9

“I can turn around,” Jo says as we both stare out the car window at Ethan who is waiting on my sidewalk, his eyes on us. “You do not have to see him after the night you’ve had. Hell, he was probably behind it.”

“I don’t think he was,” I tell her, and it’s the truth. It doesn’t mean I’m on his side, I just don’t think he’s part of it now. “And I can deal with Ethan.”

She nods, and we get out of the car. We walk up toward the front of the apartment, and as she reaches Ethan, Jo says to him, “You should be ashamed of yourself, Ethan. You’re the worst kind of man there is. If you hurt her again, you’ll have me to deal with.”

Then she walks past, shoving her shoulder into his as she does.

I love my best friend. I love her more than life.

She disappears inside, and I look to Ethan, saying, “I’m not in the mood for you tonight, Ethan. I’m really not.”

His face twists, like my words pain him, and he says, “Let me talk to you. Five minutes, it’s all I’m asking.”

I stare at him. “Do you know what happened to me tonight?”

He studies me, really taking me in, and his face hardens. “What did they do?”

“They sent people into the bar I was in to call me killer and other horrible names and torment me about Celia in front of everyone. That’s what they did. They’re not going to stop until I crumble. But you already know that, don’t you?”

His fists clench with anger. “I had nothing to do with that, or anything they’ve done to you since you left that prison.”

“You expect me to believe that?” I snap.

“If you let me speak with you, I can explain it ...”

“You mean explain how you used me to help out with their sick little plan. How you pretended to be my friend so they could torment me?”

“I am your friend, Callie,” he argues.

I lean in close to him. “Don’t you fucking ever use that word to me again. You don’t know the meaning of the word friend.”

He looks like I’ve slapped him, but I don’t care.

I don’t care because that’s how I feel every second of every day.

“Give me five minutes, and then, if you never want to speak to me again, I’ll leave you alone.”

I stare at him, rage coursing through my body like a god damned hurricane just building, waiting to explode and destroy everything in its path.

“Five minutes,” I mutter. “Not a second longer.”

He nods.

I don’t move to sit or go inside. I stay standing right where I am and wait. I don’t know if I’m ready to hear what he’s going to say to me, but at the same time, part of me has been desperate to know this story from the moment I found out who they were. I want to know all of it, even if it hurts.

“I grew up with Tanner, Andrea, and Celia,” Ethan tells me. “I lived just down the road, and Tanner was my best friend in school. Celia, she was like the little sister I never had. I had a hard upbringing, things weren’t always easy for me, but that family made me feel like I had a home, always. They kept me afloat during times when I had nothing, when I thought I was going to sink.”

I swallow but say nothing, just hold his eyes. Emotionless.

“When Celia died, it was hard. It was hard on everyone. Tanner was away serving, and the two of us hadn’t spoken for a few months because I didn’t go with him. Their parents were going through a really hard time. Then they lost Celia. In the most tragic way. When Tanner came home and found out what happened, he went into a rage. He wanted revenge. He wanted you to suffer. You took away the only thing in this world Tanner Yates has ever truly cared about.”

“Why?” I ask, my voice husky. “Why did he care about her so much?”

“Because he had to protect her. Because she looked up to him. Because without her, he wasn’t complete. They had an incredible bond, if someone picked on Celia, Tanner would bring them down in any way he could. If Celia was unhappy, Tanner would go to great lengths to make her happy. She brought this light into his life. She had this spirit that was so ... pure. The two of them were close, but only he could tell you more in-depth why that was.”

I nod, crossing my arms, trying to keep a barrier up between us, even though my chest is aching and my stomach is doing flip flops.

“When Celia died, he lost it. He just ... lost it. As I said, he wanted you to suffer. He wanted you to pay for taking her away. When we found out where you were getting locked up, he saw it as a chance for me to get in and create the ultimate revenge plan. I could be your guard. I could make sure you didn’t have it easy. When you got out, he would make sure you never lived a happy moment in your life again, so you knew what it would feel like for him, what it feels like for him every day.”

I swallow what feels like a hard lump stuck in my throat. I close my eyes and take a deep shaky breath, emotions that I can’t quite process radiating through my body.

“It was an accident,” I whisper.

“I know,” Ethan tells me. “Within a few weeks of getting to know you, I could see that the person you had been painted as, was not correct. I believed your story. I saw the truth in your eyes. I knew that you weren’t bad, and that you weren’t at fault. I told them that I wasn’t going to keep helping them, and I pulled away. I swear to you, I stopped. I made sure you were protected. Tanner disowned me, and we stopped speaking.”

I rub my hands down my face and murmur, “You could have told me, Ethan. All those times I told you things were happening to me, you could have told me. You chose to let them keep doing those things.”

Ethan nods, his face solemn. “Yeah, I know. Because they’re my family, because I know how broken Tanner is, because I thought maybe I could change it. I didn’t want them to get into trouble for it. I didn’t want them to hurt you. It was messed up.”

“I had a right to be warned. I had a right to know that the man I thought I was dating was only doing it to hurt me.”

“I tried to tell you to stay away from him.”

I shake my head, laughing bitterly. “You could have tried a little harder. You could have just told me what they were doing. You owed me that.”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, I did owe you that. Look, I never meant to let you get hurt. I never meant to lie to you. Those people, they walked me through the worst times in my life, I felt like I owed them. I felt like I had betrayed them as it was, and let my family down, but then at the same time I really cared about you and ... it was fucked, Callie. If you have any idea what it was like for me ...”

“What it was like for you?” I whisper, my voice cracking. “What about what it was like for me? I trusted you. I thought you were the one true friend I had outside of Jo. I thought that I was going to come out into this life again and find my way. Instead, I’ve been tormented and attacked, and you knew all along and didn’t tell me. You stood back and watched it happen. If you wanted to, you could have found a way.”

Ethan exhales and closes his eyes. “You’re right, I could have. I’m sorry. I need you to know I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, you are my friend, and I care a great deal about you.”

“Not enough to be on my side,” I say, feeling my eyes burning with unshed tears. “Your five minutes is up.”

“Callie ...” he calls when I turn and walk toward the apartment.

I stop, but I don’t look back at him.

“I don’t want to not have you in my life,” he tells me, and my heart twists.

I look at him over my shoulder. “You should have thought of that before you did what you did. Goodbye, Ethan.”

I walk up to the front steps, and a tear rolls down my cheek.

A tear for the lies.

A tear for the betrayal.

A tear for the best friend I just lost.

~*~*~*~

“ARE YOU SURE ABOUT this?” Jo asks me, as I take a sheet of paper from the printer with the emails from Chase to Celia before she died.

“Yes,” I say, taking out three copies and standing. “It’s time.”

“Are you sure tonight is the night?”

“Yep,” I tell her. “Andrea asked me to go out with the girls, and Tanner has been trying to call, which he doesn’t do anymore. I know it’s because he’s trying to get an idea of where I’ll be and when. I also know that Tanner and Tatum are both free tonight, and Andrea has confirmed I’m coming three times, so I’m not silly, they have it planned for this evening.”

“How are we going to get back here again? Go over the plan so I’m clear.”

I nod. “We’re going to go out, all dressed up, because I have no doubt they’ll be watching us as we leave. We’re going to drive around the block, wait half an hour, text Andrea that we’re just stuck in traffic and that we’re nearly there. We’re also going to send her a selfie from the cab, big smiles, so she believes we’re on our way. Then we’re going to circle back around and see if they’re in the apartment. If they aren’t, we’re going to go inside, sit in the dark, and wait. If they are, we’re going to walk in, flick on the lights, and blow their damn minds.”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Jo asks, looking a little concerned.

“This was your idea, honey,” I point out.

“Yes, I know, but the plan has so many holes ...”

“It does, but it’s the only one we have right now. It may not work, and if it doesn’t, we’ll find another way. I want them to be shocked. I want them to see that we’ve been one step ahead of them. I want them to truly know who they’re messing with.”

Jo nods, and then exhales. “Well then, let’s get ready to go out.”

I put the emails down on the table, and then Jo and I go inside and get ready for our night out with Andrea. We dress up, do our makeup, and I text Andrea a few times telling her we’re getting ready and how excited we are. She seems pumped and overly nice, so I’m plenty certain tonight is definitely the night they have planned to come into our apartment and find whatever it is they need to justify their horrible actions.

When we’re done, I put the emails in a folder and put them somewhere I can easily access them, and then I turn to Jo and put my hands on her shoulders. “Are you ready?”

She nods, exhaling loudly. “Yep, I’m ready. Let’s kick some ass.”

I smile at her, pushing down my nerves, and we head out. I lock the door as usual, and we make sure we laugh and make quite the spectacle as we wait for our cab. If someone is watching, I want them to see that we’re happy and we’re not suspicious, and we’re heading out for a night with the girls, none the wiser.

When our cab arrives, we climb in, and the nerves hit in full force. I have to push them down, though. I can’t show any emotion. When I do what I’m about to do, I have to bring out the Callie that I’ve tried very hard to push down. The cold one, the one who has seen pain and lived through hell. The one who doesn’t take any crap from anybody. I have to bring her out. I have to be strong, and I have to be determined.

“Time for a selfie?” I ask Jo.

She nods, and we snap a happy selfie, and then after about ten minutes text it to Andrea saying we’re in the cab and on our way. She sends back an excited text, and I lean forward to the cab drivee and say to him, “Here is fine.”

He pulls over and we pay him, getting out in a random location. Then, we wait another twenty minutes. I text Andrea telling her we’re stuck in traffic but we’re nearly there. She doesn’t seem suspicious judging by her quirky reply. Jo and I catch another cab back to my place, and when we arrive, the sun has just set, making the streets darker than usual, with only the streetlights giving a dull glow.

“Do you think they’re in there?” Jo asks after we’ve paid the cab a few houses down.

We slowly walk toward our apartment.

When we arrive at the front, nothing seems amiss. It appears to be dark inside, nothing suspicious happening at all.

Then I see a small flash of light coming from my bedroom window. It flickers past, so quickly I nearly miss it.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m looking for it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it.

“Did you see that?” I whisper to Jo.

“Yes,” she says, her voice shaky. “They’re in there.”

“Are you ready?”

She nods.

“Let’s show them who they’re messing with.”

We make our way to the front door of the apartment and Jo very quietly unlocks it. I take a deep staggering breath, knowing that I have to be the strongest I’ve had to be in a long time when I walk through this door.

They can’t see weakness.

They can never see what they’ve done to me, because then they’ll know they’ve won.

They can never win.

We push the door open quietly, and I see the flash of light in the kitchen. Whoever is in there, shines the flashlight in our direction, having heard the door. It’s now or never.

I reach my hand to the side and I flick on the light.

I’m presented with exactly what I thought I’d be presented with.

Tanner, Tatum, and Garrett. All of them dressed in dark colors, holding flashlights. Garrett has clearly just come out of the hall, so I’m guessing it was him who was in my room. Tanner has my folder in his hands, the folder containing the emails. I don’t know if he’s opened it or not. Tatum is in the kitchen, I have no idea what he thought he’d find in there, but I’m guessing he was rummaging through the drawers.

For a moment, just a moment, the room is dead silent.

It’s my turn.

It’s finally my turn.

To speak. To have control.

I’m in charge now.

“Well,” I say, my voice husky and low, “would you look at what we have here?”

Nobody says anything.

I take a step into the room.

I’ve played over this scene in my head a million times, what I was going to say, how proud I was going to be to see the looks on their faces, knowing it was me who caught them in their little game. Now I’m here, though, the words aren’t coming. They’re not coming how I thought they would. So, I just say whatever comes to my mind first. I just say it how it is, in this very moment.

Right now.

“You didn’t honestly think I was so stupid that I wouldn’t catch onto your little plan, did you, Tanner?”

The look on his face as realization that I know what he’s doing washes over makes me feel powerful. It’s a shocked expression, slightly guilty, a little pissed, but mostly confused. He’s no doubt wondering how the hell I figured it out. He’s about to get his answers.

“Callie ...” he begins, but I raise a hand.

“Here’s what’s going to happen right now,” I say, my voice hard. “If you don’t want me to call the police and have you charged for breaking and entering, not to mention all the torment you’ve laid on me in the last month, then you’ll sit your fucking asses down, and you’ll hear what I have to say.”

Tatum glances at Tanner, but until that moment, his eyes have been on Jo. An unspoken conversation going on between them. I know her expression will be that of disappointment, and I know, deep down, that bothers him. Garrett doesn’t say a word, he just stands, watching it all unfold. Watching the truth slowly unravel.

“It wasn’t an option,” Jo mutters, her voice full of anger and disappointment. “Sit the hell down, or we call the cops.”

Tanner’s eyes lock onto mine and, for a moment, it feels like we’re the only two people in the room. So much passes between us. So much pain and anguish and heartache, but mostly betrayal. Brutal betrayal. He now knows that I know, and he can now see the true pain in my eyes as he realizes just how much he’s hurt me.

“There is nothing you can say that we haven’t already heard,” Tatum growls, crossing his arms. “You’re a killer. You know it. We know it. Everyone knows it.”

I look to him, and my voice is a low hiss when I say, “Are you sure about that, Tatum? Are you willing to bet that I don’t have anything to say that Tanner here might not have heard?”

Tatum’s face will live on in my memory. His expression changes, just for a second, to one of uncertainty. I know he’s wondering, deep down, if I do know something. He’s currently going over every single move he made when he had his brother’s name changed, when he helped him disappear, when he lied to his best friend. He’s making sure he had all his tracks covered. I know exactly what is swirling through his mind right now.

“Tatum is right,” Tanner finally speaks, his voice so thick with emotion, it is almost unrecognizable. What does he have to be emotional about? He’s a god damned monster.

“Tatum is a liar, and I’m not going to give you another chance. Sit down and hear what I have to say, or I call the police. What’s it going to be, Tanner?”

His jaw ticks, but he moves toward the table and sits. Tatum slowly moves over, too, and takes a seat.

When they’re down, I walk toward Tanner and take a seat so I’m facing both of them. Jo stands behind me. Garrett crosses his arms, but he doesn’t say a word.

“I see you’ve found my folder,” I say to Tanner. “Good, because it has what you need to know inside.”

Tanner glances at Tatum again, and then opens the folder and looks down at the emails I’ve printed out. He reads them over, and it takes more than a few minutes for him to figure out what’s going on in them. Shaking his head in confusion, he looks up. “Where did you get these?”

“Allow me to explain,” I say, putting my elbows on the table and leaning forward. “You see, I know what happened the night I hit Celia Yates with my car. I know it, yet nobody believed me. Nobody except Jo, of course. When I got out of prison, I made it my mission to prove to the world that Celia killed herself. So, I broke into her house. You can only imagine, Tanner, what I found there.”

Tanner’s face changes, and his eyes flick left, then right, as he processes what I’m telling him.

“That’s right, Tanner Yates, I’ve known who you are for a few weeks now. I’ve known what you’ve been doing to me. I could have told you, but then I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this moment where I throw the truth in your lying, backstabbing face.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but I put my hand up, my voice a whip. “Do not fucking open your mouth.”

His eyes flash, but I keep going.

“I decided I was going to prove that I wasn’t lying, so I looked further. I dug deeper. I found those emails on Celia’s laptop. I started piecing things together. First of all, Chase’s last name in the emails was different to the name he used at school, and I pieced together that Chase is Tatum’s brother, but you already know that. Celia and Chase were together, but something happened, something really bad, something that made Celia take her own life.”

Tanner glances at Tatum, who looks so damned guilty I know now my plan will work. Tatum thinks I have the whole story, I can tell by his expression, and that’s all I need. Is for him to think I know the entire truth.

“Don’t listen to this shit,” Tatum growls, shoving his chair back and standing. “She’s lost her fuckin’ marbles, she could have made those emails up. Let’s get out of here.”

“Sit down, Tatum,” Tanner says through gritted teeth. “Now.”

Tatum glances at Tanner, but he sits down, his big fists clenched. He knows he’s done for, but it’s about time he owned up to what he’s done.

“Finish your fuckin’ story,” Tanner says to me.

“Gladly.” I smile bitterly. “So, after reading those emails, I was even more determined to find out what happened to Celia. Because, regardless of what you think, I have thought about her every single day since that horrible night. I’ve wanted her justice more than you can possibly imagine. Without anyone on my side, that was damned hard, but finally I had a lead. I paid your dear mother a visit,” I say to Tatum.

He grits his teeth. “You fuckin’ ...”

“What?” I throw at him. “What could you possibly call me that wouldn’t be exactly what you are, too? A liar? A cheat? Manipulative? Sneaky? What, Tatum?”

He exhales angrily, panting with rage.

“Your mom,” I go on, my voice like a whip, “told me that Chase disappeared after Celia died, she had a great story as to why he doesn’t come and see her, but she did say that she still calls him. I stole his number from her phone. When you changed his name for him, Tatum, you should have probably thought that one through.”

“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Tanner growls.

“Your friend here helped Chase disappear. Why, you’re wondering? Well, it’s simple. He knows what his little brother did to your sister, and he knew you’d have his head for it, so he made him disappear and he let me take the blame. Haven’t you ever stopped to wonder why Chase hasn’t ever come back? Why he isn’t on Facebook? Why any trace of him has disappeared?”

Tanner’s eyes narrow as he takes it in, his mind clearly spinning a hundred miles an hour. He’s no doubt going over the last six years in his head, reliving all the moments where Chase hasn’t been around, and all the lies he’s been fed, all the stories as to why he hasn’t come home.

“I called Chase,” I go on. “I told him I knew what he did to Celia, and he confessed everything. But, when I told him he needed to go the police and tell the truth and he found out who I was, he hung up on me. He claimed he didn’t mean it to happen, and that it wasn’t his fault.”

Tanner looks confused, and he shakes his head a little, before looking to Tatum. “Is this true?”

My heart is racing. I’m so scared, so scared Tatum will call me out and ask what exactly it is Chase told me, and I’ll not have an answer for that, he’ll realize I only know half of it, and turn it around on me. It’s a likely scenario, I can only hope I’ve been convincing enough for him to confess.

I stare, my whole body on high alert, as Tatum looks at his best friend, and the two of them lock gazes, so much passing between them. Years of lies slowly unravelling before Tanner’s very eyes.

“Is it fuckin’ true, Tatum?” Tanner roars, slamming his fist down on the table so hard I jerk, skittering backward. Jo jumps behind me. Tatum flinches, and his eyes swing to me, feral and angry.

“Don’t you look at me like that,” I say, my voice low and angry. “You had no problem dragging me through hell to cover your tracks. You have no right to be angry at me for turning the tables back on you. No right at all. Revenge is sweet, isn’t it, Tatum?”

His jaw ticks, and he looks back to Tanner. “She doesn’t know the whole story and—”

“What happened to my sister?” Tanner whisper hisses, so low and angry even I scoot back a little.

“Tanner, let me explain and—”

“What the fuck happened to Celia?” Tanner bellows, launching over the table so quickly I can do nothing but shove my chair backward so hard I slam into Jo.

Tanner grabs Tatum and the two of them fall onto the floor, knocking chairs over, causing things to fly off the table and smash on the ground. Fists start flying and I don’t know what to do. I stare at the two of them, rolling around on the ground, punching each other so hard they’re going to leave marks. Garrett rushes over and tries to pull Tanner off, but his attempts are futile, he’s too angry.

“Stop!” Jo screams, but I grab her shoulder and pull her back when she goes to take a step forward.

“No,” I say, my voice scarily calm. “No, leave them be.”

The two of them fight until they’re panting, until blood is dripping, until the rage is only slightly satiated. Only then does Tanner get to his feet, staring down at his best friend with a look of betrayal. I won’t lie, my heart, deep down inside, feels a little achy watching the hurt in his eyes. I shake my head and shake the feelings away with it. Tanner Yates deserves this. So does Tatum.

They all do.

“I will ask you again, what happened to Celia?” Tanner pants, his fists clenched.

Tatum looks up at him, blood running down his cheek from a split under his eye.

“I don’t know the full story,” he rasps, his voice husky and low. “All I know is that Chase got himself into some trouble, some big trouble. Drugs. I tried to help him out of it, but he had already sunk himself too deep. Wasn’t takin’ them, but he was sellin’ them. He owed a lot of money. People wanted to make him suffer. They took him and Celia, wanted to teach him a lesson. They drugged him, and ...”

“And what?” Tanner growls, his voice low and throaty.

“They raped her. Eight of them. One after another. In front of Chase. He didn’t do anything, he couldn’t, he was drugged. Couldn’t move. He loved her, Tanner ...”

I feel sick.

My whole body feels like it’s going to crash onto the ground.

So many thoughts swirl through my mind.

My skin prickles.

My stomach turns.

But my heart, oh, god, my heart, it breaks. It shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.

Eight of them.

Eight.

I make a pained sound and grip my chest; it feels like my whole world is crashing down around me at the news. The horror that poor girl lived through makes me sick to my stomach. It makes me want to scream, just to stop the feelings tormenting me right now. How she even breathed a day after that, is beyond me. That poor girl, living through that with nobody on her side, nobody to protect her.

I see her face in my mind again, the broken eyes, the sympathetic smile she gave me. She didn’t want to die. She had no other choice. She would have sat alone, scared and sick, wondering how the hell she was ever going to get out of the nightmare she was reliving over and over. She would have thought that no matter what she did, she would never be happy again. She thought it was the end of her road.

The end of her story.

Tanner doesn’t move.

He doesn’t speak.

He just stands there, his hands by his sides, no doubt feeling the exact same things I’m feeling right now.

“She got HIV,” I whisper to myself, loud enough for Tatum’s eyes to swing to me. “She got HIV from them, not only did she go through the worst hell imaginable, she was going to have to live with it for the rest of her life. Her short life. Oh, Celia ...”

Tanner turns and looks at me, really looks at me. His eyes scan over me, and he murmurs, his voice low, “She stepped out in front of your car.”

It’s not a question.

More like he’s finally realizing that he was wrong. All this time.

He was wrong.

So fucking wrong.

“Yes,” I whisper. “Yes, she did.”

His eyes scan over my face, and then he murmurs low, “Are you happy now?”

His question stuns me.

Shocks me.

Am I happy now?

I thought I would be. I thought bringing the truth to light would make me feel so much better.

But I don’t feel better.

I feel so much worse.

The truth is a dagger that’s just twisting our pain deeper.

“No,” I whisper.

“You went on about the kind of monster I am, for doing what I did. Guess what, Callie? You just became the same kind of monster.”

His words are like a knife to the heart.

A horrible truth I can’t bear to face.

My hands go over my chest, and clutch tightly, as if hanging on will keep my heart from leaping out and shattering.

He turns, walking past me and past Jo, straight out the front door. Everything in my body screams at me to go after him, to help him, to make it better, but I can’t. I can’t move. I can’t think. Tatum calls out after him, but Garrett steps in, glaring down at the man on the floor. “Leave him,” he growls, low. “Leave him be.”

Tatum stands, his face bloodied, his body trembling from rage, and shock and probably guilt and pain at what he’s just put his best friend through. Then his eyes swing to Jo. She’s looking at him, like she’s utterly heartbroken, like she truly didn’t see him for what he was until now.

“He’s my brother, Jo,” he whispers, his voice broken. “I had to help him.”

“You didn’t have to lie,” she says, her voice trembling. “You didn’t have to let my best friend go down for it. You didn’t have to encourage Tanner to torment her. You didn’t have to do anything you did, Tatum. You chose to. Now get out of my house. Get out. Please, get the hell out.”

“Jo ...”

“Get out!” she screams.

Tatum looks to me, and for the first time, I see true regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Callie.”

Then the two of them leave.

I turn to Jo, and a tear rolls down her cheek.

I rush over, pulling her into my arms.

“Celia,” she whispers.

I clench my eyes shut, fighting back the pain that bursts forth.

“Poor Celia,” she sobs.

Yeah.

Poor Celia.

She didn’t deserve any of this.