deal with the monsters from my past. The only reason you were a target is because of me. All you’ve ever done is help me, Mr. Peters. I owe you so much, and I’m so sorry you were hurt because of me.”
Accountability. I would take all of it from here on out.
I was bent over in another coughing fit when a police car pulled up in front of the house, followed quickly by another car carrying not only Huck and Vernon but also Harlen. All three of them had rushed to the rescue. It made me want to cry.
The police officers hurried to check on Mr. Peters, who was trying to tell them there was a woman who was armed and dangerous inside his house. He rushed out an explanation for the wild events that sounded slightly crazy, even though I’d just lived through them. Meanwhile, I collapsed against Huck as he grabbed me and held me in a hug tight enough to crack my ribs, even though I was still slightly coughing.
“Are you okay?” His voice was harsh, and I could feel his hands tremble where he held me against him. “I can’t believe you went into that house, alone, knowing how dangerous it might be. When you can breathe again, I’m going to throttle you.”
I wheezed out a short laugh and rested my forehead against the base of his throat. I wrapped an arm around his waist and closed my eyes, finally feeling like all the scattered pieces of my life had fallen into place.
“I wasn’t alone. I knew you would come after me. I knew I had to face whomever was inside. If I didn’t, nothing we’ve been through up to this point would matter.” I wasn’t ready to tell him yet, but seeing Sawyer’s mother, and hearing all her deranged ranting about the night of the accident, made something else crystal clear. To move forward, I had to finally face the past. I had to right the wrong that had haunted me since the night of the accident. I couldn’t let anyone still think Huck was the one driving that night. I needed to go back and take a stand, regardless of what the consequences might be. I needed it on record that I was driving and that he’d been innocent all along. It wouldn’t get back the years he’d been forced to go to that awful school, but it would clear his record so that the accident could never be used against him in the future. It might be too little, too late, but it was the best apology I could offer.
I had to clear his name, even if I knew he was going to do everything in his power to stop me.
Not only was I fully capable of saving myself, but I was finally in a place where I could do my best to save him when he needed it.
Huck
“I’m not supposed to have any surprise visitors. How did you convince them to let you see me?”
I looked at my half brother and tried to keep my shock in check at how much he’d changed in the five years since I’d last seen him.
I called him a monster.
I thought of him as a demon.
He was always the big bad in mind—the embodiment of evil.
Now, he looked as physically ill as I knew he was mentally. He had lost so much weight that he almost appeared skeletal. His face was hollowed out and sunken in. His skin was papery thin and had a sickly hint of yellow. His eyes, which had always blazed with passion and obsession, were dull and flat, much like Ollie’s looked when she first showed up on my doorstep looking for salvation.
It was hard to reconcile the person sitting across from me with the person who had effectively ruined all of our lives. He seemed harmless and utterly defeated. And neither of those things had anything to do with his wheelchair.
“You know better than anyone that money makes magical things happen. If there’s enough of it in play, nothing is impossible.”
Never in a million years did I think I would be willing to reach out to my estranged father to ask him to pull some strings and throw some money around for me. I was happy having nothing to do with the man, but knew the only way I could get in to see Sawyer was with his help.
My old man didn’t seem at all surprised to hear from me now