Page 67 of Broken Secrets
“You think he’d support me staying here?”
“I think he’d support you making your own choice about your relationships and your future, regardless of what it costs him personally.”
Emma pulls out her phone to text Jeremy back:
“I’m with Olivia at the pier. We need to talk. Can you come here?”
While we wait for Jeremy to arrive, Emma and I sit in comfortable silence, watching the beach come alive with morning joggers and dog walkers. The normalcy of it feels surreal given the life-changing decisions we’re discussing.
“Can I ask you something?” Emma says.
“Of course.”
“Do you ever wonder what our lives would have been like if our parents had handled things differently eighteen years ago?”
“All the time. But I’m starting to think that wondering about alternate histories is less important than deciding what to do with the reality we have now.”
“Very philosophical for seven in the morning.”
“I’m full of wisdom at dawn. It’s my superpower.”
Emma laughs, the first genuine laugh I’ve heard from her since I got here. “I’m really glad you’re my sister, Olivia.”
“Even if I might be about to help you make a decision that completely changes your life?”
“Especially because of that. For the first time in years, I feel like someone is encouraging me to think for myself instead of just do what’s expected.”
Jeremy’s rental car pulls into the pier parking lot, and we watch him get out and walk toward us. His face is tight withworry, but when he sees Emma is safe, his shoulders relax slightly.
“You scared me,” he says, settling on the bench beside Emma. “What’s going on?”
Emma takes a deep breath and hands him her phone. “I need to show you something. And then we need to make some decisions about what happens next.”
As Jeremy reads through the text conversation with Lilly, his expression grows darker with each message. By the time he finishes, his jaw is set in a way that suggests he’s holding back a lot of anger.
“She threatened to cut off your college funding?” he asks quietly.
“Among other things. And she said if I tell you about the ultimatum, she’ll make it harder for you to see me through the custody arrangement.”
Jeremy is quiet for a long moment, staring out at the ocean. When he finally speaks, his voice is calm but firm. “Emma, I need you to understand something. I will not let your mother use me as leverage to control your decisions. Whatever consequences come from you choosing to have a relationship with Olivia, I’ll handle them.”
“But what if she follows through on her threats? What if you lose time with me?”
“What matters to me is that you get to make your own choices about your relationships and your future.”
“Olivia suggested I might be able to finish senior year here. Maybe look at California colleges instead of Northwestern.”
Jeremy’s eyebrows rise. “That’s a big change. How do you feel about it?”
“Scared. Excited. Like maybe it’s exactly what I need to do.”
“Then let’s figure out how to make it happen.”
It’s not going to be easy. Lilly will be furious, there will be legal and practical complications, and Emma will be giving up everything familiar to start over in a new state. But for the first time since this whole situation began, it feels like we’re making choices based on what we want rather than what we’re afraid of.
And that feels like progress.
CHAPTER TWENTY
