Page 77 of Diluted Truths

We wandered down the aisles of the grocery store as the locals eyed the five of us curiously. Most people knew who Theo and I were but were confused about when we got in town and who Violet and Will were. When the third person eyed Will’s tattoos with disgust, Kai busted out laughing.

“Serves you right for sleeping with my sister, in my house,” he chuckled out.

I rolled my eyes and Will just beamed as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

“Worth it.” He leaned down and gave me a kiss.

This man was slowly breaking through every barrier I had built to protect my heart. He was like my very own knight in shining armor.

“I wanted to ask you about something,” Will said, interrupting my thoughts.

“What?”

“Well, I remember that book you were reading when we caught our flights to San Francisco,” he began.

I nodded, knowing where this was going.

“You know, the book, placed in a certain town. That certain town being the one you’re from,” he continued.

I smiled sheepishly at him. “You were so excited to tell me about the history of the book, I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

“You could’ve told meThe Stand, bytheStephen King, is about your hometown.”

I shrugged. “Too late now.”

Will grinned down at me, muttering to himself what sounded awfully familiar to, ‘what am I going to do with this woman.’

We continued to make our way through the aisles and began to turn a corner when Kai abruptly stopped.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath.

“What?” Theo asked, just as confused as I was.

It was then that it all clicked.

A man and a woman turned the corner and stopped once they saw us. They were much older than I remembered and had mostly gray hair, which made sense since they were now in their late fifties. Theo picked up Violet and angled herself behind Kai, keeping Violet out of their line of sight. Kai also stood, almost defensively trying to hide their view of any of us. Will, still with his arm wrapped around my shoulder, sensed our discomfort and held me closer. His easy-going attitude from earlier was gone and the intimidating, powerful man was back.

“Hello, Malachi. I see your siblings are back in town,” the woman began.

“Don’t, Mom. Not here,” Kai responded in a hushed voice.

I saw it click in Will’s mind who these people were. He dropped his arm and pushed me behind himself as if to protect me. This drew myfather’s attention as he stared at us. His brown eyes pierced into mine, and the fear they caused that I had long since forgotten began to bubble up.

“Very well. Theodora, Ophelia. We do need to have some words while you are in town,” my mom continued on. “We will meet you at Malachi’s house when you’re done here.”

With that, I watched as they turned and headed towards the exit, leaving behind their groceries in the cart. They loaded up in my dad’s truck and drove off, most likely to Kai’s home. They were never the most patient people. Kai turned to us, remorse filling his gaze.

“I’m so sorr-'' he began, but was cut off by Theo.

“Don’t,” she began as she rested a hand on Kai’s arm. “We knew it was a possibility by coming here. They can’t hurt us anymore. Jack and I are adults. We’ll have this talk with them and then continue on with our day. Let’s go.” She set Violet down in the cart and continued on our path to finish getting our list of groceries.

Kai sighed, gave Will a strange look, and followed Theo towards the dairy aisle. Will turned towards me and took my face in his hands and searched my eyes, as if he was making sure I was okay.

I wasn’t, but I never was when it came to my parents.

“We can leave. I’ll grab our stuff and we can go home now.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay. I need to do this.”