“Caleb!” I heard Willow scream, and I rose to my feet.
When I pulled the door open, both girls retreated from me. Their gazes went to the blood on my fist. I waited for the split second it took for Willow’s gaze to return to mine.
She was shocked.
I didn’t say a word. My blood was still boiling. What was there to say in front of Sandra anyway? Let them go care for the blubbering coward behind me. With one last look at her, I left the shop.
44
Willow
I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
I stared down at Bradley as Sandra tried to revive him. I honestly didn’t know what to feel.
At the confirmation that he was still breathing, relief washed through me but not much else. Emergency services soon arrived and he was taken away with them straight to a hospital. When they left, Sandra turned to me with a glare on her face. I couldn’t remember the last time that she had been so furious at me.
“Willow,” she said. “Caleb crossed the line.”
I knew that he had been wrong, but I couldn’t accept the condemnation so easily.
“As did Bradley, the second time for that matter.”
“He was confronting him!” she said. “He was trying to protect you.”
Her words confused me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She took a deep breath, and I knew whatever was coming was something major. “Willow, he made me promise not to tell this to you, at least not yet. At least until he was able to get Caleb to come clean and tell you the truth.”
It felt like I was going to have to sit down for this, but there was no chair anywhere. I felt fragile, as if I could break. I didn’t want to hear it, but my voice, soft and scared floated out of my mouth. “What truth?”
“Bradley called me last night with information he had found. I dismissed it, I thought that he was just acting dumb and letting his jealousy take over his brain, but after today and this … wreckage, I don’t know what to think anymore. And the way Caleb reacted to Bradley? Was it just because Bradley provoked him, or was it because Bradley threatened to tell you the truth himself if he didn’t?”
Blood rushed to my head, and I felt quite faint. All my dreams and hopes were tied up with Caleb. He was the only man for me. I’d already decided that. I fought back the desire to tell Sandra to fuck off and mind her own business. Both her and stupid Bradley. Why did anybody have to interfere? I didn’t go around telling other people how to live their lives. “Tell me what?” I asked harshly.
“I’m so sorry, Willow, but Bradley thinks, and now even I agree with him, that Caleb is the same boy Henry was talking about yesterday. The murderer that was sent to prison. Bradley said he was going to investigate more before he approached you, but he must have freaked out after today and confronted Caleb about it.”
I gazed at her in shock. “What?”
She moved towards me, her tone gentle. “I know you’re in love with him, Willow, but there are now two things pointing towards the fact that Bradley might be right.”
She tried to touch me, but I flinched and glared at her as I took several steps backwards.
“Willow,” she said, “you might be in over your head, and neither Bradley nor I can be silent anymore. Please speak to Caleb directly. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Please ask him about this and see what he says. It could all be some major misunderstanding, but you still have to ask, and quickly, before you fall even more deeply in love with him.”
“You want me to ask Caleb if he’s a convicted murderer?”
“It’s either that or you wait for a little while longer while we investigate this properly to find out the whole truth. But even with the bit of suspicion we have, I don’t think I want him anywhere near you. Even if you can’t ask him outright about the conviction then why don’t you ask him about this break in? Ask if this is in any way related to him.”
My heart was contracting because I already knew the answer to that question. “And what would that prove?”
“It proves, Willow,” she explained in a patient voice, as if she was talking to a child, “that he runs in dangerous circles. Anyone who can so easily attack someone else like this is not ordinary. I need you to approach this as logically as possible. Three months ago he was just a stranger to you and you were fine. Don’t fight to hold onto him now without even making the effort to find out if these allegations are true. Maybe he’s not the only one for you, you know.”