Page 24 of Wicked Promises

“Margo, there are dark memories all over that house. How are we ever going to move on if we don’t erase them?”

I push at his chest. That’s a cop-out. The worst excuse I’ve heard.

I’ve been sostupid. I thought the truth was going to release me. But it turns out, it’s just another shackle. The truth is that he asked me not to tell, but I did. And everything fell apart because of me.

Caleb was right to be angry with me.

He tugs on my wrists. I fall into him, unable to stop myself.

“I wasn’t the one to block away my memories, baby. I’ve had to live with this for years all alone.” His lips touch the top of my head. “I’m not sorry for our beginning. But Iamsorry for not keeping you safe.”

My emotions are on a pendulum swing.

I slip away from him and go to the window. My room is a wreck—the first thing I did when I got home was yank it apart, and now I feel like I’m bleeding from every seam. All the while, his gaze follows me. His eyes see too much.

“You found me,” I say softly. “How?”

He’s suddenly behind me. His hand lands on mine, stopping it. I had been scratching at my wrist again.

“I need you to touch me,” he says softly.

I turn slowly. Touch him?

Do either of us deserve that?

“It feels like you’re not really here,” he whispers. “I’m going to wake up in bed and you’ll still be missing.”

My chest aches.

I raise my hand. One touch won’t kill us.

“Caleb!” someone calls from downstairs.

I’m about to drop my hand when Caleb snags it, holding it to his cheek. We both exhale.

“Margo? Come down, please.”

I tilt my head. “Ms. McCaw is here?”

Caleb shrugs. “No idea. She wasn’t when we got here.”

The story of how Caleb found me will have to wait. I pull away and grab a sweatshirt, carefully zipping it up and heading downstairs.

Before we left the hospital this afternoon, I got to see Robert. He was intubated and sedated in ICU, and I couldn’t get close, but seeing him through a window was enough. He looked beat up and scary, but the nurses assured me he was in good hands.

Me, on the other hand? Lenora kept worrying the entire way back. She asked me how I was feeling, if I needed anything special at the house.

If you know who took you and you’re scared to tell the police… you can tell me.

I didn’t. I promised her I didn’t know.

Three days in the hospital. The detective visited me twice, asking much the same questions. But apparently, they can’t just take witness testimony as fact. There has to beevidence. And so far… nothing.

No fingerprints on the tape, no CCTV footage on that intersection. No idea about whose car hit ours.

The detective is eager for me to admit Caleb took me. It’s odd that the detective has such disdain for him… and such bias. But who am I to know? All I can keep repeating is Caleb’s innocence.

Lenora, Ms. McCaw, and Eli’s dad—who I’ve only met once—are seated at the kitchen table when Caleb and I come down.