Page 25 of All Our Secrets

The pressure building inside me got so strong I sucked in a breath. Did she miss Theodore that badly?

“I think Peyton is the reason I’m here. What if her sadness brought me back?”

I glared.

He tossed his hands up. “I’m serious.Why am I here, King? I need to know.”

Me too.

I’d be restless as long as he lingered. Or until he remembered and finally understood my turmoil. Then he’d know why I slept in the room across from Peyton. Why I’d settle for having her this much instead of having any other woman at all.

And then… We’d argue all over again.

∞∞∞

I silenced my phone for the twentieth time, tossing it on my desk as I skimmed over the budget. A second later, it rang again.

Devin poked his head through the door, quirking a brow. “You still haven’t answered that?”

I sighed, dropping the paper. “What is it?”

“Sarah and I are going to see Peyton and the baby when I clock out. Want to come?”

“Peyton had a break-in the other night.” It wasn’t a break-in.Theo is a fucking ghost. “I’m staying there tonight and every night until things are taken care of.”I’m trying to figure out what’s going on.Before Peyton could find out and… My heart constricted. I didn’t want her to know. I wanted Theodore to be just a figment of my imagination. But if I’d had her the way he had and I’d died, my soul would linger too. Because that was what I did now. Linger. A constant shadow in her life.

My phone stopped ringing, only to start up again. Anger slithered up my neck, prickling the hairs there.

Devin glanced at the device vibrating across the desk. “Is your mom back in town? Answer already, or you know she’ll come here.”

My shoulders sagged. No amount of time would ever prepare me to handle my mother. I fought the urge to rub the right side of my face.

When I scooped up my phone and dialed, Devin closed the door behind him, leaving me alone.

“Silas King!”

I closed my eyes against her high-pitched squeal and leaned back in the chair. “What’s the reason for the call?” I asked.

“Can’t your mother call her only son?”

It had never beena mother calling her son. She didn’t call or come around unless I could help her. “I’m at work. Make it quick.”

“I haven’t seen you since last year.”

Because she took off with some older rich dude. Like always. When I was a kid, she would leave me with Gram while she slipped out with one of her male suitors. If only she had taken me to Gram’s the night I nearly burned up in the fire. My mother, Faith, left me alone with an electric heater plugged in near my bed, which caused the fire that night and ruined my fucking skin. My life. She could barely look at me now.

I had survived, though, thanks to Gram. No one had ever treated me better than she had, but I’d lost her a few years ago to cancer. So the only person left to put up with Faith was me. My aunts, uncles, cousins—they’d all pushed me aside because they wanted nothing to do with her. Worked for me. I wasn’t interested in spending time with people who didn’t want me there. I couldn’t quite apply the same mindset to Faith, though. Time and time again, she abandoned and used me, but I couldn’t refuse her.

For someone tossed aside for so long, only ever called when needed, I should be used to being unwanted. But that wasn’t the case. My stomach turned to acid every time it happened.

Gram was the one person who had loved and accepted all the hate inside me,allmy marred skin. Then I met Theodore, and he did too. He was like a light. My life grew bigger with him by my side. His family fed me and took me places. I made friends because everyone loved him. Suddenly, I wasn’t so alone anymore. But eventually, everyone went home. Then I’d walk up to Gram’s steps all those years, every day, and wonder,why do I stay here instead of with my mom? Why does Theodore’s family go everywhere, to every ball game, and praise him? Why doesn’t Mom do that?

If Faith had left me at Gram’sthatnight, if I had been whole, then maybe I would have had the guts to tell Peyton who I was back then instead of letting her fall in love with my best friend.

“Silas?” Mom’s voice jarred me out of my reverie.

I exhaled.What am I doing?I hadn’t let my thoughts wander that deep in a long time.It’s Theo. Theodore and my guilt always went hand in hand. And Faith coming back to town didn’t help the matter.

“Silas.”

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