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Chapter Eleven
Phoebe
Phoebe quietly stepped into her parent's house, the familiarity of its creaks and sighs easing the restlessness that had settled over her after coming face to face with Jenna. Chloe had managed to divert Ethan's attention away from Phoebe, which had given her a few seconds to catch her breath. If she were being honest with herself, she was still on edge from the encounter.
The front foyer was silent, but that wasn't surprising given that her mother's car wasn't parked in the driveway. Phoebe figured her mom had driven into town to check on the shop. Aunt Trish worked for the town's insurance agent, and she only had so many days off to help out.
"Dad?"
Phoebe kicked her boots off before removing her jacket. Keeping the scarf tucked underneath the hood, she hung both up in the front closet. While she didn't plan on staying too long, she also didn't want her dad to believe that she wasn't concerned with his health.
"In here," Kenneth called out, his voice coming from his office. The door stood ajar, but Phoebe pushed it with her hand to find her father staring at the screen of his laptop. "I don't like the substitute teacher the administration hired for my class."
"You never do," Phoebe said as she crossed the room to kiss him on top of the head. "Let me guess. You're going back to work on Monday."
"If I had my way, I'd be there right now." Kenneth removed his reading glasses and tossed them onto his desk. "Your mother went into town for my prescription. You and I both know that she’ll end up at the shop for an hour or two."
"I'm actually glad that Mom isn't here," Phoebe said as she made her way over to the leather couch. She reached for the throw pillow and set in her lap as she sat on the cushion. "Why didn't you like Ethan Turner?"
Kenneth didn't respond to Phoebe’s question right away. He seemed to carefully consider his words before responding to the questions.
"Why would you ask me about Ethan Turner?"
"Because Jenna wanted to go to homecoming with Ethan five months before she died, and apparently you had a problem with him." Phoebe dug her fingers into the pillow so that her father wouldn't know how upset she was to have been kept in the dark. "You said no. You should know that Jenna figured out a way to be with Ethan, anyway."
Kenneth's lips parted, just as Jenna's had earlier this morning at the coffee shop. Phoebe had to drop her gaze to stem the bile that hit the back of her throat.
"Ethan wasn't the right kind of boy for Jenna to be spending time with," Kenneth finally stated with a guarded tone. "I will say that I’m disappointed to hear that she went behind my back."
"Jenna didn’t just go behind your back. She never stopped seeing Ethan, Dad," Phoebe revealed, deciding to rip off the Band-Aid. "They were together until the day she died."
"Are you telling me that you think Ethan Turner killed Jenna? Did you see him at the pond that day?" Kenneth's hands were now gripping the arms of his chair, prompting Phoebe to toss the pillow on the seat cushion next to her. She leaned forward, but not before he became visibly upset. "Phoebe, so help me, if you have discovered something that—"
"Dad, stop." Phoebe stood and closed the distance to his desk. She crossed her arms as she stared down at him. "I didn't come here to accuse Ethan of killing Jenna. I came here to find what else my parents are keeping from me."
Phoebe held up her hand when he would have denied such an allegation, but the facts had been staring her right in the face for years.
"Jenna managed to spend five months with someone who she clearly loved despite your disapproval," Phoebe said before the last word caught in her throat. She blinked back her tears until she was able to continue speaking without crying. "The weekend before Jenna died, I remember that Mom caught her in a lie. Both of you realized then that she had been going behind your backs, didn't you?"
"We thought it was a possibility, but we weren't sure," Kenneth shared before pressing his lips together in disappointment. "Jenna was a free spirit, and we knew if we pushed her too far that—"
"Why didn't I know any of this?" Phoebe wanted to stay on topic, but her emotions got the best of her. "What else are you and Mom keeping from me? You both act as if I didn't share with you that I still see Jenna. I do. Ignoring that fact won’t make it any less real. Jenna stood in front of me today, Dad. She was dripping wet without any water reaching the ground. Her lips are blue like they were when I found her floating underneath the ice. I have to live with these visions that—"
Kenneth stood so abruptly that his office chair hit the windowsill of the bay window behind his desk. The last thing she had intended with her visit was to upset him. All she had come here to do was find out the truth, but she was so tired of being the only one tormented by the horrifying image of her dead sister.
"Dad, I'm sorry," Phoebe murmured, immediately reaching out for his hand. He pulled away, saying something to the effect that he needed to lie down. She closed her eyes as he left his office, his soft footsteps eventually muffled by the carpet on the staircase. "Damn it."
Phoebe covered her face in frustration. She had managed to put another wedge between them. She groaned, barely able to restrain herself from kicking the chair. It was pointless to stay in the house when her mother might not be arriving home for a while. The way Phoebe's luck was going, she would end up in another argument that would result in lying to her parents for another decade about her life.
Before she turned to exit her father's office, movement in the tree line caught her attention. Through a lattice of branches and numerous thick trunks of oak trees stood a dark figure. He was dressed all in black with a ski mask over his face. There was something vaguely familiar about him that had nothing to do with him being the individual in Derek Vance’s neighborhood.
Phoebe's first instinct was to call for her father.
Her second impulse was to rush to the front closet, grab her boots and jacket, and then chase after the man. Unfortunately, he would no doubt be gone by the time she ran around the side of the house. All she could do was remain where she was and return his stare to let him know she wasn't afraid of him.
Seconds later, the dark figure shifted until he had blended in with the trees.
Chapter Twelve
