Page 85 of Where the Darkness Goes

Everything.

It was all a lie. I was kept here in the shadows, lied to and manipulated and sheltered to protect me from a man I trusted. A man who was the most fatherlike figure in my life.But he is my father.

He’s my…

I stand and grab the bowl where our keys go from the coffee table, throwing it across the room with a feral scream. How could they do this to me?

Who else knows? Who are the other children? My…siblings?

Could Britney have been my sister?

So many questions race through my mind. This news chopped my world into pieces with a cleaver, fracturing parts of myself, my beliefs about life and goodness and community.

Everything is ruined. Everything is over.

Even if they had a good reason, how do we ever come back from this? How could I ever trust them again?

A knock on the door interrupts my thoughts, and I look up to see they’ve only been gone twenty minutes. It’s not nearly long enough.

I cross the room quickly, whipping open the door. “What do you?—”

Except it’s not Will. And it’s not Garrett.

Pastor Charles stands in front of me, his blond hair pressed down around the sides as if he’s been wearing a ball cap. “Tessa.” My name leaves his mouth with a heavy breath. “I was looking for Will.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

GARRETT — PRESENT DAY

The ride to the nursing home is made mostly in silence. I still don’t know what’s going on in Tessa’s head. I know when Will first told me, when he was going through his own battle with it, I needed a while to process. It not only meant that so much about my life was a lie, and that my family might also be a lie, but that there was a good chance Tessa and I could never be together again.

Will needed me more than Tessa, as much as I hated it. He was in a darker place than we’d realized, and he was processing it alone. As much as Frannie tried to help, he pushed her away. I was the only one who could break through the wall he’d put up. I had to focus on him, on getting him better and getting him out of there. And I did it.

I hate every day I was away from Tessa, but I will never regret saving my best friend.

Still, in this moment, I’m furious with him.

“We should’ve told her back then,” I say as we pull into the parking lot of Oak Meadows.

“We don’t know that it would’ve been better.” Will doesn’t look at me as he unbuckles.

I turn to face him. “She would’ve had a chance to talk to your mom about it then. To learn more of the truth than we can ever give her. We aren’t the right people to help her deal with this, man. She needs Frannie, and she’s…” I wave a hand in the direction of the facility, out of breath and out of words. With a shake of my head, I push open my door. “Let’s just go.”

He’s not going to agree with me. He’ll always think he was protecting her, but he may have just cost me everything. I finally had my chance with her again, and now we may have just fucked it all up.

I should’ve told her.

I chose Will over Tessa once, but that night, I should’ve been braver. I should’ve chosen her, fought for her—damn what Will said.

When we reach Frannie’s room and push the door open, I stop short at the sight of someone sitting in a chair next to her bed. Her blonde head turns to face us, and it takes several seconds for me to process who it is.

Mostly because my family doesn’t attend Pastor Charles’s church.

“Mrs. Mabel?” Will asks. I slip a hand into my pocket, trying to think. Why would she be here? What are the odds?

Pastor Charles’s wife, Mabel, turns to face us completely, her expression serious. “Will, hello.” She stands.

There aren’t supposed to be visitors in this room. Tessa was right not to trust this place.

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