The cop’s eyes narrowed, shifting to the boy pinned in front of me. “Tell her.”
“Tell me what?”
“Tell her right fucking now or I swear to God, Mick—” Michael wouldn’t turn, wouldn’t bite back as the cop’s teeth sunk into his flesh. The only sign he’d even heard the threat was the prickle that ran over his spine— a signal that lowered the cop’s shoulders again. His attention turned to me, and pity forced out the words that would tear Michael and I apart forever. “Bridget, no one attacked you in the forest.”
“You don’t know that.” This time, Michael reacted. His hand grabbed at the cop’s collar, but a loose grip could only send the man back a foot. “Don’t talk about shit like you investigated it, Omar.”
“But I thought Josh was—”
“Josh was getting shoulder surgery the day of your accident.” The sternness tensed my muscles, and as my head filled with dark waters, I tried to find a way to listen for the next bang of thunder. “The hospital didn’t release him until Sunday morning.”
I couldn’t stop the chuckle that came from my chest, the hopeful tint of my cheeks. For a moment, I wanted to believe that this was all some kind of joke. When Michael wouldn’t look at me, though, the truth crawled through the back of my head. When he wouldn’t speak to me, wouldn’t smile, wouldn’t grab for me, I knew something was wrong.
With Michael, something was always wrong.
“You said someone attacked me,” I hissed. “You saidJoshattacked me.”
“Then someone else attacked you.”
“Who?” The pained chuckle snapped his head to the side, and finally, I was met with the boy I’d been so desperate to find— the one who had always hurt me the most. “You said someone attacked me, Michael.”
“Yousaid someone attacked you.” The snap might have stiffened Omar, but I knew better than to flinch. A watchful eye forced Michael back into place, and as a hiss of frustration cleared his clenched teeth, Michael finally turned to face me. “Birdie, you were the one who said you saw a figure in the bushes.”
I did see something, didn’t I?
The thought sent a shiver down my spine, and when Michael’s hand reached out for my own, my arms crossed over my chest. Six years ago, this same fear prickled over my skin. For a moment, the thing that I’d spent so long smothering gnawed its way back into my chest. All these years and I’d been trying to focus on Michael’s actions, on the kind heart that I’d caught glimpses of. All these years I’d spent convincing myself that he was a good man with a dark past. I hadn’t taken the time to consider what would happen if I was wrong.
Would he lie to keep me here?
When Omar stepped forward, I wouldn’t let myself relax. All that did was remind me that the messenger hadn’t come to feed the pain in my chest. Omar was the only one who had ever bothered to tell me the truth. A complete stranger was the only one who didn’t treat me like a child.
“Your boss said you worked three 12-hour shifts.” My lips parted, an old programming ready to defend the man at my side, but my attention fell to the floor instead. “Bridget, it was dark. You were tired. It’s just as likely that you saw a deer.”
“But I saw—”
What did I see?
When the dark filled my head, I took a careful step back. For the first time since the accident, the awful images rushed through my head. Doubt twisted them into something different. I didn’t actuallyseeanyone pull me out of the wreck, did I? Wasn’t it possible that it washimwho pulled me from the car, who ran bloodied hands over every piece of my body? Would he lie just to keep me here? Would he make this entire thing up just to force himself back into my life? The thought brought another shiver, and my arms wrapped around myself a little tighter.
Did I even see anyone there?
Or was it Michael who suggested there was someone else?
“Bridget, we don’t have any evidence that anyone was there that night.”
The tiny voice of hope crawled up my throat. “But my tires—”
“Were six years old,” Omar noted. “You could have driven over glass when you left the parking lot. Or any other time that week.”
My voice shrivelled, and as hope fizzled in my chest, I tried one last time. “But the flowers.”
Omar wouldn’t need to respond. He wouldn’t need to do anything— not when his sad gaze said it all. It was just as likely that some boy with a neighbourhood crush had left them as it was a stranger in the dark. Had Michael been the one to suggest that they were from some stalker? Or had I come up with that lie all on my own?
This pain, the one that nearly made me double over, wasn’t something I recognized. The pain that came when I saw Michael bent over Josh, when I listened to the soft blips in the hospital, weren’t anything like the knot that stopped me now. When my gaze jerked up to him, Michael wouldn’t look at me, and finally, I could place it.Disgust.It was disgust that tied up my insides. If Michael hid this from me, if he lied just to keep me here, he stole my entire life away for no reason. He worried my mother, cost me my job, and turned me against the few friends I had left.
He manipulated me.
Heusedme as just another temporary distraction.