Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“Oh, God, Thea,” I croaked, crossing my arms over my chest to ward off the sudden chill. She would never be whole without Ramsey. “She’s going to hate me for this.”
“Which is why you can never tell her.”
“What?”
His voice became sharp with urgency. “You can’t tell anyone. Do you hear me? Not the cops. Not Dad. Not Thea. No one. Thea will look after you,” he choked and cut his eyes over my shoulder before he was able to finish. “And I know you’ll take good care of her for me too.”
“But—”
His gaze collided with mine. “For me, Nora. I can take care of the rest, but I need you to do this for me.”
“They’re going to put you in jail though. Do you understand?”
“I know. What is it you always say about choices? Everyone makes them? Well, this is my choice. And if comes down to choosing between you and freedom, I’ll choose you every single time.”
How did those words feel good and hurt so fucking much at the same time?
My head spun as though I were trapped in a maze that kept changing. “I can’t.”
“You can and you will.”
The door suddenly swung open. Officer Perry and his tobacco-yellowed teeth appeared on the other side. “Time’s up.”
“No,” I breathed, the mere thought of leaving him there igniting me into a frenzy. “No. No. No. Just a little longer.”
“Sorry, kid.” He grabbed my arm and gave me a tug toward the door.
My fight-or-flight response exploded—and it was all fight. “Get your fucking hands off me!”
His lips thinned and his jaw muscles flexed, making his features nearly murderous. “You seem like a sweet kid, so I put my ass on the line and did you a solid by letting you talk to him. Now, I’m not playing games anymore. You’ve got two seconds to get your ass out of here before you end up in a cell beside him.”
“Screw you,” I spat as if this were his fault and not my own.
“Nora,” Ramsey seethed, catching my attention. “You have to go, but promise me first.”
The cop grabbed me again, dragging me toward the door, and I dug my heels in, desperate to stay with my brother even if it meant living inside that tiny room for the rest of my life. “Please don’t make me do this. Please, Ramsey! This isn’t your fault.”
“Promise me,” he ordered, emotion pooling in his eyes. “I need to hear it. I need to know you two will be okay.” Tears rolled down his cheeks and they branded my soul in ways time would never heal.
I'd spend every single day he was behind bars rotting away, miserable, the seed of guilt growing and winding until its vines eventually choked the life out of me, but if my promise was what he needed, no matter how much I hated it, I would have given it to him a million times over.
“Okay. I promise!” I choked out between sobs.
“Swear?” he asked, opening his hand flat on the table and lifting his pinky in the air.
Looking back on that day, it would seem stupid. Lives had been lost, taken, and altered forever and he was asking for a pinky promise. But we were kids who had relied on each other for everything. A pinky promise was the most solemn, unbreakable swear we had.
I dove forward, breaking the officer’s hold on me, and hooked my pinky with his. The second our fingers touched, Ramsey’s entire body sagged with relief so palpable it stabbed me in the heart.
The cop caught my arm again, cussing and making threats as he yanked me away, but through it all, I held my brother’s stare, making silent promises I had no idea if I could keep.
“I love you!” he called out. “It’s going to be okay.”
It wasn’t.
I was confused and beyond devastated, but I knew to the marrow of my bones it was never going to be okay again.
“I love you too.”
And then he smiled because he was Ramsey—facing life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and smiling because he knew his girls would hopefully be okay.
I had no idea what I was going to do with my life without him. Ramsey leaving, even if it wasn’t necessarily his choice, had never even crossed my mind.
Not long after that day, the blistering grief only raged hotter when he signed a plea deal downgrading his charges to manslaughter, however sentencing him to sixteen years in prison.
I’d never forget the wails of my aunt and uncle as Josh was lowered into the ground. It wasn’t because they affected me with such a profound sadness that the emotion would forever be ingrained into my subconscious.
Rather, I’d never be able to forget because it was the first time I realized how sweet vengeance could feel.
The day I realized Nora wasn’t coming back to the creek, I called my parents and asked them to come pick me up. They refused, but I was belligerent enough on the phone for them to at least drive the three hours so they could ground me.