Page 57 of Lovers Fate

There’s no way this ugly thing should cost thirteen thousand dollars. Are used cars that much?

“Any warranty.”‘

“Three months, and it’s through us.”

I need a car badly, but there are thirteen thousand reasons I don’t. I’m better off renting an apartment and taking an Uber.

“Thanks, I’ll think about it.”

He gives me a fake smile. We both know I’m not interested. Visit us again or give us a call when you decide.”

After an hour of walking, I decide to focus on renting an apartment instead.

I end up at my old neighborhood and spot the house where it all happened. The house that upended my life sits on an open piece of land, boarded up with the words RAPIST and MURDERER spray-painted on the front doors, the sides, and the wood panels nailed to the front windows.

If I wanted to know if my mother still lived here, I do now. Seeing the words in big black letters tells me there were differences of opinion about what happened. The state of Massachusetts doesn’t require disclosing a stigmatized property, but in this case it doesn’t matter. No one would buy this house. It’s not a secret as to what happened inside. It’s taken me this long to show up. I wasn’t sure what I would find, or maybe I was afraid of what would happen if she still lived here. Would she scream at the top of her lungs that I’m a murder?

At least someone has mowed the grass. The trees, resembling skeleton figures in the fall, cover the back of the house densely with grass and trees from the wood line behind it. I heard the houses on this side of the street are investments, part of a huge estate located on Avery Street.

I look toward the house on the left and right. The neighbors must be pissed. There are For Sale signs on the front lawns. I guess the neighbors fled the neighborhood or decided to sell.

I glance at the house and want nothing more than to burn it down, but I can’t. The last thing I need is for the cops to have a reason to send me to jail.

The tiny hairs on my arms stand up from a surge of electricity. “Fucked up, isn’t it?”

I jump and turn around to find Kaden leaning on a black truck watching me. “You followed me?”

“You’re not difficult to find, and this is a small town. You shouldn’t be walking this far out by yourself.”

“I was planning on taking an Uber back.”

“From here?” He acts like I’ve lost my mind. “No Uber will come to pick you up from this house.”

“Why not?”

It’s not like I live there now, and no one knows who I am.

“Bad luck.”

He isn’t wrong. This house should be condemned.

“Why don’t they burn it?”

“I think the surviving wife wants to keep it as a reminder of what happened. Why are you here?” The curiosity in his gaze is obvious.

I glance at the house of horror and then back. “Would you run me if I told you?”

“Try me.”

If this isn’t the best way to push him and Draco away, I don’t know what is. What Draco did to Charles is probably no different. It’s not like they will run to the cops. I haven’t broken the law and served my time, even if in my eyes what I did to my stepfather was deserved.

“I used to live inside that house.” I’m hoping that he will understand without me having to explicitly say it.

“Before it happened? He asks, but the way his mouth turns down at the corners, he knows exactly what I’m saying.

“I am what happened, Kaden. That explains why no one truly knows me here. It’s because they don’t remember what I looked like. It’s why Draco was right not to let me stay with you.”

I hate admitting the truth out loud. But deep down, it’s the real reason I had to walk away.

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