Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I have to leave the rest of the toast behind, but I take the tea with me to Dad’s study. The door is open, but I knock anyway when I see him leaning in close to his MacBook screen, like he’s engrossed in whatever he’s reading.
His head snaps up when he hears me, and right away, he closes the machine. “Something I’m not supposed to see?” I ask, and even though I try to make it sound like I’m joking, I’m not. I sort of feel like I have to tiptoe around after scaring everybody for so long, but I’m not going to magically be okay with him treating me like a child who can’t handle facts.
He scowls but nods to one of the chairs in front of him. “Take a seat. We need to talk.” Once I do as he says, he sighs. “I spent hours digging into information on Safe Haven, from before we took them down. I thought I knew everything about it, really. Of course, there’s never knowing everything about a place like that. So many secrets were buried.” His voice cracks a little, and it’s like somebody took a scalpel to my heart and sliced it open.
“Tell me,” I urge, setting the mug on his desk when my hands begin to shake.
“It was your uncle Luke who gave me the answers I needed.” A look of pain and disgust sweeps over his face before he pulls himself together. “As it turns out, there was a River. He did exist.”
I sit up a little straighter and would swear every nerve in my body is humming. I can almost hear it in my head. River was real. Past tense. “And? Who was he? What happened to him?”
It’s obvious he doesn’t want to say it in the way he grinds his teeth, the way his jaw ticks. “River was Ren’s biological brother.”
“Was?” I whisper. “Is he… dead now?”
“I’m afraid so. Apparently, according to Luke, River died there. He couldn’t remember the exact details, but it’s no secret to us that children were abused, sometimes severely. Whatever was done to River was too much, and he died… while Ren was present. Luke thought Ren was too young to remember.” If he knows anything else, he keeps it to himself. Maybe he wants to protect me from it.
Somehow, I knew. At least I had a good feeling it was something like this. Something that broke Ren, something so horrible his brain couldn’t handle it. “That’s what did it,” I conclude. “That’s what started it.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Dad tells me. “We can’t pretend to be psychiatrists. But it does seem if anything could split a person’s personality the way you’ve described Ren, that would be it. He simply couldn’t handle the trauma, and his mind had to protect itself somehow.”
I can’t process it. My poor Ren. Imagine witnessing something like that at such a young age. “Thank you for at least humoring me enough to look into it,” I tell him once my brain starts moving again, once I’ve shaken off the shock.
He tips his head to the side. “If anything, I wanted to know for myself why he betrayed us. Not for his sake, but for my own. Now…” He sinks back into his chair and shrugs. “I don’t know what there is to be done for him, or if there’s anything we can do at all. There might be no getting through to him. It could be he’s completely lost touch with reality.”
I can’t believe that, and I won’t. I am not giving up on him, though I know better than to say those words out loud. Something tells me he knows anyway when he sighs before his shoulders sag.
All of that is lost when voices echo down the hall. I’m barely out of the study before Luna throws her arms around me, followed by her parents. I can barely make out their questions since they all overlap until it’s nothing but noise in my ears.
“I’m okay.” That’s all I can say over and over. It isn’t easy to look Ren’s parents in the eye after everything that happened, though when I do, there’s nothing but concern reflected at me. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt or anything like that. I’m really okay.” I wish I could say the same for Ren.
Dad clears his throat behind us. “Roman, Sophie. Come, have a seat. We need to talk.” The two of them exchange what seems like a nervous glance before joining my father, the three of them murmuring as they enter the study.
I wait until they’re inside with the door closed before pulling Luna in by her shoulders. “I need your help,” I whisper, leaning in close to her ear. “We need to find Ren. He’s sick, and he needs help, and right now I’m the only one who cares.”