Page 171 of This is Why We Lied

Mercy tightened her grip, pulling him so hard that she felt the muscles in her back straining. By the time they reached the clearing, she was panting from the effort of dragging him behind her.

She dropped both backpacks on the ground. There were cigarette butts everywhere. Dave hadn’t prepared for the storm. Everything was laid out exactly where he had left it. Sawhorses and tools, a can of gasoline with the cap off, a generator turned onto its side. The shitty state of the worksite was a sharp reminder of who Dave really was. He didn’t take care of things, let alone other people. He couldn’t even bother to pick up after himself. Mercy couldn’t trust him with this.

Yet again, she was on her own.

“Mom,” Jon said. “Please, just drop this, okay? Let me go back.”

Mercy looked at him. He had stopped crying, but she could hear the whistle of air through his stuffy nose.

“I n-need to go back. She told me I could go back.”

“No, baby.” Mercy pressed her hand to his chest. His heart was pounding so hard that she could feel it through his ribs. She couldn’t stop the sob that came out of her mouth. The enormity of what had just happened caught up with her all at once. The terrible things that her mother had done to her son. The rot that had taken hold of her family.

She said, “Baby, look at me. You’re never going back. That’s settled.”

“I don’t—”

She grabbed his face in her hands. “Jon, listen to me. We’re going to get help, okay?”

“No.” He peeled her hands away from his face. He took a step back, then another. “Bitty doesn’t have anybody but me. She needs me.”

“I need you!” Mercy’s voice was hoarse. “You’re my son. I need you to be my son.”

Jon’s head started to shake. “How many times did I ask you to leave him? How many times did we pack our bags, and the next day, you were fucking him again?”

Mercy couldn’t argue with the truth. “You’re right. I’ve failed you, but I’m making up for it now.”

“I don’t need you to do anything,” Jon said. “Bitty’s the one who protected me. She’s the one who kept me safe.”

“Safe from what? She’s the one who’s hurting you.”

“You know what Dave did to me,” he said. “I was only five years old. He broke my arm, and you told me I had to forgive him.”

“What?” Her whole body was shaking. That wasn’t what happened. “You fell out of a tree. I was standing right there. Dave tried to catch you.”

“She warned me you would say that,” Jon said. “Bitty protected me from him. You told me I had to forgive him, to let him do whatever he wanted so he didn’t get mad again.”

Mercy felt her hands go to her mouth. Bitty had filled him with disgusting lies.

“Jon—” She said the first thing that came to mind. “We’re going to cottage ten.”

“What?”

“The couple in cottage ten.” She could finally see a way out of this. The solution was there all along. “Will Trent is with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He won’t let Biscuits sweep this under the rug. His wife is a doctor. She can look out for you while I tell him what happened.”

“You mean Trashcan?” His voice raked up in alarm. “You can’t—”

“I can and I will.” Mercy had never felt more certain of anything in her life. Sara had told her that she trusted Will, that he was a good man. He would fix this. He would save them both. “That’s what we’re doing. Come on.”

Mercy reached for the backpacks.

“Go fuck yourself.”

The coldness in his voice stopped Mercy in her tracks. She looked up at him. Jon’s face was so hard it could’ve been cut from a single piece of marble.

“All you care about is winning,” he said. “You only want me now because you know you can’t have me.”

Mercy realized that she needed to be very careful. She’d seen Jon angry before, but never like this. His eyes were almost black with rage. “Is that what Bitty told you?”