Page 4 of Lies in Promises
I guess this is what you end up feeling when a cop car pulls up to your house one night with the news your parents are dead and you and your little brother are now orphans.
As I run my fingers along the tie Henry told me to wear today, my mind goes back to that night. As soon as it does, the tears I told myself I wasn’t going to shed today start flowing.
I’ve been playing video games in the entertainment room, which is just another name for the only room in this huge ass house where Mom lets me have a game console, for hours now. When I first sat down and put on my headphones, it was still light out. Sure, it was cloudy from the rain, but I knew it was still daytime. When I finally shut down the game, it’s so damn dark, I need a flashlight.
Huh.
Usually, Mom doesn’t let me play this long. She would have come in here as soon as she and Dad got home and told me to go read or play with Bennett or something. No way would she have let me continue to play.
I check the time on the watch Dad gave me for my sixteenth birthday and see it’s close to midnight.
Dad told me they would be home around nine, that they weren’t going to stay at the party for very long. But now, it’s almost three hours later.
Did they come home, and I didn’t notice?
Maybe, but if they’re home, there is no way Mom wouldn’t have come in here and taken the controller away.
Something is up.
Putting the controller away, I go look for Henry. Bennett without a doubt is already in bed, since Henry wouldn’t have let him stay up this late, especially with school tomorrow. Henry is disciplined and in turn keeps Bennett and I disciplined. Bed and wake up times, structure outside of school—everything is in order with him.
So, my staying up until almost midnight on a Sunday is unheard of.
Something is really up, and I know that for sure when I walk out to the front of the house and see Henry and Bennett.
Bennett is still up.
What the actual hell is going on?
And I’m going to ask that very question when the buzzer to the front gate of the property sounds through the house, stopping me in my tracks.
Who the actual fuck is here so damn late?
No way it’s my parents. Dad has a function in every one of his cars that opens the gate automatically.
Henry goes to the phone by the door, and as he does, I walk over to Bennett. I have the sudden urge to protect my little brother.
There’s an eight-year gap between us, and even though he thinks he can take on anything and everything the world throws his way, he can’t, and I will protect him the best I can.
We both watch as Henry talks to whoever is at the gate, and it doesn’t go unnoticed when he tenses up. His head shoots up, as if whatever the person on the other line is saying, he can’t believe.
Right away, it puts me in fight mode.
Something is wrong.
I just now it is. Not only can I see it in the way Henry is walking to the door after hanging up the phone, but I feel it too.
Whoever was at the gate is currently coming up the drive to the house, clearly here for something important. And whatever it is, it’s bad.
As Henry walks out of the house, both Bennett and I follow. When I see the cop car, I grab my brother by the shoulder and give him a hard squeeze.
The squeeze gets even harder when I see who gets out of the car.
My throat goes tight as the police sergeant walks over to Henry with a look of sympathy on his face.
I’ve seen this moment in movies.
There is only one reason why a police sergeant is here, and it’s to deliver bad news.
