“The confidentiality agreement won’t cover this.” And even if it did, he didn’t want to burden her with it. He’d already dumped enough crap on her this weekend. He looked down at the floor, unable to meet her eyes as he spoke. “You’re…important to me, Sam. Even if I knew I could trust you enough to keep this secret, it’s only a partial consolation. You’ll still know. I don’t ever want to tell you something that changes the way you look at me. You’re one of the only people in the world that looks at me with something other than shock and disgust. I can’t risk losing that.”
A hand rested gently against his scarred cheek. He turned to Sam, hoping to see the fear gone. It was. In its place was a drawn brow of concern and a slight frown. He wasn’t sure that was much better.
“You won’t lose it, Brody. You can trust me with this. I want you to tell me.”
Her dark brown eyes were penetrating as she spoke. She meant every word. He had to have faith she meant what she said. Rejecting her promise and walking away without telling her would likely do more damage to their relationship than the truth. He would still speak carefully, though. Some details didn’t need to be shared to help her understand his situation.
“Do you remember the first day you came into my office?”
She nodded, a smile faintly curling her lips. “Our first kiss.”
Brody was glad that’s what she remembered instead of his angry rant. “Before that, when I was so angry… I thought you’d seen my computer and what was on it. It was information on a man, a child really, I knew when I was younger. Tommy. When we were teenagers, we were all living as foster children with the Edens. He was trouble from the start, nothing like the rest of us. I worried about him and what he might do, but the others told me I was just paranoid because of my accident.”
“You were right.” It was a statement, not a question. She had come to know him so well, so quickly.
Brody nodded. “He did something terrible one day while we were all out working on the farm. Our dad had the flu and was in bed, so we were out there doing our chores alone. Tommy took advantage of that. One of my brothers tried to stop him, and when it was over, Tommy was dead. We were kids. We didn’t know what to do.”
“Of course not. Most adults wouldn’t know what to do, either.”
“I was afraid that they would take us away from the Edens if someone found out about what happened. None of us wanted that to happen. It was our home. So we panicked. It was an accident and we should’ve called the cops, but we were too scared to risk it. We hid the body, cleaned up and pretended like it never happened. When our parents asked where Tommy was, we told them he left in the night. He was treated as a runaway and since he was almost eighteen, they didn’t spend much energy looking for him.”
“That’s a long time for you to carry a secret that big.”
“It is. We try not to think about it, but it’s hard to forget. I always keep an eye on the internet for people that might look for him. The day you came into my office, I had gotten a report that his sister was searching for him. We’d hoped that everyone would forget. My brother called and told me she’s in Cornwall asking questions about him.”
“Do you think she will find out the truth?”
“I don’t know. Only the five of us kids know the real story, aside from you, and even then, we each only know our piece of what happened that night. We didn’t talk about it with each other, much less anyone else. I don’t know of any way his sister could find out unless one of us tells her. Or the body turns up.”
Sam’s eyes widened. “Is that a possibility?”
Brody shrugged. “I hope not. But we were kids, not master criminals. We didn’t have a clue how to dispose of a body and keep anyone from ever identifying the remains. We’ve been lucky so far. Without a body, there’s no reason to doubt that he ran away.”
“And if someone finds him?”
Brody swallowed hard. “I try not to think about that.”
Eleven
It felt strange to be back in Boston. It was an odd thought for Sam to have considering she was born and raised in Boston and loved it. She had never even entertained the idea of moving, even when her job prospects in town were weak.
She was cold. It was overcast and sleeting. It wouldn’t be long before the snow and ice started in earnest and didn’t let up until April. The only bright spot in the day was the fuchsia rose that was on her desk again this morning.