Page 13 of Secrets of the Past (Secrets of Mustang Island #3)

B y the time she turned onto her parents’ street, the fury still sat hot under her skin, coiled tightly in her chest. The little Craftsman house looked precisely the same as it had when she was seventeen, the peeling paint, the sagging porch step, the wild rosebush threatening to swallow the windows.

How could the house look unchanged when her whole world had tilted?

Even though she was here for her parents, she was beginning to doubt that she should have returned. Staying in Austin would have been the better choice, and yet, her parents needed her.

And yet, she’d just had confirmation that they had helped split up her and Tripp.

Inside, the air smelled of roast chicken and lemon cleaner, a combination that was both ordinary and maddening.

Her mother sat at the kitchen table with her crossword puzzle, glasses perched on her nose.

Her father sat behind his newspaper, half-listening to the evening news droning from the television in the living room.

“You’re home early,” her mother said without looking up.

Nicole set her briefcase down harder than she meant to, the thud making both parents glance her way. “Trial let out. Jury’s gone home for the day.”

Her father folded his newspaper. “How’s it going?”

She barked out a laugh, bitter and sharp. “Besides the ghost of high school showing up in the front row?”

They both frowned. But it was more than that; it was the cruel reflection of her own past, a case so eerily like her life that it clawed at her like a ghost she could never outrun.

“Mrs. Masterson,” Nicole snapped. “She was there. Watching me. Smiling like she still owns me. Like she still owns everything in this town, including her son.”

Her mother made a faint, dismissive sound. “She always did think she was better than everyone else.”

The rage was just beneath the surface. It was all she could do to keep it contained.

“And then when I walked out to the parking lot, she was waiting for me. Waiting to warn me to stay away from her son. That I’m still not worthy enough for him. How he’s dating someone else. But the worst thing she told me was how my own parents played a part in ending our marriage.”

Her mother gasped.

Nicole’s chest burned. “It’s not just her. This case, it’s like looking into a mirror. A girl who loves the wrong boy. A family who wants her gone. I’m standing in court reliving my own nightmare, only now the names are Bianca and Derrick instead of Nicole and Tripp.”

Her father shifted in his chair. “Nicole?—”

She whirled on him. “Don’t. Don’t you dare. I know exactly what you thought back then. That I was too young, too na?ve, that Tripp Masterson would never actually marry me. But we did, and then you interfered.”

The words cracked through the kitchen like a whip.

Silence. The kind that made the clock on the wall tick louder, the refrigerator hum too sharply.

Her mother took off her glasses and folded them with careful precision, as if buying time. “We only wanted what was best for you.”

Nicole’s pulse stumbled. “What does that mean?”

Her father cleared his throat, eyes dropping to the table. “Sometimes parents have to make choices their children don’t understand.”

Her heart lurched, cold flooding her veins. “Choices?” Her voice rose, raw. “Are you telling me that she’s right? That my own parents had something to do with the annulment?”

Her mother’s hand clenched, the pencil in her grip snapping clean in two.

The sound was small, but it detonated inside Nicole.

Her father looked at the broken pencil, then at her. His expression sagged with guilt. “We thought we were protecting you.”

Nicole reeled back, a sob catching in her throat. “Protecting me? From what? From love? From the only boy I ever—” She cut herself off, but the words hung between them, alive and sharp.

Her mother’s chair screeched as she pushed it back. “Do not raise your voice to me, Nicole.”

It was a defense move. She was trying to make her feel like a child again, but it wasn’t going to work.

Nicole’s laugh was jagged, half-hysterical. “Don’t raise my voice? You admit you destroyed my life, and you want me to keep quiet? You didn’t just stand by while Tripp’s mother tore us apart, you helped her, didn’t you? You stood with her.”

Her mother flinched, just barely, but it was enough.

Her father stood abruptly and paced to the sink. He gripped the counter, his shoulders slumped.

“We thought it was the right thing,” he said, his voice hoarse.

Nicole’s vision blurred with tears. “The right thing? You let me believe for twenty years that I wasn’t good enough. That he didn’t want me. You let me carry that shame while you sat here eating roast chicken and working crossword puzzles.”

“Nicole—” Her mother’s voice cracked, sharp with control.

“No!” Nicole’s scream shook the air, raw and furious. “Don’t you dare try to spin this. Don’t you dare tell me you did it for my own good. You lied. You interfered. You?—”

The people she trusted above all others had been tangled in this debacle, betraying her in the worst way. Her throat closed around the words. Rage. Grief. Betrayal. It all choked her until she could barely breathe.

She grabbed her briefcase, her fingers trembling. “I can’t look at either of you right now.”

Her father turned, anguish on his face. “Please, just let us explain?—”

“No!” She backed toward the door, her chest heaving. “You’ve had twenty years to explain. And you said nothing. Nothing!”

Her mother reached out a hand, but Nicole yanked the door open, hot air rushing in.

“If you really thought you were protecting me,” she choked out, “then you never knew me at all. I loved Tripp, and he loved me until you ripped us apart.”

The door slammed behind her, rattling the windows.

Outside, the evening air was heavy and hot, cicadas screaming in the trees. Nicole strode to her car, tears spilling unchecked, her whole body trembling.

For years, she had believed Tripp had left her because he didn’t love her enough and it was her fault.

Now she knew better.

And the truth was so much worse. There was only one person she could talk to about this, but she didn’t know how to reach him, except through his law office.

But Paige…Paige would know.