Page 145 of Capturing You

“She had this guy she was spending a lot of time with. She didn’t tell me much about him—not even his name—only that he was older and very sweet. She confided to me that she didn’t want to go to college because she didn’t want to leave him. I thought it was stupid that she might give up college for some boy, but, you know, I was eight.” He shrugged. “I didn’t mind the idea of her staying home, though, even if it was for some stupid guy.”

“Did you ever figure out who it was?”

“No. I’d actually forgotten about him until just now.”

While she ate her snack, sipped her water, and took pain tablets, he told her about Mom and Dad and their lives at the mansion. He told her about summer days splashing in the waves in their small, private cove and fall hikes through the forests west of town. About skiing and trips to the city to see new construction projects Dad was proud of. He told her about family dinners and Sunday morning breakfasts before church and game nights and so many other memories he’d long forgotten. “We were happy. We had everything we needed. I’ll never understand why Dad…” He swallowed emotion that choked off his words.

“What do you think he did?”

“He was involved in all of this.” His words came out too harsh. He softened them as he faced the woman who deserved none of his wrath. “We know that.”

She bit her lip. “Do we? We know he knew what The Network was doing, but that doesn’t prove he was involved. Maybe he was investigating. Maybe?—”

“He was involved.”

“Tell me why you think that.”

He huffed a breath, his gaze catching on the room’s only hiding place. It was a tiny cutout beside the fireplace. With the grate covering it, it looked like part of a ventilation system. It wasn’t, though, just a tiny boxlike hole. It used to be Forbes’s favorite spot when he and Rosie played hide-and-seek because he could see out and, thanks to the mesh between the slats, nobody could see in. It was ingenious.

She followed his gaze, her eyes narrowing. “What?”

“You heard the story about what happened here? That the boy…” He didn’t need to lie anymore. “ThatIwas at my grandmother’s house?”

“Yes.”

“That wasn’t true.” He walked across the room, undid the rusty latch, and swung open the grate. “I was in here.”

Tossing the ice pack aside, she used the arm of the sofa to stand and limped close. She bent down to look.

It seemed smaller now than it had back then. It’d fit an eight-year-old boy perfectly, even if the space had become claustrophobic after a few hours. Though nobody had ever looked, the hole hadn’t felt safe that terrible day.

Nothing had felt safe since that day.

The opening was two feet wide and two feet tall, but inside, it stretched on the side away from the fireplace. Back then, he’d been able to lie down flat. He wouldn’t even make it through the opening now.

Brooklynn straightened, her eyes wide with horror. “You were here?”

He glanced toward the hallway. “Dad didn’t know. He brought them here. There were two of them, a man and a woman. They accused him of betraying them. Dad swore he didn’t, that he’d never told a soul, but they…”

He swallowed all the pain and fury the memories brought.

“Oh, Forbes.” Brooklynn slipped her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine… I’m so sorry.”

He held onto her, allowing the memories to crash over him. “I did nothing. I just hid and let them die. I did nothing to help.”

“That’s not true.”

“I didn’t scream or try to call the police. I did nothing.”

She leaned back and lifted her hands to his cheeks. Her fingers were cool, her touch soothing. “It’s not true, Forbes. Your life was just as valuable as your father’s and mother’s and sister’s. You weren’t able to save them—what little boy could have?—so you did exactly the right thing, exactly what your parents and sister must have prayed you would do. You did exactly what God wanted you to do. You stayed alive.”

That couldn’t be true. Could it?

All his life, he’d seen himself as a failure and a coward, but maybe…maybe Brooklynn had a point.

He’d never seen his actions like that before. His therapist had always wanted him to see that he couldn’t have saved them. It’d never occurred to him that his family wouldn’t have wanted him to risk his life.

Even that God hadn’t wanted it.