Page 106 of No Way Home
“Don’t you say that,” Mom’s arms tightened around me. “You have a great life.”
“No. It’s t-terrible,” my voice cracked. “Can I just never goin public again? We can fake my death and I’ll live quietly on the farm.”
“Hey, now,” Dad said, rubbing a hand over my back. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You can’t help it that I gave you such a pretty face.” He was trying to make me laugh. But I couldn’t.
Mom’s fingers traced along my neck. “I’m so sorry.”
I heard Dad blow out his breath. “At least you’re not Griff.”
At least you’re not Griff.
Those words only made it worse. I loved Griff. Looked up to him in everything. Would’ve crawled across a hot desert to get to him if he needed me to. But no matter how hard I tried, it felt like the devil himself was trying to rip us apart.
I sniffed. “Why does this keep happening?” Because, yep. This wasn’t the first time a girl Griffin liked came after me. It was the third. But it was the first time it had ever happened on Dupree turf. And it was the first time it had happened with a girl Griffin had dated more than a couple of times.
“Because girls nowadays are insane.” Dad sounded disgusted.
“Only ones whose parents aren’t doing their jobs.” Mom huffed. “Sophie wouldn’t act like this. Or Maddie, Jane, or Belle.”
“True,” Dad conceded. He rubbed a hand over his mouth and looked at me. “You said the cameras got it though?”
I wiped my eyes. “Yeah.”
Dad heaved a sigh and cuffed me on the shoulder. “Go on back to the party. Mom and I will handle it.”
Itwas Selene.
When the dust settled, Uncle Ford’s pension for putting cameras everywhere saved me. But it damned me too. As Griff watched the replay, something came over him that I’d never seen before: a coldness trying to mask the hurt.
Yes, Selene was on the next Greyhound bound for Baltimore but the damage was done.
Griff said he didn’t blame me. But bitterness doesn’t scream—it whispers. It winds in the dark and grows teeth. After that, nothing I did was right. Every move I made, every time I breathed, he found something to criticize. And soon enough, the space between us wasn’t space anymore. It was a chasm.
I still loved the heck out of my brother. I always would.
But somewhere down the line, I think he stopped loving me back.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
MAGNOLIA
By the timeBowen was done, we were drenched, clothes stuck to our skin. We stayed there, foreheads pressed together, our lungs pulling air in the same fragile rhythm. Bowen’s tears were gone, but mine kept falling, disguising themselves among the raindrops. Of all the things I’d imagined could’ve caused the rift between Bowen and Griffin, none were half as heartbreaking as the truth.
Once I could speak, I whispered, “She sexually assaulted you.”
“That’s what my therapist said.” His breath turned into a puff of condensation, water dripping off his nose. “But I should’ve pushed her off sooner. Or not gone in the pantry at all. What was I thinking?”
“Hey,” I soothed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. She caught you off guard.” I leaned back to take him in, hair plastered to his scalp, eyes practically glowing from crying.
“You believe me?” His tone was a mixture of hope and disbelief.
The past four years played in my mind like a reel on fast forward. Disappearing at Sole Mates, him being so unkind thefirst time I came to their house, the lies, the last-minute jabs before he walked away. “I have to. It explains…”
“Everything?” he asked, words thick with guilt.
“Yeah.” I brushed his bangs over. “I’m so sorry she did that to you.”
He shook his head like Selene was the least of his worries. “But now you understand why I felt like I had to give you up for Griffin? I’d already hurt him so much.”
