New house, new life, new start.
Lucinda Cartwright's life was thrown into chaos after her father and step mother died. She became the sole provider for her younger sister, Mary-Beth in a single moment. Uncertainty cloaked her and she decided that m...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My steps sounded as empty as I felt as I walked the stone pathway that led to Tamara's front door. The drive here was nothing but a foggy memory, my mind had been distant from me but present in the task. Now that I was here I needed to find the strength to face Cal's family and tell them what had happened. Compared to what Cal must have been going through, this should be a simple task. Yet, there was a weight around my neck that seemed to grow heavier with every step that I took.
I raised my fist toward the door but it opened before I ever made a connection. Tamara stood on the other side with a friendly smile, sleep still hanging from the edges of her upturned eyes. She must not have been awake for a long time, but it was almost like she had expected my arrival. My hand dropped lifelessly to my side as words collected in the back of my throat, making it hard to breathe.
"I thought I heard my cousin's car." She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to adjust the parts that were disrupted by her nights rest. It was strange to see such a human reaction on someone who I knew was more. Tamara didn't share many similar physical features with Cal, but her eyes - the sharpness of her gaze. It was exactly the same. "The girls are still asleep but I just started a pot of coffee."
"About Cal," My heart lurched painfully in my chest at his name and I choked on the rest of my words. My body trembled against the emotions that threatened to overwhelm me again.
Tamara's happy expression dropped, the shine in her eyes dimmed. "What's happened now?"
I was pathetic, acting as though I had every right to feel sorry for my loss of him when I didn't. This family - Cal...they had suffered so much already and they were going to suffer more because of me. They were made to suffer because Cal had decided to risk his own neck to protect Mary-Beth and I. If anything happened to him, that would be on me and my inability to protect Mary-Beth on my own.
I turned my face away unable to meet her gaze. "They arrested him."
"That idiot," Tamara said under her breath before she reached out and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. It didn't seem right to have her comfort me. It only made me feel more pathetic than I was. "Don't worry, they'll let him go in a few hours."
"I don't think so," I said, clenching my hands into tight fists at my sides. Swallowing my shame and frustration, I forced myself to look at her. "Paige is dead--"
Tamara's hand slipped from my shoulder and her eyes widened. "What?"
I continued on while I had the courage, "They said they had proof that it was Cal."
"That can't be right..." She stumbled back a step, shaking her head. The pain and shock written on her face, I memorized it and buried the weight of it in my subconscious. I would remember this later when I had the time to think over everything that had happened. Right now was not that time. I took the opening she had created in her retreat and stepped into the house, closing the door behind me.
