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Tears of rage, pain, and betrayal streamed from Mia’s eyes as she listened to my confession. With each word I spoke I could see the cut in her heart get deeper and deeper. When I finished telling her everything about that night, I didn’t know what else to say. I couldn’t say anything.
“So, you’re telling me that there was a chance for my brother to come home and because he made you promise not to say anything, you kept quiet?”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to.
“He was stupid, Brayden! Trent was always trying to be this big macho man who saved everyone, and you let him take the fall for this because of his record? So what if he already had priors, there was still a chance. Had you come clean, he might not be where he is today.”
Her tears didn’t stop and neither did her outburst. She lashed out at me so long and so hard, I thought it would never end. I felt small in my seat; everything she said made sense. I think my Uncle Joe knew it too. Had we gotten Trent a lawyer and told the truth about that night, Trent might have been a free man, and I would have been in his place.
“I’m done.” She got up from her seat and tossed her napkin down on the food in front of her. “We’re over. The amount of sickness I feel even looking at you right now; we will never be the same again.”
“Mia, please.” I jumped from my seat to stop her from leaving. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to tell you the minute it happened. I should have said something! I just. I don't know. I know keeping that secret was the wrong thing to do, but please just give me a chance to make it right.”
“There is no making this right, Brayden!” she snapped. “My brother’s rotting away in some prison cell with no one there to save him. How can you fix that! I'm done.”
Chapter Twenty-Four ~ Mia
After Brayden told me the whole truth about the accident, I felt sick to my stomach. Thinking about the sex we had and the emotions I shared with him made me want to throw up everything I ate. I felt betrayed; lied to. Fooled.
In the heat of the moment, I rushed back to the driver and demanded he take me back to the cabin. Brayden ran out to try and stop me, but it was no use. I wanted nothing to do with him at that moment. I couldn’t even look at him without feeling a burning desire to run him over.
When I got to the cabin, I packed all of my things, stuffed them into the back seat of my car and raced out of there before he had a chance to get back. I stopped at the closest hotel and tried to book a room and while I waited, I overheard the clerks talking about how Uncle Joe conjured this plan to keep me from booking a room anywhere, so that I'd have to stay at the cabin with Brayden.
I was livid. I couldn't believe what he’d done. I couldn’t believe what Brayden had done. I couldn't believe the reality of my life after finding out that he was the one driving. As I drove in the direction of my mom's place, I started to think about Uncle Joe; what role he played in keeping Brayden safe and I got even more angry with everyone. Trent included.
What he did wasn’t worth where he ended up. If he had just been honest and cut himself some slack, he might have stood a chance at being a free man. But he didn’t. He wanted to save Brayden, and I started to hate him for it.
The tears wouldn't stop falling. Nick was right. My mom was right. I was in denial and didn’t want to believe the truth had been hidden in plain sight. And my poor mom. She drove herself insane searching for the truth and everyone shunned her and called her crazy for it. I felt terrible; I was disgusted.
When I got to her house, I sat in the driveway and cried for what felt like forever. It wasn’t until Nick came out to see why I hadn’t come in yet, that I stopped crying. When I told him what happened, his first reaction was to rush over to the cabin and give Brayden a beating. Which wouldn’t happen even if he tried with all of his might.
“It’s not worth the trouble,” I said. “I’m done with him. Uncle Joe too.”
“That man is no uncle of mine!” Nick griped. “I knew it! I knew mom was right all this time and he covered it up. They both did! The cops too.”
I wondered how much Uncle Joe paid them to keep their family’s secret. I wondered why he allowed Brayden and Trent to make that stupid pact. I wondered why Trent thought that was the smartest move to make. He could have stood a chance.
“Mom’s inside, by the way.” My heart skipped a beat. “They let her out a few hours ago.”
“Really?” I sniffled. “That’s good. I can tell her the news and we can finally start to get some help for Trent.”
“Yeah,” Nick shook his head. “All this time they’ve been hiding the truth, and Trent went along with it. Do you think Brayden’s uncle bribed him into doing so?”
Nick raised a good question. I had no idea though. Uncle Joe was a very rich man and made a lot of promises that he had fulfilled, so I thought it was possible that he had bribed Trent. Then again, Trent and Brayden were best friends, and he would have done anything to protect him. So, I wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know. Shit, at this point I guess I should believe anything is possible, huh?”
“You should have believed it from the very beginning.”
I always had my doubts about that night, but I didn’t think Brayden would lie to me about something so serious. I should have trusted my gut and pushed for the truth just like my mom did, but I guess I was blinded by the facade of what I called love.
I didn’t bother taking my things out of the car before going inside. I was too weak from crying and just wanted to lay down and wrap my head around things. I was fortunate that neither my mom nor Nick pushed me to tell them any details right then and there. They knew I needed some time to myself to get my head right again.
While I wallowed in my pain and the betrayal from Brayden, I questioned why? Why would he keep something like that from me? We told each other everything once upon a time. He was my savior; the person I went to with all of my problems and he always helped me through them.
My brain couldn’t seem to understand why the secret between him and Trent was more important than telling me. I wanted to hate Brayden, but the truth was, it wasn’t my place to hate him if Trent also wanted the secret to remain theirs.
I sat in Trent’s old room for hours trying to understand. I didn’t want to understand. I wanted to be angry and lash out at someone; anyone. But what good would that do? The sentence had been handed out and there was nothing that could be done to turn back the hands of time.
