She nervously wets her lips, looking at her brother, before confessing, “He lost you. I don’t really remember you from when I was a child, but I remember how happy you made Cayden when you came back. It may only have been for a day, but it was enough for him. He was happy that you were free from this place. From the memories. That you’d worked your way to a powerful position at work. I told him to tell you to stay, but he always said that he couldn’t. And now…I think I know why.”
Cayden hisses, taking a step back.
“Lacey, why did you stay in Myrtle Beach?” I ask, remembering her earlier comment.
She swallows. “Because, for the past few weeks…I’ve felt like someone is watching me. All the time. And when Cayden told me to go and take Ellie with me, I knew something was wrong.” She holds up the folder, desperate for him to confirm her fears. “Is it true?”
My blood runs cold when he casts his eyes downward. “Yes.”
The terrified cry which leaves Lacey has me snapping into action, forgetting my fears. “What does that mean?” I latch onto his bicep, ignoring how good it feels to touch him.
“It means that I’m responsible for your accident. You left here hysterical, but I had to send you away. Please believe me.”
But he has five seconds to tell me the truth once and for all because this is the final piece—the piece I was searching for all along. “Why did you have to send me away? What’s the reason?” When he shrugs from my grip and runs a hand through his hair, I snare his wrist. He won’t evade me. Not this time. “Tell me! I’m not seventeen. I don’t need you saving me!”
My bravado dies a sad death, however, when he lets out an amused, frustrated laugh. “How I wish that were true.” That look, I’ve seen it before.
My heart rate begins a steady incline while I measure how many breaths I take.
Gonna teach that mom of yours a lesson. You’re just like her. A dirty whore. Sneaking in here. I know what you want.
I fight with everything I am, but he’s just so strong. He kisses my neck, biting hard. I cry out. I’m afraid. Get off! No, please no. Cayden, help! Please…help me.
I smell whiskey. I can feel his blunt arousal. Oh, my God…his hands are everywhere…on me…in me. I can’t breathe. But through the chaos, he’s my anchor, refusing to allow the demons to drag me to rough waters.
“I will never let him hurt you ever again.”
Cayden’s promise, although gallant, doesn’t make sense. The dead can’t hurt me. Their memories, yes, but in the physical sense…a bright light flickers, a candle in a darkened room, and I suddenly strip back the past and focus on this moment, this very second in time.
“He’s dead. He can’t hurt me.”
This is the time for Cayden to nod and tell me we’re all safe, but he doesn’t. He does the complete opposite. With a hesitant touch, he places his palm on my cheek, lending me some strength. “No…I don’t think that he is.”
There must be some mistake. Another cruel joke. But when I peer into Cayden’s eyes, I see it—fear. My courageous warrior is afraid. “There must be some mistake?” I look at Lacey for assurance, but her tears only confirm my worst nightmare as true. “How? How do you know?”
Cayden swallows, brushing the tears I didn’t even know I’d shed away with his thumbs. “The reason you came back here. The reoccurring vision you can’t seem to escape.” When he strokes over my hair, I stop breathing.
“The ribbon?”
Cayden nods, the world weighing heavily on his shoulders. “Yes. It appeared weeks before your accident. I knew it wasn’t you…and that could only mean it was one other person. The only person who wanted to taunt me, to show me that even after all these years, he’s still in control.”
The world is spinning so fast, I can barely keep up. “That’s why you said what you did the night of my accident? You knew I was in danger?”
“Yes. But it didn’t seem to make a difference.” This is all too much, but I stand strong. “What do you know about the person who ran you off the road?”
“I-I…” I falter, unable to speak. “I don’t know. My mom said it was a drunk driver who was never found.” When Cayden’s jaw clenches, I shake my head, violently. “No, that’s not…it can’t be.”
“I have no proof, but what Lacey holds, it’s what I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Your accident was two miles from here. The other car involved left the scene. They never located the driver.”
My lower lip quivers. “Just like you, Lacey, since I arrived here, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being followed. I thought it was my mom’s spies, but oh my God…” That sentence is too horrifying to complete.
This entire time, I was led to believe that the accident was just that…but a small voice inside me is screaming that what Cayden says is true. Thoughts drift to earlier when I noticed a pair of my underwear missing. Gasping, I cover my mouth. I think I’m going to be sick.
“I need to go.”
“Peyton!” But I shake my head and run toward the front door.
The fresh air cools my flaming skin, but it’s temporary because the nausea continues to rise. I race for a tree and retch, desperate to purge up this bitterness within. But nothing will feel right again.
“Peyton?” Cayden’s voice has me gripping the trunk, afraid I will crumple without the support.
“How is this possible? I…killed a man. And then, for the next ten years, I float in and out of your life with one foot in the future, and the other the past. Our love was toxic, Cayden.”
“I know,” he confesses sadly.
“And now you’re telling me the reason I left is back and intent on, what…finishing what he started? Is that it?” I snap, spinning to face him.
He looks broken and defeated, but I march forward, enraged. But most of all, I’m scared.
“If he is back, then I probably deserve whatever revenge he decides to dish out. We…killed him,” I whisper, still in disbelief.
“No, we didn’t,” he corrects, shaking his head angrily.
“We may as well have! We left him for dead! However you look at it, we’re guilty.” This isn’t Cayden’s fault, but I can’t process this right now without wanting to scream.
“Come inside. Please.”