Page 97 of Before Now

“Foster.”

I shake his hand on autopilot when he offers it, his grip firmer than necessary. Then he continues, “My wife and her daughter weren’t the closest, but I never thought Remi was capable…” His head shakes when he pauses, and I need him to fucking finish. “You seem like a good kid, Foster, so I’m just going to lay it out for you. Remi took off the day Rebecca passed with a man named Roman Moore. No one’s heard from her since.”

Roman. Her friend. The guy from the town square.

My insides twist, not only jealousy driving into me, but a biting sensation I’ve only felt twice in my life shoots beneath my skin. Once when my old man hugged the son he loved in front of me, and again when my mom pulled a knife on the son he didn’t.

“Took off.” I breathe, refusing to jump to conclusions, but it aches already. “What does that mean?”

“She’d been acting out for a while,” he says, “growing more disrespectful. We had a hunch she was hanging around this man as a way to hurt her mother.” When I stay silent, Daniel tells me, “Rebecca dated him years ago, and it affected me as well with him on the force. Christ, I worried he was taking advantage of her, but she was eighteen, so my hands were tied. Rebecca tried to talk to Remi, warn her away from him. But Remi wouldn’t hear it.”

I blink at him, hearing him but struggling to process more and more. “She was seeing her mom’s ex and ran off with him?”

They were together—that’s the part tripping me up. She listened to me about my dad and his secrets and cheating and betrayal. Now, I’m supposed to believe she was with another guy the entire time. Now she’s just done with me, no word or warning.

He nods, sticking his hands in his pockets. “After she found out about Rebecca, she bolted, and no one’s seen either of them since.” He shakes his head again with a shrug. “Her mother passed away, and the first thing Remi did was skip town with her ex. She’d been more secretive and lying all the time. But I never thought she was capable of such a selfish act. To not even grieve or attend the funeral?” His eyes close as he pauses. “She left all of us behind to worry, too.”

A numbness that started in my chest reverses. The concern in his tone sounds manipulated, and then his eyes open, locking on me the second his lids clear. Like he’s gauging my reaction.

Him being a piece of shit wasn’t the only thing Remi told me about him.

“Everyone treats him like a king when his crown’s made of deceit.”

“And you know they’re together?” I ask, studying him more closely.

“Roman called in his resignation the same day. No one’s seen him come or go from his house, windows always dark. I worried he might have abducted her,” Daniel adds, “but her friend, Sage, confirmed they’d been sneaking around.”

I try to match my Remi and the one he’s describing. Saint or Sinner. Not using her actual last name on an app means nothing in the grand scheme. Plenty of reasons exist for it.

But I saw Roman myself—heard her say his name and hurry off to talk to him. Her best friend would know better what was happening, being here in the flesh, than I ever could through a screen and not really seeing a damn thing.

It still feels like I’m missing something, though. I get cutting me off if she ran off with another guy—if she would really hurt me in the worst possible way. But why would she abandon Sage?

“You said no one has heard from her? Not even Sage?”

A head shake. “She’s heartbroken Remi abandoned her without saying goodbye, but she said Remi had been talking about leaving for a while, so … I guess she meant leaving everyone behind too.”

Her escape plan. Graduating early and never coming back. She hasn’t called or texted once since she left.

Suddenly not telling me her last name feels more important. A lot of shit suddenly looks a hell of a lot different. Like someone switched on the light.

“She hurt a lot of us, Foster…” Daniel keeps talking, but I stop listening.

I can’t with everything crashing over me at once. Realizations and truths. Him and her—not her and me. The lies and pretending and saying I’m not real. Maybe I was the only one not lying and who was never pretending. Maybe Remi Saint was the one who was never real—we were never real.

Chase was right. I was so fucking stupid, letting myself believe we were.

I’m unsure who to blame for the crack in my chest. For carelessly handing someone my heart to crush. Who played me harder. Who was a more beautiful liar all along. I’m unsure who’s betrayed me worse.

Remi Sinner or myself.

28

FOSTER

Now…

“I hate you.”

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