Chapter 198

I liked the silence until I abruptly didn’t, and the loneliness took hold. Then, as I always do when I feel alone, I called my friends.

“Why don’t we try to recreate a girls’ night?” Maria said through the phone, excitement in her voice. “We can get on one of those video chats and talk and drink our wine.”

That sounded great to me. It would be the closest thing I could get to actually being in the same room as my friends. ]

“Let’s do it,” I said.

I installed the video chat service Maria was used to onto my laptop, then took my laptop into the kitchen, set it at my small table, and poured myself a glass of wine.

Glass in hand, I started the call.

When Maria had presented the idea, I thought we’d all be on our laptops, each of our faces filling a box on a screen.

Instead, when the voice call connected, I was greeted with Rachel, Megan, and Maria all sitting on their couch, crowded around a single laptop.

“There she is!” Megan said, holding up her half-empty glass of wine.

“Hazel!” Rachel cheered.

Maria leaned closer to the computer. “Is our sound coming through okay?”

“Yes,” I said. “Can you hear me?”

“Crystal clear,” Maria said.

There wasn’t anything wrong with this. Since the girls all live in the same place, I should have even expected this was how this would go.

But seeing them all together, squeezed into the couch, while I was here on my own in an empty room, did not quell my loneliness. Instead, it seemed to add to it.

The feeling of being alone only worsened as our call continued. Mostly, I could hear them okay, but when they all tried to talk at once, or if someone talked while another was laughing, it could cut into my sound so that I couldn’t hear anyone.

“What?” I had to repeatedly ask. “What did you say?”

One of them had just told a joke that made them all laugh. Instead of retelling the joke, Megan waved her hand. “Don’t worry, Hazel. I’ll tell you some other time.”

Here I was, in the same call as my friends, but I might as well have been on another planet.

I tried to stick it out. Eventually I stopped asking them to repeat things and just pretended like I could hear, laughing when they laughed, mirroring their faces otherwise.

Soon, it was almost like they had forgotten I was there at all, because they stopped asking me things. Without being able to hear their full conversations, I wasn’t able to interject my own input.

Finishing my wine, I sat back on my chair. I looked at my friends, at their happy faces, and felt a pang of longing so deep in my chest that it physically hurt. I felt like I was watching them through a window.

I didn’t want to do this anymore. I wanted to go home.

“This is a bold move, even for you,” Dylan said.

Logan agreed, but he was done playing nice.

He and Dylan had talked for most of the afternoon, making and remaking plans. Logan still hadn’t been home yet, but he couldn’t even think about returning to his empty house right now, not while knowing Tina was out there, actively conspiring against him.

“Just drive faster,” Logan said.

Dylan, behind the wheel, pressed a little harder on the gas petal, pushing the car faster. The added adrenaline helped keep Logan’s anxieties at bay.

He’d always wanted to stand up against his grandfather before, but never felt that he was ready. He needed more time. He needed more support. Maybe next year. Or next.

He had no shortage of excuses. If he hadn’t met Hazel and reconnected with his foster parents, maybe he would have never actually taken the steps he was about to.

Even now, it felt like he was about to leap of the side of a cliff with no tether.

Total free fall.

Who knew what awaited him at the bottom?

Death? New life?

“Faster, Dylan.”

Dylan pulled the car to a stop in front of Tina’s mansion. “You ready for this?” he asked.

“This is the easy part,” Logan replied. Unbuckling, he opened the door and jumped out.

In comparison to grandfather, Tina was a lightweight. She wasn’t going to be happy with the things Logan told her, but Logan was done with games and lies. All of it.

“Let’s get this over with,” Logan said and started for the front door.

Dylan moved to walk beside him. Logan was grateful for his presence. Dylan might have implied that he was only joining Logan to keep him from getting himself into any legal trouble, but Logan knew the true reason was because Dylan was his friend. His best friend.

Thick as thieves, through thick and thin.

Logan went to the door and rang the bell. A servant peeked through the window at them, but didn’t answer the door.

Logan and Dylan looked at each other.

“Is she avoiding us?” Logan asked.

“She seemed plenty happy to talk yesterday,” Dylan said. “I can’t imagine she’d miss an opportunity to cuss you out directly.”

We waited a moment. When nothing happened, Logan pressed the doorbell again. Muffled, he could hear it ringing from inside.

“Just a minute!” came Tina’s singsong voice.

Tina threw open the door and smiled at them. “Hello, boys. What a surprise.”

She was wearing a floor length evening gown and a heavy diamond necklace. Was she on her way out?

“We won’t keep you for long if you are heading out,” Logan said, “But there are few things we need to talk about.”

“Headed out?” Tina asked in confusion. Then, after glancing down at herself, she started to laugh. “Oh. I’m not going anywhere. I’m eating in tonight.”

Eating in meant she had dinner guests. Logan’s resolve began to waver. He’d wanted to confront Tina and his grandfather before bringing all this drama in front of the rest of high society.

Stick to your guns, he scolded himself. Hazel and his parents were depending on him. He’d disappointed them for far too long already. It was time to make up for that lost time and finally set things right.

“Tina, I here to tell you that –”

“Would you like to come inside?” Tina asked, all smiles, even as she sliced through Logan’s statement.

“You need to listen,” Logan said.

“You’ll have great interest in my dinner guest for the evening,” Tina said. “It’s someone you know very well.”

Logan froze a second.

Dylan cursed under his breath.

“Come inside,” Tina said with a wink, and turned. Leaving the door open, she sauntered back down the hallway toward her dining room.

“What do you think?” Dylan asked, as both men stared at the open door, unmoving.

A pit was opening up in Logan’s stomach. He’d had a plan. First confront Tina, then his grandfather.

He hadn’t planned on something like what he was expecting to see in that dining room.

But even if it was unexpected, it was too late to back down.

Logan nodded at Dylan and then stepped inside of the house. Dylan following him, he made his way down the corridor, following where Tina had gone.

Turning a corner, he entered the dining room. The table was already set for two, the meal in progress.

“Come in. Sit down,” Tina said, overly friendly.

At the table, already sitting, was Logan’s grandfather.