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It was fine, because I knew they wouldn’t find any.
“I doubt they’ll find anything, but they’re welcome to look,” I muttered, wishing Dad would just get the hint and leave. Shouldn’t I be relaxing right now? Focusing on healing or something? With him here, it was hard to do anything but be miserable. Dad was…hard to get along with, sometimes.
Or maybe that was just me. Maybe I was tired of trying to be the perfect son and fitting into his bubble that he wanted both Declan and me to fit in. I was my own person, and if he didn’t realize that by now…what the hell were we doing here?
“There’s nothing in your apartment that would be unsuitable for the police to find?” Dad asked, cocking his head as if he expected me to say I had a mountain of cocaine stashed away, along with undocumented immigrants squatting in my closet.
“No,” I muttered. No, no, and no.
His lips pursed, and he was silent for a while. A long while. “You brought up Ashley Bonds. Do you remember that?”
I blinked, wishing I could take it back. Dad didn’t know she was the reason I was transferring. Well, her and Declan. I didn’t need Dad to know how much I cared for Ash. “Nope,” I said, feigning ignorance. “Don’t remember that—and I don’t know why I’d bring her up. I barely know her.”
Dad gave me a look that said he didn’t quite believe me.
I went on, searching my mind for an excuse to get him out of my room, “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to rest a bit before the detectives show up.” I had no idea how soon they’d come, but I knew they would, and if using them as an excuse would get Dad out of here faster, then I’d gladly use them to my advantage. I guess, deep down, I was a Briggs after all. All the rich used everyone to their advantage, whether they had consent to or not.
My dad gave me a tight smile, reaching over to pat my shoulder, like I’d done a good job. It was stupid, and it felt like he was talking down to me, even if he wasn’t saying a single word. He moved to the door, tossing a look over his shoulder. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Rest up.”
Such comforting words from my dad, right? So warm and friendly, he just makes your insides feel good.
Not really. My insides felt like shit, and I felt patronized. But that wasn’t anything new.
After he left, I couldn’t help but wonder how different things would be if Mom were still around. Would things be better, or would they be worse? With everything happening now, it was almost impossible for me to picture Declan and I worse-off than we already were. Both of us attacked, our lives threatened—you didn’t get much worse than that, besides death.
And death would not claim either Briggs today, or anytime soon. I swore it.
Later on, the two detectives came. Melendez and White, two cops who’d been waiting days to talk to me. Yes, days. As it turned out, having multiple surgeries to repair your split insides took some time, as did recuperating. The doctor said it would be weeks before I’d be able to move like I was used to. I couldn’t overdo it. As long as everything went well, I’d be out of the hospital by the end of this week.
It’s the little things to look forward to in life that make life worth living, like getting out of the hospital and tracking down whoever did this to me. Oh, whoever the hell he was, he was in for a world of hurt. I was a meek guy usually, but now? Now I was riled up. Now I wanted blood.
Was it wrong for me to want payback? I wondered this as Melendez and White asked me all of their questions. I answered them to the best of my knowledge, but I had no concrete answers for them, and they had no answers for me, either. No security footage, no fingerprints. Nothing to point to a suspect besides the open window in my apartment.
I didn’t think it was wrong for me to want revenge. I mean, I could’ve died. How the fuck else was I supposed to react? Be scared? Yes, certainly I was more apprehensive than I was prior to the attack, but as if I was quaking in my nonexistent boots…I wasn’t, even if I should’ve been. I just wanted to figure out who the hell it was and make them pay for what they did.
Melendez and White left after they finished their questioning. They got nothing from me, though they did say they’d be in touch if they found out anything else. They also gave me their business card to call if I ended up getting my memory jogged and suddenly remembered the face of my attacker.
I doubted I would. I wasn’t paying too much attention, plus it was ungodly dark, thanks to it being so late at night. If I had known I was going to be attacked, I would’ve paid closer attention, would’ve known to look at who wielded the knife.
The knife. Oh, God. Feeling that piece of metal sliding into me was the worst thing I’d ever felt—and I’d felt some pretty shitty things. Nothing that visceral, so riddled in agony. Nothing that set my skin on fire and made my insides feel like they were searing and boiling. I wanted to be sick just thinking about it. I might not be afraid, but I didn’t enjoy feeling pain.
I rested my head back on the pillow, wanting to close my eyes and open them to a better world. A world where I was happy, where I wasn’t constantly shadowed by the Briggs name and all it entailed, where I actually had a set of loving, happy parents…it was wishing too much, which was why it would never happen. Still, I must’ve dozed off, for the next moment I knew, I heard the door open again.
Great. Who the hell could it be now?
I turned my head, spotting Dad and Declan in the hall, standing near the glass to my room. Did I blink and another day passed?
But it wasn’t my family that caught my eye, nor the way they stared inside the room as if waiting for a bomb to explode. The person that caught my eye was the girl standing, practically hugging herself, near the door, looking completely out of place.
Short and petite, wearing high top Converse and a holey shirt that had seen better days, not to mention her typical beanie, which hid most of her blonde hair and left only the pink tips hanging out.
Ash.
Chapter Fifteen – Ash
Seeing Will wasn’t something I wanted to do, not after deciding that they were all better off without me, and yet, when Declan told me he was going to the hospital and I was coming, I didn’t deny him. I didn’t tell him no. I simply nodded, staying quiet, extra quiet when I was in the car with both Declan and Dean Briggs. Dean Briggs asked me so many questions about how I was feeling, and I was thankful that I had the backseat to myself. I didn’t want to talk about it, and I didn’t want to see Will…
But I did. I did want to see Will, to talk to him, to feel him one last time. It was as if seeing him one more time was all I needed to truly let go. Especially with Kelsey coming up this weekend, I’d need to put all of my attention elsewhere. On my friend, and on Ray. On keeping us both safe.
