Page 15 of Secrets of the Past (Secrets of Mustang Island #3)

T he ocean whispered outside Paige’s rented beach house, steady and relentless, like it had all the answers Nicole couldn’t find. She sat curled on the sagging couch, bare toes buried in the throw blanket, a mug of tea cooling in her hands.

Outside, it was hot, but Nicole was shaking inside and out from what she’d learned tonight.

Inside, her nerves quaked like a nine-point earthquake, splintering her.

She’d prepared herself to face the truth about Mrs. Masterson, that much she had always suspected.

But her own parents? That betrayal struck like a collapse she hadn’t seen coming, crushing her in ways she didn’t know she could survive.

If she couldn’t trust them, who was left?

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she said, her voice raw. “Everything I thought I knew about what happened with Tripp…about why we ended…it’s unraveling.”

Paige sat on the cushion next to her. She didn’t press, didn’t pity, just waited.

Nicole’s throat ached as she forced the words out. “Mrs. Masterson was waiting for me in the parking lot after court today.”

Paige’s eyes snapped up, sharp with concern.

Nicole gave a laugh, jagged and brittle. “The woman warned me away from her son. Said he had a girlfriend who was exactly the kind of woman he needed.” The sound dissolved into silence, bitter as ash.

“That’s not true,” Paige said quickly, almost too quickly, like she needed to defend Tripp. “Or at least…he hasn’t told me about one.”

Nicole lifted her teacup with trembling hands, the china rattling against its saucer.

She took a sip, though the liquid scalded going down.

“Well, whether it’s true or not, she wanted me to hear it.

To cut me down. To remind me I’m not good enough.

And then—” her voice cracked, splintering— “then she dropped a bomb on me.”

Paige’s posture stiffened, wary. “What?”

Nicole gripped the cup so tightly, she was afraid she’d shatter it. “She told me my parents helped her break up me and Tripp.”

Paige blinked, stunned. Her lips parted, then closed, then opened again. Finally, she shook her head. “Dear God. That woman is a witch.”

And that was all it took, the final blow.

Nicole’s breath hitched, and a sob broke free.

Tears slipped hot and fast down her cheeks, falling into her tea.

“I went home after court and confronted Mom and Dad. I told them about running into Mrs. Masterson, about how this case feels like a mirror of everything I lost with Tripp. And I told them I knew. ” Her voice cracked again, her words breaking into shards.

Paige leaned across the couch, her hand covering Nicole’s in a firm, grounding hold.

Nicole shook her head, fighting for air.

“They didn’t deny it, Paige. Not outright.

They as much as admitted it. That they had something to do with it.

The breakup.” Her chest heaved. “They wouldn’t give me details, but it was enough.

Enough to know they’re guilty. That they—” She swallowed, the word tasting like blood. “That they lied to me.”

Paige’s fingers tightened around hers. “Oh, Nicole…”

“All these years,” Nicole sobbed, pressing her palms to her eyes. “I thought it was just Tripp. That he’d stopped loving me. That he’d walked away. And now I find out my own parents , the two people I believed most, helped destroy us.”

Paige pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around Nicole’s shoulders, pulling her into the steady warmth of a friend’s embrace. Nicole sagged against her, the fight draining out of her.

Why did it feel like this had been the battle of her life?

Paige’s voice was gentle but sure. “You were their shining star, and Tripp was a threat to them, Nicole. None of that was your fault. Not then. Not now.”

Nicole let out a shaky laugh through her tears, muffled against Paige’s shoulder. “Then why does it feel like everything was my fault?”

“Because they wanted what was best for you, and they believed that you and Tripp were too young to know what you wanted,” Paige said fiercely, brushing a tear from Nicole’s cheek. “But you were loved. You are loved. And you’ve carried the weight of this for far too long.”

Nicole clung to her, sobs breaking free again, her body trembling with twenty years of buried pain.

For the first time in years, she didn’t feel like she was drowning alone.

Paige’s eyes darkened. “Oh, Nic.”

Nicole set the mug down before her hands betrayed the tremor in them. “I’ve spent twenty years believing Tripp left me, that he didn’t love me enough. That I wasn’t good enough. And now—” Her voice cracked. “Now I don’t know what to believe.”

The screen door creaked. Nicole turned, expecting the salty wind. Instead?—

Tripp.

He stood in the doorway, framed by the ocean in the distance, shoulders tense, eyes locked on her. For a heartbeat, the world held still, the only sound the tide rushing against the shore. The waves crashing onto the beach, like her life was unraveling around her.

“Did you call him?”

“No,” Paige said. “I told him where I’m staying, but I didn’t know he was coming over tonight.”

“I need answers,” he said. “And Paige was the only person I thought could give them to me. But I’m so happy you’re here.”

Paige looked between them. Then, with a slight nod, she rose. “I’ll give you two some privacy.” She slipped out the back door, leaving silence in her wake.

Nicole’s pulse thundered. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same,” he said, his voice rough. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “But I think we both came for the same reason.”

She swallowed. “Answers?”

“I came here after I left my mother’s,” he said. “I didn’t know you would be here.”

Nicole folded her arms. “So what? This is fate? Us ending up in the same place on the same night?”

“Not fate.” His eyes were fierce. “Truth. Finally.”

The word cracked open something inside her. She sank back on the couch, gesturing stiffly. “Fine. Sit. Let’s get it out.”

He sat across from her, leaning forward, forearms braced on his knees. For a long moment, neither spoke, twenty years of silence pressing down like a weight.

Finally, Nicole broke. “I thought you left me.” Her voice wavered. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”

His jaw clenched. “And I thought you walked away. Chose college. Chose anything but me.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “I never walked away. I was crushed that summer. All our plans, and yet you weren’t speaking to me. Suddenly, you wanted to party in college. You wanted anyone but me.”

Tripp turned to face her, his eyes darkened, and his mouth turned down.

“No, I thought you didn’t want me,” he said, his voice cracking. “I was in Europe. I couldn’t reach you by phone. Not even email.”

“As I said before, I never got your calls,” Nicole said, her throat raw, her voice shaking with old hurt.

“All I got was that email, the one that said you wanted to party your way through college, that you wanted to date other women. Even today, your mother cornered me and told me you were seeing someone appropriate. ”

Tripp froze, disbelief flashing across his face. “What?” His voice was sharp, incredulous, as though the word itself was dragged from his gut.

She told him. Every last detail. The ambush in the parking lot, the way Mrs. Masterson had looked her in the eye and warned her away, and worst of all, the revelation about her parents.

Nicole’s chest tightened with every word, but she pushed them out anyway, because he deserved to hear it, even if it shattered them both.

There would be no more secrets.

By the time she finished, Tripp’s face was scarlet with fury. His jaw clenched so hard, a muscle ticked in his cheek, and his fists balled at his sides. He looked like he could put his fist through a wall.

“Damn,” he ground out, dragging both hands down his face.

He paced once, then stopped in front of her, his voice breaking.

“Nicole, I never wrote that email. Not one damn word of it. I was in Europe, trying to call you every chance I got. Then my phone disappeared. I lost every number, and when I came back—” His voice cracked, and he swallowed hard.

“When I came back, you were gone. And I thought…” He shook his head, anguish twisting his features. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”

Her heart pounded, the ground tilting beneath her.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice thick.

He reached for her hand, then stopped himself, his fingers curling into a fist instead.

“God, Nicole, I am so damn sorry. For all of it. For not finding a way to break through. For letting them come between us. I would have burned the world down to keep you if I’d known. ”

Nicole’s breath caught, the weight of his confession pressing down on her chest until she thought she might shatter under it.

For a heartbeat, she wanted to believe him, God, every cell in her body ached to believe him.

His voice, his eyes, the raw truth etched in his face… it all rang with sincerity.

But then the memories crashed back. The sleepless nights. The hollow ache of waiting for calls that never came. The email that had sliced her open. The twenty years of wondering why she wasn’t enough.

Her hands trembled as she clasped them tighter. “Do you have any idea what it did to me?” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I thought you’d chosen every party, every girl, over me. I thought I was disposable. And you weren’t there to tell me otherwise.”

A sob clawed its way up her throat, and she pressed a fist against her mouth, trying to hold it back. “You say you didn’t write that email, but I lived with it. I believed it. For two decades, I believed you didn’t want me, Tripp.”

Her eyes burned as she met his, hot tears spilling freely now. “So you’ll have to forgive me if it’s not so easy to just…believe. Because if I let myself believe you now, it means I wasted twenty years hating you when I should have hated them .”