Verity(80)
If it even is the truth.
“Lowen?”
I flush the rest of the pieces of paper in the toilet. I flush again for good measure, just as Jeremy knocks on the door.
“You okay?” he asks.
I turn on the water and try to calm my voice. “Yes.” I wash my hands, then take a sip of water to ease the dryness in my mouth. I look in the mirror and recognize the terror in my eyes. I close them, attempting to push it back. All of it. Every terrible thing I’ve witnessed in my thirty-two years.
The night I stood on the railing.
The day I saw the man being crushed beneath the tire.
The manuscript.
The night I saw Verity standing at the top of the stairs.
The night she died in her sleep.
I push it all back. I swallow it like I swallowed her letter.
I blow out a breath and then open the door and smile at Jeremy. He reaches up and runs a hand down the side of my head. “You okay?”
I swallow my fear, my guilt, my sadness. I cover it all up with a convincing nod. “I’m alright.”
Jeremy smiles. “Alright,” he says quietly, threading his fingers through mine. “Let’s get out of here and never come back.”
He holds my hand throughout the house and doesn’t let go until he opens my door and helps me into his Jeep. As we’re driving away, I watch the house grow smaller in the rearview mirror until, finally, it disappears.
Jeremy reaches across the seat and rubs my stomach. “Ten more weeks.”
There’s an excitement in his eyes. One I know I was able to put there, even after all he’s been through. I brought light into his darkness, and I will continue to be that light so he’ll never be lost in the shadows of his past.
He will never know what I know. I’ll make certain of that. I will take this secret to my grave with me so Jeremy doesn’t have to.
I have no idea what to believe, so why put him through more anguish? Verity could have written that letter as a way to try and cover her tracks. It could have been another ploy at manipulating the situation and everyone involved.
And even if Jeremy really was the reason for her wreck, I can’t blame him. He believed Verity maliciously murdered his child. I can’t even blame him for ultimately following through with her murder when he found out she had been deceiving him about her injuries. Any parent in his position would have done the same. Should have done the same. We both believed in our hearts that she was a threat to Crew. To us.
No matter which way I look at it, it’s clear that Verity was a master at manipulating the truth. The only question that remains is: Which truth was she manipulating?
The End