Page 112 of Midnight Waters

I sat up and looked over at Ben’s shirt hanging off the back of my desk chair. He would surely want it back, even torn and bloodied.

As I picked it up and ran the fabric between my fingers, a warm feeling travelled up my arm and throughout the rest of my body. Maybe I didn’t want to give it back.

Either way, it needed a wash.

I gathered up his shirt and made my way down to the laundry room to toss his shirt in the washing machine, throwing a few of my own things in with it. I wouldn’t hear the end from Sandra if she caught me wasting electricity.

I watched the clothes go round and round for a few moments. Our clothes had an easier time of being together than me and Ben ever could.

Pulling my dressing gown around me a little more, I made my way back toward the stairs. If I couldn’t sleep, I might just text Kira and Allison with updates. I needed to get all this adrenaline out of my system somehow.

“Maeve.” On the first step of the stairs, Dad’s voice stopped me.

I turned around to see him poking his head out of the living room door.

“We’re having a family meeting. Come and join us,” he said.

A family meeting this late? Why did that feel so foreboding?

I followed Dad anyway to find everyone sitting around the living room, even Rose holding her new baby.

“Sit down.” Dad gestured to an armchair, and I accepted the invitation.

All eyes were on me again, just like on the beach. Why did I feel like I’d done something wrong?

“I’m just going to come out and say it,” Keith said from where he stood by the window. “Why the hell did you risk your life to save an Everhart?”

Wow. I knew this would come up at some point, but the same night?

“He isn’t just an Everhart, he’s a person,” I said. “I could save him, so I did. There was no question of letting him die.”

“What were you even doing together up there?” Sandra asked.

For once, she had a dressing gown on instead of her scrubs.

Well, I wasn’t keeping this under wraps any longer. Hopefully, only half the truth would keep them satisfied.

“Ben and I both believed that Tyler was murdered,” I said. “We had no choice but to cooperate if we were going to prove it to Mallory.”

Keith scoffed. “Have you ignored everything we’ve ever taught you? You can’t trust Everharts. What possessed you to collaborate with one?”

“And what if we hadn’t?” I asked. “Michaela Bakewell would be dead now, as well as Tyler. Is keeping this feud intact more important than other people’s lives?”

“We have to look out for our own,” Keith snapped.

“Everyone on this island is our own,” I said. “Are we any good as a community if we aren’t looking out for each other?”

“Not with them!”

“It’s funny.” I folded my arms and glared at Keith. “Without our families hissing in our ears about how much we’re supposed to hate each other, Ben and I have collaborated just fine. And we both think that this stupid feud has gone on long enough. It’s time we worked together to find out how to end it?—”

A loud bang echoed around the living room as Wendy slammed her fist down on a side table, and the room fell silent.

“My husband is dead because of those monsters,” Wendy spat. “And they remind me of it every single day.”

Rose uttered a small sob and held her sleeping baby a little closer.

“Nobody who’s alive today created the curse that killed Ray,” I said. “We’re suffering the consequences of choices made by people who are long dead. Why can’t we make the choice to change it so that we don’t lose anyone else for no good reason?”

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