Sidelines ✔️

45 • Painting Fences • 45

"Mrs Williams mentioned something about one of their cars being damaged at a party their son had? She said she came home to find that someone had run a key down the side of it."

I bit down on my lip as discreetly as I could. Peter looked at each of his as if he was waiting for someone to say they knew what happened. For someone to say I did it.

"How awful." Harry said. "Kids these days, they have no respect." He said, shaking his head like he was above it all. I wanted to stab my fork into his hand as he put a bit of food in his mouth and looked at me with a deceptive smile as if this was entertaining for him.

"Kids, yes." Peter nodded, but his lips drew back. "But that's the thing, Mrs Williams seemed to be under the impression that it was one of my kids who did it.  Is that true? Does one of you have no respect for somebody else's private property?"

I gulped and took a sip of my water to try and hide my probably obvious guilt. However, as I put the glass down I noticed Sebastian looking at me with suspicion. Shit.

"Why does she think it was one of us?" Sebastian asked, averting his gaze from me to his father.

Peter sat back in his chair and raised his eyebrows. "I don't know, but I'm sure you four can tell me. So who's going to go first?"

I felt my eyes widened as I looked at my stepbrothers. I couldn't be sure whether Harry had kept it to himself or if he had told Tommy and Sebastian. I feared they all knew and would all throw me under the bus to avoid getting in trouble with their father. It was all about loyalty, after all and every damn time we threw it in each other's faces.

"Harry?" Peter questioned, looking at him expectantly.

Harry shrugged. "Come on Dad, we don't know. We're above all that. It's immature." He stated.

I had to force myself to not roll my eyes at the dig, despite how much I wanted to tell him he was immature too.

"Is that so?" Peter said and turned in the direction of me and Sebastian. "I don't suppose you two know anything?"

To my surprise, Sebastian spoke up. "No." He said, "I bet it's nothing. You know what Jack's like, his Mom probably misunderstood whatever he was whining about."

"Mmh, interesting. She sounded pretty certain on the phone. Should I call her back and see if she has the same position as you, Sebastian? Maybe the three of us can piece this together and find the real culprit. Perhaps they're right under our nose. Wouldn't that be funny, Charlotte?" He said, turning to me and I froze.

It was weird. He was looking at me like he already knew what had happened.

Shit.

"You already know, don't you?" I said and sighed. "How?"

"Charlotte." Harry muttered, shaking his head. "don't."

"No Harry, she should go ahead because she's right. I do already know." Peter stated.

"You do?" Harry asked, his hazel eyes widening.

"Yes," Peter nodded. "Like I've said before, those people have more money than they know what to do with -- they have camera's in the driveway. They know it was you, Charlotte. They also know Harry was there. But, what I want to know is why."

"Does it matter?" I sighed, knowing I'd already been caught. "Can't you ground me or something?"

Peter sat up and looked over at me. "Why would I do that when I don't know why you did it? You strike me as the kind of girl who would only do something like that provoked. So what was it that provoked you to do something like that?"