Page 26 of Crossroads

“I’d like to think so. I’m enjoying the anonymity.”

“You can block your sister, you know. I threaten to do so often when it comes to my siblings.”

I smiled then. “I love your siblings. At least the ones that I’ve met. As for blocking Brigid? I’m afraid that one day the authorities are going to use her phone to call me, or one of her friends will, and tell me that she’s dead. That she overdosed just like our parents. So no. I can’t block her. Even though it’s morbid.”

My phone buzzed twice more, and when I looked down at the screen, ice slid into my veins. I grabbed my phone and shook my head. “I’m going to go put my phone in my cabin or something. Take a walk.”

“Kiera…” Bodhi began, but I ignored him and kept moving.

Because this time the texts weren’t from Brigid.

No, Jeremiah had joined in this time.

I ignored Bodhi’s crushing glances and kept moving, needing the fresh air.

I looked down at my phone, hands shaking. There were dozens of texts, ones that I had been ignoring, and ones that I couldn’t look away from.

Brigid

Why are you ignoring me?

Brigid

I hate you.

Brigid

I’m sorry. I just miss your face.

Brigid

Do you remember this photo?

And below that was a photo from when we had been teens, smiling when we were at a lake house, a spring break that my dad had organized in secret. A lump filled my throat, and I tried to ignore it. We hadn’t had the idyllic life, but we had had our own perfection for a few moments. Where everything had felt normal. Like there was nothing wrong in the world.

And then everything had changed.

There was no normal. No perfection.

Brigid

I just need you to talk to me. Call me back. I need you.

Jeremiah

I’ll find you.

Bile coated my tongue as my hands shook because the next photo from Jeremiah made my skin crawl.

Jeremiah sat in a leather chair, Brigid straddling him, as she looked over her shoulder, topless, and wearing just her panties. Jeremiah smirked over her shoulder, both of them with glassy eyes and track marks going up their arms.

My baby sister was with my ex. The ex that had beaten me. The ex that had scared me so much, I had hidden in the mountains.

The ex that wanted to ruin me in the eyes of the public.

And every time I tried to save my baby sister, I always made things worse. There was no way to make it better, to try to fight for her. Because she would push me away, and then go to the random bloggers and influencers and tell them that I was a terrible person. There was no hiding or making things better.

I just wanted it to stop.