Page 5 of I Would Stay Forever (Parkhurst Prep #2)

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In the end, Dad drove me home in his car and promised he’d bring me back to get mine in the morning. I didn’t tell him that I never planned to get in a car alone with him. I just nodded and mentally decided that I would ask Sebastian to drive me instead.

Dad tried to keep up a conversation in the car—asking me if I was feeling better, saying that he wasn’t surprised I’d found the best diner in town, and asking if I was excited for my senior year.

I didn’t respond to a single one of his questions, and I wished he would just shut up, but he kept droning on for the whole drive.

By the end, I figured he was probably more scared of the silence than of bothering me with his chatter.

If we sat in silence, he would have nothing to think about but what was waiting for him when we got home.

It felt like the car ride lasted years and by the time we pulled up to the house, the moon was high in the sky.

Sebastian’s car was parked on the street instead of in the driveway, as if he was ready for the quick getaway he would need to make tonight.

I wondered if it was a coincidence or if Dean had called with a warning.

Thinking of Dean made my stomach twist again.

The way he’d shoved my father and gave him the ultimatum none of us wanted to hear.

Tell her or I will. I glanced next door, to the dark window of his bedroom.

He wasn’t here. He couldn’t be if he drove Zoey all the way home first, but I felt a strange pull to walk over there anyway.

Maybe it was just the desire to be anywhere but here.

Or maybe it was because he was the only other person in the world who had seen what I had.

Who knew exactly what had just happened.

“Lovey...” Dad whispered. I flinched away from him. He had already ruined the name for me, but I didn’t want it stained any more than it already was.

“Don’t.” Even though I felt broken inside, like there were glass shards pressed up against my heart, my voice came out sharp. This time, he flinched away and I felt a perverse sense of joy at being able to hurt him even a fraction as much as he had hurt me.

Maybe that was the reason he got out of the car without saying a word.

Then he stood there with the door open for a long time like he wasn’t sure if he was going inside or not.

I didn’t want to have to be the one to force him, but I probably wouldn’t have to be.

All I had to do was stop him from driving away before Dean showed up.

It was obvious from the way he’d been yelling in the parking lot that he wasn’t scared to give Dad a piece of his mind.

So I waited patiently, watching him bathed in the moonlight as he leaned in, resting one hand on the roof of the car and the other along the windowsill, propping him up.

I had a flashback to a few hours ago, when he’d leaned into my car the very same way.

He had given me that car right before he planned to go on a date with his mistress—a woman who couldn’t be ten years older than me.

How had he already managed to ruin that gift for me?

“Are you coming in?” he asked. I thought about it for way longer than I should have.

I knew I should follow, should be there to make sure that he told his story in the right way, that he told everyone the real truth, making them understand how exactly this all came about.

But then I shook my head. I couldn’t go inside with him because I couldn’t watch my dad break my mom’s heart.

He sighed, and for a second I thought he was going to try to talk me into it.

Then he tapped the top of the car a couple times and stood up straight, turning his back on me.

Even though I’d just been hoping that he wouldn’t talk me into coming with him, seeing him walk away from me without a word hurt even more.

Maybe it was because in the last hour, I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of remorse on his face.

I threw the car door open and dry heaved on the driveway.

In the back of my mind, I hoped that none of my neighbours could see me, because I would never live this down.

Then I felt a wave of guilt crash over me for worrying about something so trivial while my mom was inside being told her marriage was over.

“You’re okay, Lavender,” a soft voice came from above me. For a second, I thought I was imagining an angel, until I lifted my head and saw Sebastian beside me. He tried to smile but it was clearly forced and had no warmth behind it.

He knew .

I looked at the front door just as it opened and Ainsley walked out of the house with Imogen on her heels.

All the sounds I’d been unintentionally blocking out came flying in now, crashing into my mind so hard that it made me want to collapse.

Yelling. So much yelling. Even when Imogen closed the door, slamming it a little harder than necessary, it didn’t stop.

My gaze drifted across all the open windows dotting our house.

I guess it hadn’t occurred to Dad to close them before telling Mom the truth.

“Come on,” Sebastian said. He grabbed my arm and helped me get to my feet, slamming the car door closed behind me.

We waited for Ainsley and Imogen to walk up the driveway before we started moving.

I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I was happy to follow Sebastian.

I would follow my big brother to the end of the world. Or, as it turned out, next door.

Both cars were in the Graham’s driveway again, so Dean must have come back at some point while I was sitting there.

Gosh, how long had that been? It only felt like a few minutes, but for all I knew, it could have been hours.

Time wasn’t real to me anymore. All that existed was the before and the now .

The after.

Sebastian knocked on the door while the rest of us huddled around him. I glanced at Ainsley beside me, wearing one of Sebastian’s old jumpers.

She looked so tiny in my eyes right now, even though I knew logically that she was sixteen. Soon to be a junior in high school. Old enough to drive. And yet, everything that had happened tonight made her look more like a frail little kid. I wondered if I looked the same.

It was Dean’s sister, Nora, who opened the door, but it was Mrs. Graham who insisted on us coming in when she saw us all on the porch. From her pinched expression, I assumed she’d already heard everything coming from our house—just like everyone on the street by now, I was sure.

I mostly zoned out as Sebastian explained that we needed to stay here for a few days if they didn’t mind—barely processing the few days bit, the fact that he thought this wouldn’t be over tonight—and as Mrs. Graham found us spare clothes and the blow-up mattresses that we could put in the basement.

I didn’t let myself think because I knew the moment that I did, I would break and I absolutely refused to do that here. I would not fall apart again.

Not in front of my sisters, who needed me to seem strong. Not in front of Sebastian, who needed my help to keep us siblings together. And certainly not in front of Dean, who had already seen the worst of me tonight.

I stayed strong now because I had to.