Page 79 of Twisted Truths
My breath hitches at the endearment and my insides turn to molten lava. I blink slowly, trying to calm my racing heart. I tell myself it was a slip of the tongue. He doesn’t mean anything by it.
“No, it’s fine,” he says, ripping me from my thoughts. “I have to go in there, eventually.”
Still, he doesn’t move.
I close the distance between us, slipping my hand into his and squeezing it as I gaze up at him. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
NASH
Itake a deep breath, my hand flexing in Hadley’s as I use the other to push open the door to my sister’s bedroom. The first thing I notice is the missing mattress and bedding. There’s a slight coppery smell clinging to the air like a ghost that turns my stomach, but I force myself to step over the threshold.
Apart from the missing furniture, her bedroom hasn’t changed much. There’s a collage of photos on the wall where the posters of teen heartthrobs used to draw the eye. I release Hadley’s hand as I step over to look closer. Most of the photos are of Zara with her friends from high school, but there are some gaps where it looks like she’s torn someone out of them, and I realise they probably contained Tanner.
Hadley stays quiet behind me, but I can feel her presence at my back like a steady anchor.
An old photo, faded from time, catches my eye, and I reach up to pull it from the wall. I was maybe eight or nine, and Zara and I were grinning up at the camera from our blanket fort in my bedroom. Her smile is easy, confident, whilemine is strained, and if you look carefully, you can see the slight shine in my eyes.
There had been a crazy storm, and I was terrified. Zara knew how scared I was of thunder and lightning, so she begged our parents to let her set up a fort in my bedroom so she could sleep in there with me. Dalton, of course, had scoffed, telling me to man up and stop being a sook. Mum had taken all the blankets and spare pillows we had in the linen closet and helped us create the best blanket fort a kid could ask for.
“I called her Ziggy,” I say, my voice hoarse. “She was always making up stories, and I remember this night she made one up about a firefly called Ziggy who could light up the night and guide lost children home. I told her she was my Ziggy for helping me through my fear.”
“That’s really sweet,” Hadley murmurs softly.
I glance over my shoulder and catch her brushing a stray tear from her cheek. My own throat is thick with emotion, and I quickly turn away, pocketing the photo before striding over to Zara’s closet. Opening the doors, I’m hit with her familiar scent of vanilla mixed with fresh laundry detergent. I swallow hard.
Shelves line one side, while the other holds hanging items. I grab a couple of pairs of jeans, some T-shirts, and a hoodie. It feels weird to be raiding her space like this, but I know she would want Hadley to have her things.
I pass the pile to Hadley before moving over to the chest of drawers under the window. The hairdressing magazines and makeup littering the top make my heart clench—she had so much potential, so much to look forward to in life. I hesitate before digging around to find some workout pants and tank tops.
“She wasn’t one to exercise,” I say with a wry grin. “I would try to drag her out to the gym with me, but she always said theonly time she would willingly run was if someone was chasing her.” My stomach drops as I wonder if she’d have been strong enough to fight off whoever attacked her if I had forced her to work out with me.
Now I understand why Hadley is so insistent on learning how to defend herself.
“Nash?” she murmurs, and I realise I’m shaking.
Clearing my throat, I take a step back from my sister’s drawers. “Help yourself to whatever you need,” I tell her. “I’ll meet you in the barn.”
She calls my name as I hurry out of Zara’s bedroom, but I ignore her, instead focusing on my pounding heart and putting one foot in front of the other. When I push out to the back deck, the cool air slaps me in the face. It’s a welcome distraction from being in that bedroom and knowing my sister was no longer here.
After a few deep breaths, I stride over to the barn to wait for Hadley. She arrives ten minutes later, dressed in a pair of leggings and a zip up Barrenridge High sports jacket.
“Are you okay?” she asks, studying my face carefully as she comes to stand in front of me.
“I’m fine,” I lie.
She doesn’t call me out on it.
Instead, she gives me a small nod, like she knows I need the time to keep pretending I’ve got it together.
I step back and gesture towards the open space in the middle of my gym. A huge canvas mat covers the floor, so I’m confident she won’t get hurt. “We’ll start with the basics.”
I don’t know a lot about self-defence, apart from what we learned in phys ed back in high school. My knowledge is a little rusty, but I’m sure it will be enough to help her get away from an attacker.
She pulls off the jacket, revealing a tight tank top thatclings to her body in all the wrong ways. Wrong because I shouldn’t notice. Wrong because I shouldn’t care. Something twists in my gut, and I force my eyes away, desperately wishing for the unassuming clothing I’m used to seeing her in.
“Okay,” she says, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear before clutching the locket around her neck.
