think it would be like this. Caleb’s dad was still wearing his pants, and all I saw was his back. But the words coming out of his mouth were vicious.
Mom was cheating on Dad.
I knew what that was, too. We had learned about it from Amelie, whose dad had a shiny new girlfriend who sometimes picked Amelie up from school. She said her dad liked to say the girlfriend was the newer model—whatever that meant.
But after the initial shock of it passed, horror sunk in.
Dad would… Dad would be heartbroken.
A hand wrapped around my mouth, dragging me backward. I kicked, then realized it was Caleb. He pushed me into the pantry, closing the door behind him.
“What are you doing?” I needed to scrub my eyes out with soap.
“You can’t tell,” Caleb said.
I blinked. It wasn’t what I expected.
“Please, Margo, you can’t tell them.” He was desperate. Reeked of it. He came at me and grabbed my wrists. His thumb caressed my bracelet. “That won’t be us. Okay? But it’s them, and doing whatever you’re about to do will just make everything worse.”
“Caleb, Mom is cheating on my dad—” I took a step back, shaking him loose. “You knew?”
Slowly, he nodded.
“Cheating is wrong,” I said. Decisive.
Dad always talked about morals. Morality. It was such a hard thing to wrap my brain around, but he made it easy. Right and wrong. Stick up for the truth.
This… this was a lie. Plain and simple.
I shoved past Caleb and into the hall, where Mom was standing. Her hands were on her hair, pulling it up, but they slowly dropped when she saw me.
I swallowed.
Her pants were still unbuttoned.
“Margo!”
I turned and fled. Up the stairs, down the hall to Caleb’s room. Caleb chased after me, and once we were inside he slammed the door, flipping the lock.
The doorknob rattled, then Mom pounded on the door. “Margo Wolfe, open up right now.”
Caleb stared at me. “You’re not going to tell, right?”
The door flew open. Caleb’s dad straightened, triumphant, but my mom shoved past him.
She grabbed my shoulders, shaking me slightly. “You don’t know what you saw, Margo. It was nothing.”
Her voice was angrier than I’d ever heard it.
I shook my head. “But, Mom—”
“No buts. Please, Margo.” She dipped her head toward me. “If he found out, it would ruin everything. And nothing even happened. It just looked bad.”
It looked like sex, but who was I to know?
Her fingers dug into my shoulders. Caleb’s dad stared at me. Caleb was breathing heavily behind me, the entire room waiting on my answer.
“I won’t tell,” I promised.
I promised.
Present
“All of your memories?” Caleb asks.
I shift. “I remember catching them. Running to your room. We were playing hide and seek.”
It hurts to see him, because all I want to do is throw myself into his arms. He found me. Took me to the hospital. Detective Masters arrested him. But it wasn’t Caleb. I know that deep in my bones.
And yet…
“Your mom said it was nothing,” he says.
“She was trying to minimize it. I know that now. And you—” I break off.
What did he say the first time we went into his house?
One day I’m going to fuck you on this counter. And then he did.
He did, and he didn’t have any regrets, even knowing—
“I never claimed to be the nice guy.” He comes closer and reaches for me. “If you’re remembering that day in the kitchen…”
“I hate you for that.” The image is burned behind my eyelids—my mom and his dad. “For putting me in that position.”
“Literally,” he adds, smirking. “But, Margo, there are dark memories all over that house. How are we ever going to move on if we don’t erase them?”
I push at his chest.
I’ve been so stupid. I thought the truth was going to release me. But it turns out, it’s just another shackle.
He tugs on my wrists. I fall into him, unable to stop myself.
“You forget, love. I wasn’t the one to block away my memories. I’ve been living with the truth for years.”
He’s totally right. I had forgotten—both that he knew and that he refused to tell me. How foolish. My emotions are on a pendulum swing.
His eyes see too much. I slip away from him and go to the window. My room is a wreck—the first thing I did when I got home was yank it apart, and now I feel like I’m bleeding from every seam.
“Matt?” he asks.
I jerk. “He kept apologizing. I finally opened my eyes when he picked me up—it sounded like he wanted to take me to the hospital.”
“He didn’t.”
He exhales noisily behind me. My bed creaks as Caleb sits. “He didn’t take you to the hospital. I found—”
I don’t hear him get up, but suddenly he’s behind me. His hand lands on mine, stopping my fingers. I had been scratching at my wrist again.
His lips press into the top of my head. Two points of contact.
“You’re going to haunt my memories.”
I close my eyes. He’s haunting mine, too.
“And I’m sorry, but I need you to touch me.”
I turn slowly. Touch him?
I don’t deserve that.
“It feels like you’re not really here,” he whispers. “I’m going to wake up in bed and you’ll still be missing.”
My chest aches.
I raise my hand. One touch won’t kill us.
“Caleb!” someone calls from downstairs.
I’m about to drop my hand when Caleb snags it, holding it to his cheek. We both exhale.
“Margo? Come down, please.”
I tilt my head. “Angela is here?”
“Is that your case worker?” Caleb lifts an eyebrow, then nods. “She got here when I did. Eli’s dad drove us.”
“That explains the many cars in the driveway, I guess.” I pull away and grab a sweatshirt, carefully zipping it up and heading downstairs.
Before we left the hospital, I got to see Robert. He was intubated and sedated in ICU, and I couldn’t get close, but seeing him through a window was enough. He was in good hands.
Me, on the other hand? Lenora kept worrying the entire way back. She asked me how I was feeling, if I needed anything special at the house, what happened.
What happened, Margo? Who took you?
I already told the detective, and I didn’t have the energy to go through it again. I could sleep for a week.
Three days in the hospital. The detective visited me twice, asking much the same questions. But apparently, they can’t just take witness testimony as fact. There has to be evidence. And so far… nothing.
Plus, Matt Bonner has an alibi.
I didn’t tell Caleb that—mainly because the detective is eager for me to admit it was actually Caleb who took me. It’s odd that the detective has such disdain for him… and such bias.