Page 114 of Truth or Dare

“I’m outside, Tia, but Tommy’s gonna be there in two minutes. He wants you to tell the girls all to go to their rooms. Separately. Luc with Tessa. He wants you in your bedroom, too.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Those are the orders, Tia,” Dex replied. “Need me to come in and enforce?”

“I think I’ll be okay. Thanks, Dex.” I hung up.

“Tell me,” Lisa said. “I want to know exactly how it happened. I need to know.”

“Lisa, I’m sorry but I have orders that we’re all to wait in our bedrooms. Separately. Luc, can you please go to Tessa’s room?”

Luc and Tessa both looked confused. Tessa had a broom and dustpan and started to head toward the bathroom.

“Guys!” I exclaimed, “Seriously. We’re under some kind of threat right now. You know we’re on lockdown. We need to follow Tommy’s orders and go to our rooms. I’m sure there’s a reason for this.”

Tommy was already coming in the doorway. “What the fuck did I say?” He looked incredulously at me and at the others. Lisa was standing by the sofa looking at Tommy with hatred on her face.

“Go!” he shouted to his sisters. They both started to move toward the stairs.

“You killed my husband, didn’t you?” Lisa said and the sisters both stopped in their tracks and stared at Lisa and then looked to Tommy in unison.

“Go,” Tommy repeated, through clenched teeth.

“Lisa…” I started.

“Tia, stop,” Tommy snapped.

I looked to him and didn’t know if I should stay or go.

I stood there and waited.

“I loved him.” Lisa started to cry.

Tommy sighed and thrust his hand through his hair. “You don’t want to have this conversation. Trust me.”

“And at least I was going to have a piece of him, you know? But now my baby is dead and so is my piece of him.”

“I’m sorry you lost the baby. You need to chill out, though, Lisa. You need–”

“I need to know what happened.”

“Fuck.” Tommy’s face was so filled with pain it hurt me like a physical blow.

Lisa sobbed. “I tried to forget, I tried to bury the pain like I bury all my emotions, but I just keep…feeling. I keep feeling so much.” She looked at me, eyes pleading for me to understand.

“He tried to kill us,” I blurted. “Tommy had no choice.”

“Tia!” Tommy stared at me and shot daggers from his eyes.

I continued anyway. “It was self-defense, Lisa. It was. Tom had me taken to that cabin and he was going to kill me in front of Tommy. He was gonna shoot Tommy, too. It was self-defense. It was like a quick draw race. Tom was about to shoot and Tommy drew on him to save us.”

“Tia, shut it.”

“No Tommy, it was. You need to hear this, too. You did the only thing you could’ve done. Lisa, he’s not sleeping. He’s tormented. He is in so much pain over losing his father but it’s not his fault. It’s Tom’s fault. You loved Tom and I’m sorry but Tommy loved him, too. Tom did this, not Tommy.”

Lisa covered her face and fell to the floor and wept into her hands. I went to her and put an arm around her. She cried into my shoulder and put her arms around me.

I looked up to Tommy’s face and he was staring at the ceiling, flexing his jaw. I looked past him and saw that his sisters were in the doorway.

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