We reasoned that fate had given me another opportunity, one with my eyes wider open than a day before. While there was nothing about Rett’s earlier behavior that could or should be justified, there was a glaring reality that he’d so plainly pointed out.
Everett Ramses hadn’t lied.
He’d omitted information, such as with Ross Underwood’s death.
Yet if I were to believe what Rett finally revealed about Ross, by process of elimination, it was clear that Kyle had been the one who lied. Everett did have a hand in influencing Ross’s official cause of death, it being ruled suicide. From what Rett had said, he didn’t do that because he was hiding his crime. He did it as a means to protect me.
I admittedly had a difficult time recalling Kyle’s appearance last night without recalling Liam’s. During our—me and I—conversation as we did our hair and makeup and then dressed, I unsuccessfully avoided a lingering question: was I ready to forgive Rett and move on with this relationship because of the feelings that seeing Liam resurrected?
Or was it the way of New Orleans, the presence of ghosts from the past?
I admitted to myself that my feelings about Liam were complicated at best.
I was a different person when Liam and I had been together—young, trusting, naïve, and undefined. I was what most girls were in their mid-teens—infatuated with an older boy. Since Greyson and others saw me as the little sister, it seemed unbelievable that William, older than Greyson, would notice me.
Our attraction to one another came in stages.
We’d known each other most of our lives. Years passed and over that time, boys became more interesting. Our interests and bodies changed. It was as those changes occurred that Liam and I had a recurring lure.
Shy and unsure, we shared stolen glances. There were tingles when I’d catch him looking my way. My friends thought I was making it up, but then one day, Liam stopped me at school. I was only a freshman and he was a junior, an upperclassman.
Our secret relationship grew.
I’d tell my parents I was with a friend. He’d tell his he had late football practice. Together we’d steal away. Sitting in the front seat of his muscle car, we shared our secrets, hopes, and plans. We shared more than that in that car.
Liam was my first in many things.
And yet we didn’t make our relationship public until I was at the University of Pittsburgh, Kyle and Greyson were at Duke, and Liam showed up at my dorm.
Two years ahead of me, Liam was studying engineering at Penn State, only two and a half hours away.
We quickly picked up where we’d left off.
My thoughts, when not concentrating on school, were on him. Weekends were split between my dorm and his apartment. I recalled the big fight the weekend Kyle and Greyson showed up for a football game and found me in Liam’s bed. At the time I didn’t know which one of us Kyle was the most upset with, me or Liam.
During my senior year at the university, when I received news of the car crash, Liam drove to Pittsburgh to be at my side. He drove me back to North Carolina, helping me as I planned the funeral. He stood beside me as I accepted condolences, and helped as I made legal decisions. And then I returned to school.
Done with his bachelor’s degree from Penn State, Liam was living back in North Carolina, working as an intern for the city engineer of Hendersonville, a city south of our hometown.
I couldn’t say what happened exactly.
It wasn’t gradual.
The end of our relationship was abrupt, as if a switch was suddenly turned off.
While I no longer wanted to be in North Carolina, Liam demanded to stay. There were a few months of emails, calls, texts, and social media. It was too much for me with the loss of my family. Following the advice of my counselor, I turned off my old social media. I moved on and left the people of North Carolina behind, including Liam.
However, it felt as if before I made that final decision, he’d pulled away from me and my pathetic pleas.
As I prepared to sign my wedding certificate again, I admitted that seeing Liam last night brought back feelings I’d buried. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was willing to forgive Rett to avoid the feeling of abandonment that seeing Liam evoked.
A new life had found me.
When I’d told Rett that I’d fallen for his talk of lore, fate, and deals, I was as transparent as possible. And now I realized that the promises Liam made were never fulfilled. I’d caught Kyle in so many lies it was hard to keep them straight—the biggest being his death.
Had Rett lied?
Was I blind or was he truthful?