Page 147 of Creeping Beautiful

Adam looks at me. “Three out of three, McKay. Three fuckin’ journals. Did you find any more?”

“No.” I shake my head and close my eyes. “No. Just this one.”

“None of this matters, you guys. What matters is that she’s ready for the truth. The truth is the only thing that matters. What happens between us, you, her, whatever—that’s secondary. We need to spell this shit out for her right the hell now. We need to explain that someone has been triggering her and then I need to take her back to LA and put her under the care of—”

“Fuck you!” Adam yells it. “Fuck you, Donovan! You are not—”

“—a friend of mine who specializes in—”

“—taking her back to LA with you! She belongs here!”

“—mind-unfucking!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I’m still fairly calm, but only because I don’t think Indie would go with him. “Mind-unfucking? Really, Donovan?”

“It’s a thing in LA. Trust me. There’s so many fucked-up people in LA this is something they do.”

“Well, I feel better now. How about you, McKay?”

I point at Adam. “You disappeared. No one’s seen you in four years either. I’m not sure you get a say in this.”

“So you think she should go to LA?”

“I’m not saying that either. I’m saying if anyone knows what’s best for Indie, it’s me.”

“You!” Donovan is incredulous. “You’re the one who’s been telling her everything’s fine all these years. You’re the one who’s been playing house with her.”

“You’re the one who spent a night with her two years ago and didn’t bother to tell us about it.”

“What?” Oh, Adam is more than incredulous.

“Maybe if you had called us, we could’ve fixed this two years ago! But no. You wanted to fuck her first. And by the time you were done, she was gone.”

“What the fuck is happening right now?”

“He fucked her, Adam. That’s what’s happening. He fucked her downstairs in the kitchen earlier too.”

“You fucked her last night, McKay!”

“She’s mine.”

“She’s not yours.” Adam is angry. “Everyone just shut the fuck up! I’m making this decision. She is mine! And I want her right here in Old Home. All of this can be fixed if—”

“Dead people cannot be fixed, Adam!” Donovan is waving his arms in the air. “She needs professional help. We tried, OK? We tried and we failed. Why can’t you two just face that fact? We fucking failed!”

And I have to be honest here. All that talk and all those thoughts about how she is ours? Yeah. No. It’s never going to work. Because suddenly we all have very different opinions about what’s best for her.

Adam takes a deep breath and when he talks again, his words are low and soft. “We didn’t fail. We just didn’t have all the information, that’s all. I agree we should tell her the truth. Slowly. Carefully. And then…” Adam looks at me. “And then we let her choose. And if what it says in that book is true, that she loves us all the same, then… fine. We deal with it then. But if she wants to stay here with me, then that’s her decision. If she wants to be with you, McKay, that’s her decision.”

“And if she wants to go to LA with me?”

Adam looks at Donovan. “Fine. If that’s her choice, I’ll deal with it.”

We’re all silent after that.

But then we hear a noise. Someone is talking down the hallway. Donovan opens his bedroom door all the way and we listen.

But it makes no sense.