Page 32 of One Last Secret

“She’ll open her legs for him soon,” an unpleasant voice to my left says. “If she hasn’t already.”

My wistful smile twists into a frown. “There’s no need to be unpleasant, Mother. I’m sure you were young and in love once.”

She laughs bitterly. “I was young and obsessed with sex once. As for love? That didn’t happen until your father.”

I sigh and leave my place by the window. There’s no talking to Mother when she’s like this. Which means there’s no talking to Mother ever.

“It’ll happen for you one day too, Mary. You’re plain and sensible, so you think it won’t happen, but it will. Be careful when it does. It seems sweet at first, but that sweetness will suffocate you. And by the time you learn that love is only a precursor to hate, it’s too late to stop.”

This is just too much. I spin on my heel to snap at her.

And water floods my mouth. I flinch and flail my arms, falling to the ground as the water drags me backwards. I cough and spit and gasp and look up just in time to see another wave coming toward me.

I shriek and close my eyes just before the wave hits me. It throws me back into the rock, and it is only luck that keeps my skull from slamming into Annie’s image.

The water recedes, and I rush for the tunnel. The water has risen to my chest. The tide! The tide has come in!

I wade forward as fast as I can. Another wave comes and floods the tunnel, dashing me once more against the rocks.

When the wave recedes, I see light ahead. I swim toward it, weeping with fright, but beneath the fright, I realize that it’s after dawn. I’ve somehow managed to daydream again. How long was I standing in front of that drawing?

The water floods the tunnel again. It carries me toward the door, but I crash against the entrance. A sharp pain courses through my head when I strike it on the rock.

I don’t waste time trying to assess how badly I’m hurt. I just pull myself through the tunnel and into Fairy Cove.

The water is tumultuous. The tide has risen above the rocks and is now unleashing the full power of the ocean on me. The calm of the night is an odd contrast with the violence of the morning. It’s as though the ocean is mocking me, flaunting the danger I’m in despite the illusion of safety that daylight should bring me.

I was just out here in the morning! It was calm! How have the tides changed so rapidly?

No time to dwell on that. I swim toward shore, diving under the waves when they retreat and letting the momentum carry me forward when they arrive.

It’s painfully slow progress. Salt stings my eyes, and I don’t know if it’s blood or the water. My arms and legs burn with effort. I don’t know if I’ve lost my phone or if it’s in my pocket, but even if the water hasn’t ruined it, there’s no chance of calling for help and less chance that it would arrive in time.

I struggle forward, and my hands nearly grasp the banister, now partly submerged in the water. I sob with desperation and reach again.

A hand grasps mine and pulls me from the water. I scream and fall into the arms of Sean O’Connell.

“Mary! What the bloody hell are you doing out here? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

I fling my arms around him and cling tightly to his shoulders. I try to speak, but I can only sob.

He wraps me in his embrace and says softly, “It’s all right, Mary. It’s all right.”

I close my eyes and bury my face in his neck. Slowly, the terror recedes. I’m safe. He’s got me.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I wince as the doctor snips the end off of the sutures. “These are the kind that dissolve after a while,” she says, “so you won’t need a follow up appointment unless you get an infection. If you have a fever or feel nausea or dizziness, you need to call me. Everything else is just mild bruising. I can prescribe you something for the pain, if you’d like.”

I shake my head. The last thing I need right now is a substance that will cloud my mind even further. “No, thank you. I’ll take ibuprofen if I need something.”

I am in the living room on Victor's couch. Celeste and Evelyn are standing on the other side of the coffee table. Celeste is puffy-eyed from crying. I feel terrible for frightening her so. Evelyn looks at me with anger that I probably deserve, unless of course, her anger is because I've found a secret she wished would remain hidden. I can't believe that Victor would tell her about the haven, but if I can snoop, so can she.

I need to talk to Sean. He’s standing next to me and frowning down at me with his arms crossed. He’s not happy with me either, not that I blame him.

The doctor leaves, and the others watch me, waiting, I assume, for some explanation. When I don’t offer one right away, Evelyn says, “What the hell were you doing out there at six o’clock in the morning? Were you trying to get yourself killed?”

She sounds almost exactly like Sean did earlier. I hesitate before answering both of them. My initial desire to tell the police what I’ve found remains, but now that I know the dangers someone down there could face, I don’t want to reveal it in front of Celeste. I fear that Victor may have been caught at high tide in one of his own dissociative episodes and been swept out to sea.

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