Ruin (Dirty Secrets #3) (3 page)

“I don’t know, Trey. That’s not any of my business and it’s certainly not
your
business.”

Trey steps forward, and I know things are about to get ugly. I will just sit back and watch, because Trey
won’t
get in trouble. If I said anything, I definitely would, so this is all on him now.

“It certainly
is
your business. First off, because he’s your boyfriend of two years. You’ve been committed for two freaking years. That’s a long time. And second, it’s your business because you’re letting him move into
your
house,” he says. “In case you didn’t notice, you do have
three
children under the age of eighteen living with you. For all you know, you’re letting some psycho move into our house. I don’t like the way he treats us, and I definitely don’t like the way he talks to Madeline. I swear to you, if he puts his hand on her, I will kill him.”

“Calm the dramatics,” Mom says. “He’s basically been living here for the past year, so having him officially move in isn’t even a big deal. If you don’t like it, please feel free to move out. There is only six more months until you’re eighteen anyway.”

“So you’re saying you will let us move out?” Trey asks.

“If you don’t want to be here, I certainly won’t stop you.”

I look at Trey, and he’s watching me. I can tell by the look on his face that he’s so ready to get the hell out of here. But then I look at Hailee. She’s only thirteen, and I don’t want to leave her — not now at least. If it weren’t for us, there is no telling
how
Ben would treat her. I can’t just
leave
her. She deserves better.

“You don’t have to stay here for me,” Hailee tells us.

“Who would take care of you?” I ask her. “Nobody else will, and you don’t know how to cook yet. I can’t leave you.”

“I’ll be fine,” she says.

“No you won’t,” I say. “Even if you did, who would keep you safe from Ben?”

Trey sighs. “Madi is right, Hailee. We can’t leave you here to fend for yourself. It’s not fair to you.”

“What does it matter?” she asks. “You will both be leaving for college next fall anyway.”

“I’m her mom,” Mom tells us. “I’ll take care of her.”

I snort and Trey narrows his eyes at Mom.

“You’ve
never
been a mom to us,” he says. “Though, you weren’t much of a wife either, were you? I heard you got around a lot.”

“Trey, that’s enough,” Mom says.

“Why?” he asks. “Are you afraid that we will figure out the truth?”

“Trey,” I say softly behind him, remind him that Hailee
is
still in the room.

“You disgust me,” Trey tells Mom.

The three of us head upstairs. I tell Hailee to take a shower. Hopefully that will help the poison ivy from spreading. We all head to our own rooms, and I don’t plan on leaving my room. At least not for a while. I don’t want to chance running into Ben.

I really wish Hailee was older.

12pm

I’m a terrible person.

That afternoon, Frannie comes over to see me. I haven’t seen anybody since the party, and I’m kind of nervous. I wonder if they saw anything. I also wonder how she is feeling about Emma being gone. Up until now, Frannie truly thought that was Daisy playing a prank on us… does she still think this?

When she gets to the house, we walk out onto the dock to sit and talk. I don’t want to be
anywhere
near my house. I hate that Ben is living with us. I realize it doesn’t make much of a difference, because he is always over, but now it feels final. I hate him, and I will
hate
seeing all of his stuff around the house.

How am I supposed to deal with all of this? Daisy and Emma are missing. Ben is living in my house. I mean, this is my
senior year
. I am supposed to be having fun, not worrying about everybody and everything.

“I’m sorry about Ben,” Frannie tells me, as we sit on the dock. She takes off her shoes and dips her feet in the water.

I slip off my flip flops and set them beside me. “I feel sorrier for Hailee. She’s the one that is going to have to put up with him the longest. At least Trey and I get to move out in a few months.”

“Yeah,” she says. “It still sucks. I went to the hospital Friday night and your mom wouldn’t even stick around to see if you were okay. I mean, you were drugged. If that would’ve been me, my mom and stepdad both wouldn’t have left my side.”

I shrug, like it’s no big deal, but Frannie knows me. She knows that I hate how my mom is.

“I’d like to say that if my dad were alive, he’d be there, but I’m not so sure,” I tell her. “He was obviously a very selfish man. He didn’t love Trey and me enough to
not
kill himself. If he was still alive, who knows if he’d even be around.”

She nods. “I can’t believe Emma is missing now.”

“Me too. Do you think we are next?” I ask her.

“I don’t know,” she says. “Part of me still thinks that this is a Daisy prank. We all know that Dee likes Emma and Hayden best. Maybe she’s convinced them to play along. I don’t doubt that she would take this prank as far as possible.”

“Yeah, but this is kind of a big deal now. I don’t know if her dad is going to be able to buy her way out of this one,” I say, then think about Hailee. I wonder if he would do the same thing for Hailee if she were in trouble.

I momentarily consider telling her about my suspicion — that Daisy and Hailee share a father. I decide against it. If anybody deserves to know the truth, it’s Hailee. Until then, I’ll keep that information to myself.

“Maybe I just want to believe that because I
don’t
want to believe that Dee and Emma are really hurting somewhere,” she says. “I’m scared. If this is real, what if it happens to me? What if they’re dead? What if I’m next? Or Cassidy? God, she annoys me sometimes, but I love her. Over the years she has become like a real sister to me. And you… you’re my best friend, Madi.”

I put my arm around her shoulder and pull her closer. “You’re my best friend too. I don’t know what I would do without you and Cassidy.”

She laughs sadly. “Can you imagine? Daisy, Emma, and Hayden? I swear the three of them would terrorize our school. I’m sure Emma and Hayden would be just like Daisy if it weren’t for you. They both love you so much.”

“Did you know that Emma was sleeping with my brother?” I ask her.

“Ew,” she says.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Your brother is super hot, but he’s your
brother
. I could never do anything with him.”

“Thanks,” I tell her. “Though I’d much rather him date
you
than
her
.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that now.”

I laugh but cover my mouth. “I’m a terrible person.”

“Whatever,” Frannie says, rolling her eyes. “Out of all of us, you’re the nicest. Everybody knows that. Even the cops don’t suspect you.”

“I’m actually surprised that we didn’t get in trouble for withholding evidence.”

“I’m not. We were being threatened. Anybody in our situation would’ve done the same thing,” she says. “I stayed with Cass that night when we ran into the woods. I made her hold my hand. I was
not
going to let her get kidnapped without me.”

“I’m glad Jace was with me,” I say. “Do you think they planned to kidnap me? I mean, I was
drugged
.”

“I didn’t even think of that. Wow.” Frannie pulls her feet out of the water and hugs her knees to her chest. “Madi, I’m so worried. I don’t think you should be alone — not even on your morning runs. Jace should go with you. Or even I will.”

“You’re willing to go running with me?” I ask, not believing what I’m hearing.

She nods.

“And you know I run at five in the
morning
, right?”

She nods again.

“Wow. You must really love me.”

“I do,” she says, frowning. “I can’t even imagine life without you. I keep thinking… if I get that scholarship to Florida, I’ll be so far from you. Unless you go to Florida too.”

“I’ll probably go wherever my brother goes,” I say.

“Which will probably also be where Jace goes.” She nudges me with her shoulder. “You two are so cute together. I can tell he really likes you. I’m glad you’re
finally
together.”

“Me too,” I agree. “I just wish that we got together under better circumstances and not because some sick freak wanted to see me kiss him in front of the whole school.”

Frannie gasps. “Oh my God, that’s it, Madi!”

“What?” I ask.

“It has to be somebody from school!”

Realization hits me like a ton of bricks. “Seriously? Wow. Why didn’t we think of this before?”

“But
who
could it be?”

“I don’t know,” I answer. “I mean, the only person at our school mean enough is Dee. And she’s missing, so…”

“I still think it could be her,” Frannie says. “I’m not okay with completely ruling her out.”

“Me either.”

She stands up. “I’m going to go talk to Cassidy about this. Let’s meet up tonight.”

“I can’t,” I say, standing up with her. “I have a date with Jace.”

“Aw,” she gushes. “Okay, let’s meet tomorrow morning at the cafe. I have to work, but I get a break around nine in the morning. We can have breakfast and just talk.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll be there.”

At least, I hope I will.

I really hope whoever this is doesn’t come after me.

6pm

I’m so joking.

Tonight, I am wearing the same orange dress I wore on the first day of school. I happen to
know
that Jace loves this dress, and I want him to think I look good.

I’ve also decided that I don’t want to talk about Daisy or Emma tonight… or Ben, for that matter. I am so sick of all the bad crap on my life, and I just want to forget for a little bit. Jace always helps me forget.

When I walk downstairs, I am glad to find that Mom and Ben are nowhere to be seen.

Jace is standing in the living room, and he grins big when he sees me.

Trey hits his arm. “Hey, man. That’s my sister.”

“Your sister is
hot
,” Jace tells him, never looking away from me.

Trey makes a gagging noise.

I finally look at Trey and see that he’s smiling. I’m glad that he’s finally okay with this. Not that I really care if he doesn’t want Jace and me together… I would be with him either way.

“Where are you taking my sister?” Trey asks him as I walk up in front of them.

Jace grabs my hand. “We are just going to see a movie and then to eat dinner.”

“Don’t sit in the back,” Trey says to the both of us. “I’ve taken girls to the movies before, and I know what happens back there.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Trey, gross. Not every guy takes a girl to the movies to fornicate.”

Jace and Trey both laugh.

“There will definitely be no fornicating tonight,” Jace says, still laughing.

“Good,” Trey says.

“And if there
is
, we definitely won’t tell
you
,” I say.

Trey immediately stops laughing. “That’s so
not
funny, sis.”

“I’m so joking.” Ha, yeah, I’m so
not
.

We say goodbye to Trey and then head outside. I’m surprised to see Jace’s 1989 Ford truck sitting in the driveway. He holds my hand as we walk toward his truck. He opens the passenger side door for me and I get inside.

Suddenly, I feel a little nervous.

I’ve never been on a date before.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve known Jace forever. It doesn’t matter that he’s already my boyfriend. All I can think about is
What if I screw this up? What if after this date, he doesn’t like me anymore?

But then Jace gets in the driver’s side, and he smiles at me, reminding me how much I really do like him.

This is the boy that I’ve been in love with for thirteen years. He knows me — inside and out. He’s the only boy that my brother would trust to take me out on a date. He’s the only boy I would
want
to take me out on a date.

Most of all, this is the boy who is crazy about me. He’s just in love with me as I am with him.

“I’m kind of nervous,” he tells me, and then starts his truck. It turns over a few times before coming to life with a loud roar.

“I am too,” I admit. “But there is no reason to be.”

“I keep wondering how I got so lucky,” he says. “Like I keep expecting to wake up only to find out that this has all been a dream. Or I expect to realize that you made a mistake. I’ve had this crush on you for so long that this just doesn’t seem real.”

I love the honesty and sincerity that I hear in his voice.

“That’s not going to happen,” I say, quickly. “Actually, I’ve been worried about the same thing in reverse. Like maybe you are going out with me because you feel sorry for me. I mean, I did kind of pressure you by writing you a song and kissing you in front of the entire school.”

Jace glances from the road to me. “That day that you kissed me — I was in shock. I was trying to convince myself that you were in love with somebody else and that I should let you go. I mean, I’ve been pining over you for a long time. It was getting kind of pathetic.”

“I wish you would’ve come to me a lot sooner. Or that I would’ve come to you… I mean, I kind of feel stupid. We’ve wasted a lot of time.”

“I do too,” he says. “But I have to believe that the timing was perfect. Plus, now we have an awesome story to tell our kids and grandkids.”

I laugh. “Jace, you can’t talk like that. You’re going to curse our relationship before we even really get started.”

“I’m not allowed to talk about the future?”

“Not when we haven’t even been dating a week.”

“I’m pretty sure going slow is going to be impossible with you,” he says. “I’ve wanted this for so long, Mads. You’re my girlfriend. Now that I have you, I fully intend to
never
let you go. You’re stuck with me. Forever.”

“I do like the sound of forever.” My heart is beating so fast against my chest, and my stomach feels like it’s dropped to my toes. How is it possible to even feel like this?

“How do you feel about me?” he asks.

“I— what?”

“How do you
feel
about me? When you look at me… when you kiss me…” his voice trails off.