A few seconds passed as Isaiah’s labored breathing lessened. My hand was still pressed to his chest, and although his strong heart was still beating wildly, I knew he wasn’t going to jump over me and attack his uncle to get the phone back, so I began lowering it. My breath hitched when Isaiah’s palm clamped over my hand, keeping it pressed to his body.
“I did it!” Jack rushed out.
“Climb in there. Quick. It’s a cool secret tunnel.”
Isaiah’s gaze switched over to his uncle as confusion covered his face.
“I’m in here,” Jack said, sounding more relieved than ever. “Now what?”
The headmaster slowly swung back around, his eyes landing on us. He stepped over a few broken twigs as he rubbed his hand over his forehead. “I’m coming to get you.”
“What?” Isaiah’s hand fell from mine as he stepped toward him. “But Dad—”
“I know, but until we get ahold of Mary or your mother’s nurses, we have no other option.”
Just then, Cade came jogging through the wooded area with his phone pressed to his ear. “Mary is there now. She said your father told her she could have the night off. That he would be there all night.”
A sarcastic, crass laugh echoed out of Isaiah’s mouth as he gripped the back of his neck. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
The headmaster grabbed the phone from Cade’s hand and now held both of them out in front of him on speaker. He began talking to both Jack and the woman, Mary, about the situation and how Mary could find him. “Yeah, you know the secret passages from the library to the kitchen? That’s where he is. I would find Beth first. Where are the nurses?”
“She locked them out. I found them out front when I pulled up. They’re with me. They’ll get Beth. I’ll grab Jack.”
The headmaster and I latched onto each other for a brief moment, and I wasn’t sure how I understood what he was telling me, but I did. I felt a sense of understanding between us. It was a strange mix of bitter familiarity that had Tobias’ face flashing through my head. I missed him. I swallowed as I pulled myself away and came back into the conversation with Isaiah and Cade, ready to de-escalate his rising anger again.
“What’s the fucking point?” Isaiah shouted, crossing his arms angrily. “The entire fucking reason I am here, listening to his bullshit and doing his bidding—and for fuck’s sake, taking over the family business—is to keep Jack safe. But fuck. He can’t even keep his end of the deal? He can’t even be bothered to stay at home for one night with his nine-year-old son to make sure he stays away from…” Pain radiated off Isaiah’s face so intensely I felt a slight burn in my chest. “From…”
“I know, Isaiah,” Cade said, stepping toward him.
“No!” he shouted, his hands running through his hair as his narrowed gaze locked onto him. “You don’t. She’s a fucking monster, Cade. That night…ruined her. The blood you saw? It all came from her head. It messed her up. She doesn’t even recognize us half the time. Neither one of them can be trusted with their own flesh and blood, and fuck, she was the only person who could! Jesus, I had to basically bribe my own fucking father to keep his nine-year-old son safe!”
I stepped forward. “Flesh and blood have nothing to do with it.”
Cade’s and Isaiah’s gazes both shot over to me so quickly I flinched. We all just stood there staring at each other with nothing but the breeze from the tall pine trees wafting around us. I swallowed back the unease wrapping around my body like a twisted vine and raised my chin. “Some people just aren’t good people. They don’t understand right from wrong. They’re twisted and”—I glanced around the forest, not wanting to see the expressions on their faces as I continued on—“and maybe it stems from a fucked-up childhood, or maybe they’re too power hungry and controlling to see that they’re causing pain, or maybe they like to cause pain, or…” I wrapped my arms around my body. “Or maybe it’s an illness, a disease, or…whatever it is, it has nothing to do with flesh and blood. Some people are just...sick. And trust me when I say there is no point in trying to understand it.”
Cade stepped forward, the light of the moon peeking through the limbs of the nearest tree over his face. “Sounds like you speak from experience, Gemma.”
I shifted my attention and saw Isaiah standing there with his arms down by his sides, staring directly at me, looking no less than completely defeated. “That’s because I am.”
Before anyone could say anything else, footsteps approached, and the headmaster appeared with both phones clasped in his hands. His gaze bounced from me, to Cade, and then to Isaiah. “He’s with Mary. He’s fine.”
Isaiah’s eyes were like shards of sparkling glass as they landed on his uncle. “He’s not fine. No child should go through that.”
The headmaster nodded. “I agree. Just like a child shouldn’t have to hear their sibling running for their life on the other end of the phone.”
My stomach lurched. Something hit me right then as I stared at Isaiah and all his beautiful brokenness and vulnerability that he tried so desperately to hide behind strength and anger. He was really good at hiding it, too. But now I knew that I wasn’t the only one with a hidden past that had so much depth that not even an empty abyss could hold it. I wasn’t the only one entering adulthood without being unscathed. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a typical, normal childhood. Su
re, our childhoods were different, but that didn’t mean they weren’t just as messed up.
I had been sheltered from the outside world and its monsters, having my own vile one at home, but Isaiah was the opposite. He wasn’t sheltered. In fact, I was pretty sure that he’d lived a thousand lives compared to me, and each one of them had something more dangerous than the last.
His shaky, anger-ridden voice cut through the sleepy forest. “I’m not a child. I’m the furthest fucking thing from a child.”
The headmaster placed his hands on his hips and garnered all of our attention as his eyes flung from each of us. “None of you are.” He glanced at Isaiah first. “Not you with your childhood surrounded by guns, violence, abandonment, fear…” He trailed off before he moved to Cade. “And the same goes for you. Especially with all that you’ve lost.” Then, he landed on me, and I took a step back, wanting to move farther into the dark, wooded area so no one would see me. “And you… From the very moment you stepped foot in my office, I knew.”
My heart raced, my breathing so loud I was certain they could all hear the choppy breaths as they climbed from my lungs. “You knew what?”
“That you’ve been through hell and that you don’t plan to go back.”