Page 75 of The Missing Half

“You honestly don’t know what happened,” she snaps. “Do you? You honestly have no idea.”

I freeze.

This is it—I can feel it—the piece of the story she’s been hiding, the reason her explanation hasn’t quite fit.

“What do you mean?” I say slowly.

She is silent.

“Kasey?”

“Never mind. Forget it.”

“No. Tell me.”

“I’m just upset,” she says. “I was lashing out.”

But I know she’s lying. The story she’s told me is a like a crumbling house, and I’m standing inside it, watching as the shingles drop from the roof.

“Tell me,” I say again.

“There’s nothing to tell, Nic.” Her voice sounds strained, as if I’m squeezing my hands around her neck. “I told you everything already.”

My gaze darts around the inside of the truck, and an idea hits me. It’s idiotic and dangerous, but at this point I don’t care. Without letting myself second-guess it, I lunge sideways and grab the steering wheel with both hands.

Kasey screams.

I jerk the wheel to the left—she wasn’t expecting this, and her grip gives little resistance—then I swing it back to the right so we don’t crash off the side of the road.

“What the fuck, Nic!” she shouts. “Let go.”

“Tell me the truth and I will.”

“You’re going to get us killed!”

I spin the wheel again. This time, though, she’s gripping it hard, and it’s a fight. The truck lurches off the edge of the road, then lumbers back on. I hear a tumbling sound from the back and realize with a sickening jolt that it’s Jenna’s body.

It reminds me of all the ways she kept me in the dark. But while Jenna might not have done it to protect me, as I originally suspected, I know with a bone-deep certainty that’s what Kasey’s doing now. I’m so sick of being lied to, sick of being condescended to and coddled. I have not been the same since the summer of 2012, and if anyone deserves to know the truth about what happened, it’s me.

“I know you think you’re doing what’s best for me,” I say. “But you’re not.”

She scoffs.

“I don’t need you to take care of me, Kasey. I never have. So just tell me the truth!”

“I’ve already told you—”

I jerk the wheel again and she shrieks.

“Like fuck you have!” I shout. “You’re still trying to shelter me. And you know what? I always thought the reason you did everything for me when I was younger was because I couldn’t take care of myself. But it’s the other way around, isn’t it? I couldn’t take care of myself because you did everything for me.” I’m so angry now, so desperate for answers, I’m not even sure I believe the words pouring out of my mouth, but I don’t stop them. This is Kasey’s button, and I’m going to push it. “You’re the reason I’m like this. You’re the reason I’m such a fuckup, because you babied me and then you abandoned me.”

“Stop it,” Kasey says.

I wrestle the steering wheel and we veer sideways. “If you hadn’t shielded me from everything all the time, I might’ve actually done something with my life.”

“Shut up!”

“Without you—”

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