Drowning » Rafe Cameron & JJ Maybank

041

(chapter forty one)

When Richard received the call from Topper he stood in the underground basement of an old house — now Clara's.

He was working on passing the name for the girl, that was one of the reasons he went to the main island the week of his daughter's disappearance. But now he sat with one of the many diaries of his mother in his hands, the light brightening the entire room.

The man used to remember how much his mother would lock herself in there, writing away and protecting her secrets of everything she knew. And now so did Clara, as the place was perfectly clean.

When he opened the house after Topper told him something was wrong, Alice's diary on the coffee table caught his attention. When he read the words, he realized that the cross the teenagers found was the missing key to the entire mystery.

And then he fell into the routine of hiding away in the basement as he read every word his mother once wrote. Cecilia would try to call out for his attention, that even with the grief and anger he felt of not knowing where Clara was, he still needed to give Oliver and Noah attention.

It wasn't like Richard stopped paying attention to the two boys, but he had other things in mind at that moment.

When he heard Topper's words over the phone, he could only see red. His blood boiled and he bolted, closing the trapdoor and pushing the fridge back to its place.

The boy had sent him the address of where the wake would be held, and Richard found himself driving almost automatically there. The amount of cars parked, the people dressed in all black with fake sorrowful looks on their faces. Oh how much he hated just by looking at them.

He slammed the car door behind him, not even bothering in locking, as he walked with big steps closer to the crowd.

When Topper got into his room, his mother had separated a suit for him, but the boy refused to wear that. He did, however, put on a social shirt. No tie, no blazer, because he didn't believe that the funeral was supposed to be held. He refused to wear black for his best friend when he knew she was still alive somewhere.

He had to listen to people that never spoken to Clara in their lives telling how sorry they were. And he knew that Grace was going to be there too, yet he refused to be anywhere closer to the girl.

Kelce squeezed Topper's shoulder as a way to say he was sorry, and the bleached blonde boy could only clench his jaw, swallow his anger and send a nod back.

And Susan Hughes with a sad expression on her face made Topper question himself if that was genuine. And he checked the time on his watch once more.

"This looks just like you," the deep voice he was waiting for sounded around the room, and almost everyone turned their attention to Richard, anger evident in his stance.

"Richard-"

"Clara's wake?" He asked, letting out a sarcastic laugh as he walked closer to the woman, and Susan could only straighten her back. "You didn't even try to look for her, and you just like that decided by yourself to declare her as a dead person?"

"Can we not do this here?" She asked, words passing through gritted teeth as her eyes turned into slits.

"I'm done trying to do this in a civilized way. You don't get to do this, ask for a judge to declare her dead, just because you don't want to go looking for her, or that the case went cold. Pretending that you're a good mother, pretending that you care!"

"I do care, Richard!"

"You care so much, don't you?" And there it was, the phrase that the three of them had used way more than they would've liked. "You kicked her out, and beat her up after all of the abuse you made her go through came to light! You don't get to do this."