Page 249 of Burn Bright
“Of course. I’ll give you a minute.” He steps out, and I dial Beckett, hoping he’s available.Please, please, please.
“Harriet,” he answers on the third ring. “Everything good?”
“No, I’m at this lawyer’s office. I’ll explain in a second, but do you know when Ben assaulted that asshole who lives in your family’s gated neighborhood?”
“Tate Townsend? That was back in May.”
I go very still. Wide-eyed.
Ben was going to leave his family right then. He must’ve set up this “irrevocable” trust soon afterward. Dumped his money since he wouldn’t need it anymore.
But he didn’t end up in the woods or wilderness—or wherever he is now—back in May. He transferred to Manhattan Valley University.
Ben always said he never intended to be in New York. That it took convincing.
It was never part of his plan.
It’s why he showed upbroke.
His brothers unknowingly changed his path. Then Ben spent more time with me, and he kept delaying and delaying the date to leave. Until at one point, he considered staying.
Then Audrey…the frat…it pushed him to finish what he had orchestrated.
His original plan.
Give me all his money. A girl he knew needed the cash. A girl he thought had a good heart.
Then he’d disappear into the woods. Never to be found again.
57
BEN COBALT
Iswing an axe, splitting a log in two clean pieces.
Snow crunches under my boots. The air frigid. I have no problem with the cold. I could’ve lived on the ice, but if asked, I’d say I love springtime the most. I was born when the tulips begin to bloom, when the air in Philly begins to shift and people start spilling outside. When doors open and the cool breeze is let in.
If anyone asked?
Yeah, like anyone is going to ask me, “What season do you like, Ben?” I’m not even going to be asked if it’s cold outside.
I am very, very alone.
No one around me formiles.With a deep exhale, I glance at the sky-scraping, snow-capped hemlocks and spruces. A bald eagle soars in the clear blue sky. Pine and earth flood my nostrils, but I find myself wanting to get rid of it.
Afraid I’ll forget what she smells like. The sweet, candy scent of Harriet.
I adjust my grip on the axe. It doesn’t help it’s Wednesday.
This is the first Wednesday of many I’m never going to enter my family’s ornate dining room. Sit around the table. Watch Eliot bang his foot on the edge. Everyone raising their gobletsjust in time. Drumming our feet and our hands. Laughing. So much vivid, effervescent laughter. The roaring love of the Cobalt Empire.
I rub at my raw, swollen eyes. I wasn’t delusional. I didn’t think I’d come here finding peace. I left that in New York with a short, grumpy punk-rock girl.
“They’re safe,” I mutter to myself.
They’re safe from me.I can’t hurt anyone here.
Another exhale, I place a bigger log on the stump. I swing, and the wood splits. I hear the snow creak, then crunch, and I immediately drop the axe and reach for my shotgun. Could be a wolf or a bear, if the latter is too hungry to hibernate.
