Page 15 of All Our Secrets

“Ah, Silas,” Rosie said with a smile as she and Gerald entered the room. Silas moved away from the hospital crib, but Rosie still crowded him toward the wall until she got her hug.

I smirked at how uncomfortable he looked.

“I didn’t expect you to visit. Gerald told me you came to our aid last night. Thank you.”

Silas stiffened. “It’s nothing.”

“Now—”

“I should be going,” Silas said quickly, cutting Rosie off as he turned toward me. “In case the intruder comes back, I’m staying at your place while you’re here.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off.

“No buts.”

“Thank you, King.” Rosie patted Silas’s shoulder. “We can always count on you. Let us know if anyone does show. We can’t have Peyton and the baby staying there if it might happen again.”

My insides twisted. Oh no. I loved my in-laws, but I might die too if they tried to make me stay with them. I blinked several times at Silas’s widening mouth, and my lips flattened. That was not a smile. Silas didn’t do those. It was more like watching a shark open its mouth. Frightening.

You better find nothing.“I’m sure it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I probably scared them with my pistol,” I assured Silas, hoping my rapid blinks conveyed my annoyance.

“Mm-hmm,” was all he responded with, and it grated on my nerves.

Chapter Seven:

you’re dead

Silas

All I could focus on were the pictures hanging on the wall that celebrated Theodore and Peyton’s years together. I’d made sure to avoid them together as much as possible, but their house was like a glaring neon sign of the consequences of never speaking up.

Really, though, what would have changed if Peyton had known who I was? I was still an ugly fucker. Still a mean one too.

I rubbed my chest as the sharp pain hit. Glutton. I must be a sucker for punishment. How else could I willingly live around them for all these years? How did I bear the jealousy? The resentment?The regret? I hadn’t. In the end, my last conversation with Theodore had been about that regret. All my choices had piled up until I couldn’t handle them anymore. I had to let it out. And I did. Regret all over again.Because now I was silenced once more.

I stared at a picture propped on the TV stand. In it, the two of them were laughing together. Once, Peyton had been mine. Every night, despite all her dates, I was the one she spoke to, confided in, and laughed with. That was the problem. Even watching her with Theodore all that time, all the hugs, the mirth, and the love between them, never erased the way I felt. I’d never see Peyton as anything other thanmyPeyton. The girl I hadn’t taken the risk for.

I tried so hard to let Peyton go when I stopped playing video games. I ceased all contact. It was the stupidest thing I’d ever done. To think I could erase what had flourished for years. Inside, all these feelings still grew and yearned. But that was my mistake, and I had to live with it.

The outcome of my silence was her marrying my best friend. I suffered while she fell in love. But everyone had a tipping point. I’d reached mine right before Theodore passed. Instead of him, I should have left this world. Was this my punishment? To hover so close to happiness, yet still be unable to reach it? Did Theodore want this?

No. He wouldn’t want me near Peyton. Not even to keep her safe.

The door burst open, and the knob banged heavily against the wall. My skin prickled as I looked away from the picture and stepped into the hallway. Maybe that was why Theodore entered his home all night long. He wanted to make sure I stayed away.

I hadn’t imagined it. He really had stepped through the door and slipped through me. Peyton had heard someone open the door, had seen the boot prints. We all had, and we’d never found an intruder becausethere wasn’t one.

What I couldn’t understand was why Theodore kept doing the same thing over and over…

“Baby, I’m home,” Theodore called for the sixth time, then he walked into the hallway, slipping through me again.

This time I chose to interact with the ghost.Ifhe was a ghost and I wasn’t going off the deep end because of guilt. “Theo.”

I didn’t expect him to react or hear me during his nightly routine. I was wrong.

Halfway up the stairs, Theodore whipped around. “King? Why’d you come in? Peyton is going to have both our asses.”

My brows furrowed. “Theo…”

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