Shells

Chapter 46

"Remind me again why we're going on a boat ride? Shouldn't we be trying to find a different way to get access to the gold?" Lydia asked, the girls were currently on the SS Sunshine, just driving around.

"It's been so long since the 3 of us have been able to hang out, alone" Kie replied

Lydia shrugged, not fully buying what Kie said, but any excuse to get her out of Katrina's house was a good enough excuse for her. They were enjoying the breeze blowing and the warm sun, so much so that it almost felt like they were back home, having a normal summer like they are supposed to. Their peace was rudely interrupted when the motor rattled and the boat suddenly stopped.

"Shit, we're out of gas" Sarah said

"I thought you were supposed to fill the tank before we went out?" Kie questioned

"So I assume we're calling the boys?" Lydia added

Sarah and Kie nodded while Lydia texted Pope that they were out of gas. They weren't far from shore since they were still getting service but they also didn't feel like swimming all the way back and leaving the boat.

Shortly after, the girls spotted the boat coming towards them. Lydia frowned when she realized her mother was driving the boat. When they had tied the two boats together, Lydia sent John B a dirty look to which he replied "She didn't want us taking the boat out alone"

Katrina stepped onto the SS Sunshine and went to check the motor while Lydia was staring at the water, secretly wishing that her mother would suddenly drown. Before she knew it, a boat motor started up but the only problem was, it wasn't the SS Sunshine's motor

"What the fuck? This is a joke right? We did this already don't you think it's a little over played?" Lydia shouted as she watched her friends drive off on the boat, leaving herself and Katrina stranded. Lydia huffed and sat down on the chair knowing that inevitably Katrina would start talking.

"So you never let me explain the whole situation and since we're stuck here, I figured you should know" Katrina said eventually

"I just don't understand why you would leave me behind" Lydia said softly, ignoring the way it stung to say that

"To be honest, the truth isn't pretty. I'll tell you right now I made a mistake leaving you behind and I'm sorry" Katrina's heart ached, she had spent so many years thinking about Lydia on a daily basis, hoping that she was okay. When Ward occasionally visited the Bahamas, he usually would assure Katrina that Lydia was alive and looked happy and healthy, but that isn't the same as seeing it for herself.

There was a long pause and Katrina took that as a sign to keep talking, "So a year after you were born, I began seeing someone other than your father. At one point, I had gotten pregnant, completely by accident but it still happened. Your father refused to have another man's child in the house so the father of the baby paid Jacob to keep quiet about the baby's existence. When Heather was born, her father had arranged for her to be adopted by his brother-in-law and his wife. That was fine, it worked for us, I thought about Heather a lot but I had other things to focus on"

"Who's the other man, Heather's father?" Lydia asked

"Ward Cameron" Katrina replied before continuing, "So Ward called me one day, when you were 12 and he said that his brother-in-law and wife had been killed in a horrible plane crash and that Heather would be put into foster care. Ward was able to come up with a plan that got me out of the Outer Banks and to the Bahamas. I couldn't let her go into foster care and with Jacob beating me, it felt like an obvious choice. And as much as it broke me, I left."

"But that still doesn't clarify why you left me behind with that monster. Did you really think that he'd just magically not be a drunk anymore?" Lydia was fuming, all of these little background details didn't matter to her