Page 55 of Beautiful Ruins
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. I couldn’t even bear to think about it.
Logan: I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to tell her. She deserves to know the truth, even if she hates me.
Dad: Keep your mouth shut, son. I’m dealing with it.
The night of graduation.
Logan: I’m telling her. I’m done.
That was it. No response from Troy, just Logan’s plea for help left on read like he hadn’t been worth the seconds it would have taken to save his life.
Chapter Seventeen
SADIE
The small council office shouldn’t have been as cramped as it was, yet I suffocated in the lack of air-conditioning on that warm September morning. Dust motes floated around the room totally oblivious to the chaos I was barely containing.
Between my breakdown the previous night and Rowan showing me Logan’s last messages to his father, I was in no mood to be kept waiting. Land and council usually went hand in hand, so I was hoping someone could give me a sign to what exactly the mayor had been up to all those years ago. With that size land, it must have been a big development of some sort.
I tapped the small silver bell sitting on the reception desk and huffed out a breath as I glanced around the dimly lit room. The smell of old paper lingered in the room, even if there was no paper in sight. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but weren’t there supposed to be records? Where were all the old papers, the dusty archives, the ancient files marking the town’s past? I guess everything had gone digital, reducing decades-old history into a series of bytes and bits, turning dusty storerooms into relics. Just like me.
Finally, a woman with a short grey bob shuffled out from another door at the back of the room, her focus on a folder in her hands. She mumbled as she flicked through several pages, unaware that she had an impatient guest sweating in the stuffy room.
I cleared my throat to get her attention, and she startled, a hand going to her chest. The folder slipped from her fingers, sprawling its contents onto the dark carpet.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, forcing a tight smile.
Her eyes widened behind her thick glasses, and she squinted, slightly leaning forward to get a better look. “Oh, my . . .” A slow smile spread across her face as if she’d just found something precious. “Sadie? Sadie Cooper, is that you?”
Yes. Yes, it was me. Who the hell was this woman?
“Yeah . . . hi.” I waved awkwardly, like my hand wasn’t quite attached to my wrist.
She scooped up the folder and tossed it onto the desk—now forgotten—then planted her hands on her hips with a shake of her head. Her expression was a mixture of disbelief and recognition.
Was I supposed to hug her? The air between us felt too warm, too strange. What did she want from me? I just wanted a goddamn answer to even one of the numerous questions that lived rent-free inside my head. I hadn’t planned on answering any from this woman.
“You’ve grown up so much,” she said, her nostalgic smile lingering in that motherly kind of way. My hands twitched. “God, you’re just . . . gorgeous. Your father mentioned you were back. How is he going? Such a shame about that Stone girl, isn’t it? Poor family, didn’t deserve that.” With a shake of her head, she clucked her tongue.
I stiffened at the mention of my father—the one I hadn’t spoken to in days. My stomach twisted, and I waited for thegut punch. I’d gotten good at taking hits from all sides lately, but nothing stung more than learning my best friend had been caught up in MC club business.
Logan had been the smart one. He’d hated what the club stood for. But worse than that was Troy Knight had known exactly what Logan had wanted to tell me. And he was no longer among the land of the living, either.
Mine and Rowan’s lives were filled with the ghosts harbouring secrets, but unless either of us were psychic, we were shit out of luck. Which is why I was standing there in a tiny room, forcing a smile onto my face that probably looked more like a grimace for a woman I didn’t recognise.
“You know my father?” I said, tapping my fingers in a mindless rhythm on the old worn timber top, betraying my unease.
Lucky her. Was he a barrel of laughs with her too?
“Oh, yes, your mother and I went to school together. You probably don’t remember, but I babysat you when you were just a toddler.” She said it like it meant something.
Did she expect the memories to come flooding back to me, and we’d reminisce over whether or not she wiped my bum too?
I didn’t know how to respond. My mind scrambled for a connection, but there was only a blank space where this woman’s face should have been. How many people had my brain forgotten during my absence?
But I had to say something. I couldn’t just stand there staring at her like a complete moron.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t recognise you . . .” I said, casting a quick glance at her name badge, while the lie just rolled off my tongue. “Nora.”
