“Oh, I don’t need to say it. You already know.”
“I don’t have to sit and listen to this.” Lucy pushed back from the table hard, so her chair scraped against the floor.
“No, you’re right, you don’t,” Josh agreed with her. “You could always run away, like you have with whatever happened at college.”
*******
Chapter 14
Lucy had two choices to make. Both were about telling the truth. Both would affect lives that weren’t her own. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right that she was being left to make the decisions. How had she managed to get herself so tangled up in other people’s messes?
She could hear Daniel and Sophie from her room. It was mainly Sophie that she could hear. Lucy wasn’t a hundred percent on what they were talking about, but it must have been funny. All Sophie was doing was laughing. It was annoying. Daniel wasn’t that funny. Sure, he could tell a good joke, but he wasn’t laugh-every-five-seconds funny.
Lucy thought about going downstairs and confronting her. The rippling image of Sophie’s outraged face brought her comfort. It was nice to think that she could stop Sophie’s laughter if she wanted to. The power gave her a rush, even if she wasn’t going to use it. That brought her back to the question that was plaguing her. Was she going to use it? Could she use it? Was it really for Daniel’s best interests to tell him, or was it for hers?
She was in an impossible situation. She wasn’t even sure whether there was a right thing to do. The likelihood was that Daniel was going to get hurt either way. Secrets always came out in the end. Lucy knew that. Daniel would find out about Sophie cheating on him, whether it came from her or somebody else. She just wasn’t sure when he’d find out.
Her decision over Daniel wasn’t like her decision over Logan. Logan was simple. She knew what the right thing was. She just wasn’t sure whether she’d be able to do the right thing. It was a different issue. Her issue lay with the way she used to feel about Logan. Her issue lay with her desperate hope that it had been an accident. That was what it was, though—a desperate hope that had been slashed when he’d called with his laid-back tone.
The laughter stopped. Lucy waited until she was sure that Sophie was gone before she left her room. She found Daniel standing in the kitchen. His hair was messy. It looked like it’d had Sophie’s hands running through it all day. “You guys sounded like you were having a good time,” she broke the silence between them.
He was standing close to the coffee machine. He’d turned when she’d walked in, but he hadn’t said anything. His eyes were fixed on her. She looked worried and stressed. Her normally bright eyes seemed dim. She had bags under her eyes that hadn’t been there a few days before. “Yeah, we were watching a film.” He nodded slowly. His mind was moving quickly. It was running over the changes that he could see in Lucy and trying to work out why they’d happened. Was she not sleeping? She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Why wasn’t she sleeping?
Lucy stood looking at him. She wasn’t sure what she’d come down to say. She just knew that she needed to say something. “Will you come to court with me on Friday?” she blurted out, before her good sense could kick in to stop her.
Daniel frowned. “You want me to go with you to court?”
Lucy nodded weakly. “Yeah, I mean, if you would?”
“Why do you have to go to court?”
“I’m a witness,” she explained.
“Is this something to do with why you got kicked out of college?”
“Yeah.” She shifted her weight on her feet slightly. “It’s the reason I got kicked out.”
“But, you’re just a witness?”
“Yeah, I’ve got to go and tell them what I saw.”
“If you only saw it, then why did you get kicked out? You didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t understand.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lucy told him firmly. “If you don’t want to go, that’s fine.”
“No, I’ll go with you,” he told her quickly. “I just want to know what happened.”
“Well, you’ll find out Friday, won’t you?” She avoided his eyes. She was panicking. He was going to find out what happened. He was going to know her secret. He was going to hate her. At least that made the Sophie problem easier. If Daniel hated her, then she could just leave them both alone.
“You could just tell me now?” he pushed gently.
“No, I can’t do that.”
“Why?” His eyes were full of concern and pleading. He wanted to help her. He wanted to help make things better, but he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t do anything if he didn’t know what was wrong.
“I don’t want you to hate me before you have to. I want these last few days with my family, before everything changes.”
“Nothing has to change,” he lied. He had no idea what she was talking about. How could he possibly claim that nothing would change? “Why does anything have to change?”
“Because, when the court case is over, I’m going to tell my mom about college. She’s going to freak out. I don’t know what she’s going to do. I don’t even know if she’ll let me live here.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Daniel said with growing uncertainty. What had Lucy done? What could be bad enough for her to be called into court?
“Well, you can make up your mind when you know.” She walked over to the kitchen door and opened it. “I really appreciate you coming, though. So, thanks,” she told him softly, and then she left before he had a chance to say anything else.
Her stomach was churning. She went back to her room, so she could worry in private. She’d done the right thing. If Daniel was in the courtroom with her, then it was going to be easier to tell the truth. She was sure of that. There was something about being in Daniel’s presence that brought out the best in her.
*******
Chapter 15
It was Thursday, and Lucy was doing everything she could to ignore the fact that Friday was on the horizon. It wasn’t easy, though. Sophie was at the house again. Her laughter seemed to be undeterred by walls. It didn’t seem to matter how many walls, either. Lucy could hear her stupid school-girl giggles from everywhere in the house.
By midday, she’d had enough. She headed out into the back garden. The sun gently kissed her skin. It felt good after being in the air-conditioned house all morning. She walked down to the pool and sat down on one of the chairs. The palm trees were swaying gently, but Lucy couldn’t feel any sign of a breeze in the air. It was nice. She’d finally managed to escape Sophie and her uncontrollable laughter.
“Oh, Daniel,” Sophie’s voice floated across the garden.
Lucy’s eyes drifted shut in frustration. She’d barely had more than a minute to herself. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t Daniel keep his animal in his room? “Oh—Lucy,” Daniel’s hesitant voice forced her eyes to open. “I didn’t know you were out here.”
“Well, here I am.” Lucy kept her eyes on him. She could feel Sophie’s stare on her face, but she didn’t look at her. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to control herself if their eyes made contact.
“Yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair. “
Here you are.”
“Are we going to swim?” Sophie pulled on Daniel’s arm. “I really want to get in.”
“Um,” he looked guiltily between Lucy and Sophie, “I’m not sure. I think Lucy might be out here for some space.”
“Oh.” Sophie started to pout. “The house is plenty big; couldn’t she get some space in there?”
Lucy smirked. What was Sophie trying to do? Why was she talking about her like she wasn’t right there in front of them? “The house is plenty big, but I kind of wanted some fresh air with my space.” She shrugged.
“We should just go inside.” Daniel pulled on Sophie’s elbow, but she didn’t move.
“Well, you could always open a window?”
Lucy laughed. “You’re alright. I’m going to stay where I am.”
“Daniel,” Sophie whined, her eyes turning to him. “I really wanted us to go swim in the pool.” She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes. “I’ll do that thing that you like if we get in,” she mock-whispered with her eyes focused on Lucy.
“Sophie, let’s just go inside.” Daniel pushed her away slightly.
She looked confused. It was like she didn’t know whether to be pissed or hurt. “Why are you letting your sister push you inside?” she demanded to know. “This is your house too. It was your house first. Who even is she?”
“Sophie, can we just go inside?”
“No.” She stomped her foot down. Lucy had to bite her lip so that she wouldn’t laugh. What was Sophie doing? She looked like a spoiled two-year-old who had just heard the word “no” for the first time. “Why are you even defending her?”
“I’m not defending Lucy,” Daniel said, his patience slipping. “I just want to go inside.”
“Well, you wanted to swim five minutes ago.” Sophie’s hands rose to her hips. “If you don’t go swimming with me now, then you’re choosing her side over mine. Are you really going to do that?”
What kind of ultimatum was that? Lucy knew that her reluctance to move had caused more trouble than it was worth, but she was enjoying the show that Sophie was putting on too much to offer to put an end to it.