To the Stars (Thatch #2)(68)

I shook my head hastily and my body jerked when I backed into the wall.

“Guess, Harlow.”

“Um, you . . . I don’t—um. You didn’t eat. I didn’t make you anything else that you could to take with you and you didn’t eat breakfast?” I sputtered out quickly.

“No, but close.” He waited until his body was pressed against mine and he was looking down at me before he spoke again. “You threw up.”

If I wasn’t so worried about what he was about to do—not only for me, but because I knew Knox would try to interfere—I would have given him a questioning look. As it was, I stood there breathing shallowly, trying to figure out where this was going. “Y-yes,” I said, but it sounded more like a question.

“I know you don’t like eggs, but you didn’t have a reason to throw them up, unless you did in fact poison them. Why else would you need them out of your body so quickly?”

No. No, no, not this again. My voice was barely above a whisper when I said, “Collin, no.”

“What did you put in the salt shaker?”

“Salt, Collin, I told you. I will go make something else and eat it all if it will convince you!”

A wicked smile pulled at his lips; the look on his face said it was too little, too late.

I shook uncontrollably as I waited for something . . . anything. But instead of what I was used to, or any of the new things, he tilted his head to the side and all the blood drained from my head when he asked, “How’s Hadley?”

My body instantly swayed, but he was standing close enough that I didn’t go far. “No. No,” I whimpered. “Please, no. It was salt; I swear to you it was salt. Don’t touch my sister!” I begged.

“Touch her?” he scoffed. “I would never do that, wife.”

With the way he was looking at me, and the way he called me “wife,” I was so sure he knew about Knox. But as I stood there holding my breath, he didn’t mention him or the secret phone.

Collin reached into his back pocket, and a second later he was pushing my cell phone against my stomach. Once I had it in my hands, he stepped back and dipped his head in the phone’s direction. “I had to come home because I have no doubt someone is going to be calling you soon.” He turned and walked toward the couch, and the humor in his tone was unmistakable. “It’s convenient that your sister decided to stay in Richland over the summer, isn’t it?”

My stomach churned, and the dread that filled me over the next few minutes was enough to make me almost forget that Knox was hiding out in the guest room.

I jumped when my phone rang, and my chin began trembling when I saw “Mom” on the screen.

I looked over to where Collin sat on the couch with a sly grin and asked, “What did you do?”

His smile fell. “Me? That’s a bold accusation, especially considering neither of us actually has any idea what you’re even talking about. You should probably answer your phone.”

After tapping on the screen and bringing the phone to my ear, the tears began falling when I heard my mom sobbing on the other end. “Mom?”

“Oh, Harlow,” she whimpered, and her sobs increased. “Harlow, it’s Hadley, she—she drove her car into a-a-a—” She broke off, and I heard the phone being shuffled.

My dad’s voice didn’t sound much better, but he was able to get the words out. “Honey? We’re on our way, but can you get to the hospital? Hadley drove her car into a house. She’s alive, she’s going to be fine, but they said they think she was under the influence of something,” he said. “Did you know she was into this? How did we not know?” he asked himself before I could answer.

Not that I could or would anyway. I couldn’t even speak. My sister drank at parties, but never even to the point where she had to make up for it the day after. She definitely didn’t drink in the afternoon, and I could only assume “something” meant something other than alcohol. And that wasn’t Hadley. My eyes found Collin’s. No life, but they were still smiling.

I wanted to scream that it was Collin’s fault; that whatever Hadley had done was because of him. But then I would pay, Knox would try to save me, who knew what would happen to him, and then the rest of my family would pay even more than they already were.

“Harlow?” Dad asked. “Can you get there? She needs one of us there, and we’re still three hours away.”

“Of course, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said.

Dad choked out a sob. “It’ll be okay, Harlow. She’ll be okay. She will. She’ll be okay.”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me. Because Hadley would be okay, as long as I kept my mouth shut and tried to make Collin happy. “See you soon. Love you,” I whispered, then ended the call.

“Go make yourself presentable. Try to cover your cheek, and make sure your neck is covered. I’ll take you,” Collin said in a businesslike tone. “We can’t have you around them by yourself, now can we?”

I’d been staring at the floor, but when he finished talking, I slowly looked up at him. Inside I was screaming how much I hated him. I was taking all my anger from the last two and a half years out on him. I was making him regret ever touching me. On the outside I was still as stone as tears silently fell from my cheeks onto the floor.