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“Sorry. They get the better of me sometimes. Thanks for helping.”
“Of course. I’m going to keep helping, Halley. What do you want to do now?”
Leave. I want to leave.“Nashville, I think.”
“Great. We can stop by my place on the way to get your car. I need to grab a bag.”
The pain is echoing now. She rolls her neck with an audible pop, allowing her shoulders to drop. Tension doesn’t help.
“Are you sure you want to leave with me, Noah? You have a lot of responsibilities here. There’s no telling how long—”
“Do you not want me to go?”
Noah’s voice is flat, empty, and she has that odd sensation again that there’s a familiarity between the Brockton boys and the stranger. “You really don’t recognize me, do you?”
“I didn’t say that. I just don’t want to be responsible for tearing you away from your life so you can protect me. I don’t need you to.”
“Oh, good to know.” Now she’s made him angry. “You just swoop into town, act the damsel in distress, and now you’re gone? Is that what this is?”
“Noah. Please.”
He scrambles off the bed. “Damn it, Cameron was right about you.”
“Excuse me?”
“He said you were trouble.”
“I am not trouble,” she scoffs. “That’s insulting. There are circumstances here that are beyond my control. I’ve tried to leave twice, and you guys wouldn’t let me. Now you want me out of here immediately. Dad’s orders, right?” The words slip out, and she realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.
“You were listening.”
“You weren’t exactly being quiet.”
“Is that why you were hiding in the bathroom with my phone? You don’t have a headache at all, do you?” At the look that must cross her face, he shakes his head. “You thought I didn’t know? Come on, Halley. I’m not an idiot. Did you get what you were looking for?”
“I can’t fake a migraine, Noah. And since we’re being honest, why do you have pictures of my sister on your phone?” she retorts. It costs her, but she’s feeling stronger.
“What the hell are you talking about?” His genuine confusion takes her anger down a notch. Either he’s a good actor, or he really doesn’t know.
“Pull up your photos. Go to your albums. There’s a set of photos from 2010, I found it from yourFacessection. You have pictures of the stranger I saw, and my sister. And she’s pregnant, Noah. She was here, in Brockville, pregnant, eightyearsafter she went missing. How could you lie to me like this? How could you not know? This place where you claim everyone knows everything about each other. You’ve known she never left all along. I’d wager Cameron does, too, and your dad. That’s why you’re all messing with me.”
“Stay down. Don’t move. Make him think you’re dead.”
A warning from her past? Or some sort of cosmic signal for now? Is she in more danger than she realizes?
The overwhelming emotions are unfurling in her again; she feels them building, feels the blackness of her past growing. A brain is only designed to handle so much at once. Hers is starting to unravel. Add in the migraine, the medicine, the confusion ... She can’t keep this up much longer.
Noah is staring at her with alarm. He unlocks the phone and hands it to her.
“Show me.”
Breathing hard to quell the wild dread rising in her, she flicks through until she has the pictures again. Hands it back wordlessly. Watches as his face goes entirely white.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I think I have. Jesus.”
He sinks down onto the edge of the bed, swiping, swiping, swiping.
