Page 99 of Half Truths (Secret Society 1)
“Pity.” She took a sip of wine.
“My brother wants to see you,” I told Logan. He wiped his hands and stood, taking a healthy gulp of the wine in front of him before walking into the room. I took the seat he vacated and poured myself wine in his glass.
“We have clean glasses, Amelia.” Mom gave me a disdainful look.
“This one is perfectly fine.” I took a sip and set the glass down.
“How does he look to you?” Mom whispered, leaning forward. “Did he talk? Sometimes he doesn’t talk. It’s maddening. The doctors said he’s doing much better than anticipated. He’ll need months of therapy.”
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t call me when he woke up.” I ran a finger along the rim of the glass. I wasn’t one to voice my feelings often, which made my psychologist mother crazy, but this was one time I was willing to do it because as much as I tried to ignore it, I knew I wasn’t going to just get over it. “That was really hurtful.”
“I’m sorry. I thought we were doing the right thing. Your brothers agreed that it came off as selfish instead of selfless.” She reached over and put her hand on mine. “I don’t want to lose another kid, Amelia. I want you to have regular experiences in school. I know what it’s like to go through trauma at that age, trust me, I don’t want that for you.”
“But still. I would’ve liked to have been there.”
“It won’t happen again.” She squeezed my hand before taking it back to her glass. “I hope none of this happens again.”
“You look tired.”
“I skipped three Botox appointments.”
“Mom.” I shot her a look, then shook my head. If she wanted to make jokes, so be it. It was better than crying. “What does the doctor say about his memory?”
“He’s had a lot of long-term memory loss, but not nearly as bad as we thought it would be. His short-term memory is foggy, but Dr. Ginsburg thinks with time he’ll regain it.”
“That’s good.” I brought the glass closer to me, thinking about what he’d said about Lana. He had months to report it and hadn’t. They’d searched those woods though, including where the accident had taken place, and all of the waterfalls around, and found nothing. I thought about my father and his role in this, and then remembered what Manny said about flying him upstate. “Where’s dad?”
“He went to a meeting with Dean Ellis. You know universities are only worth as much as their donors.”
“Right.” I set the glass aside and stood. “I’m going to check in on Lincoln and Logan.”
As I walked over, I heard them talking quietly. Logan was on the other side of the bed, so I got a clear view of his face. He was smiling. My brother was too. I sighed. Thank God for small miracles. When they heard me open the door they stopped talking and looked at me.
“Are you having a super secretive conversation I’m not privy to?”
“Nah. I’m just trying to figure out how I told you that staying away from this asshole wasn’t a drill and you still ended up going for him.”
“I didn’t go for him.” I walked over to Logan. He put his arm around me.
“It’s true. She made me work for it.”
Lincoln smiled, then turned serious. “Did mom tell you I have therapy?”
“Yeah.”
“I need help to do everything. I can’t eat, can’t shit, can’t shower without help.” He sighed, closing his eyes.
“You’ll bounce back quickly.” I put my hand on his. “You always do. Remember when you broke your arm in high school and played on the team with a cast?”
Lincoln smiled. He opened his eyes. “That was pretty badass.”
“Maybe you can play in a wheelchair. I bet you’d still score more goals than Ryan.”
Lincoln laughed, shaking the bed. “Fuck, he’s still on the team?”
“Warming the bench, but hey. Kid’s got a jersey.”
Lincoln shook his head. I frowned.
“Is that the one that tripped at the pep rally?”
They both laughed.
We spent the rest of our stay like that, joking with my brother, until he got too tired and fell asleep. According to the nurse, he needed to keep resting as much as possible. I didn’t want to leave him so quickly, but I needed to get back to class as much as Logan needed to get back for practice, so I left, begrudgingly, promising I’d be back much sooner. I thought having my brother awake would help me answer more questions, but I still had the same ones: who did this to Lincoln and what happened to Lana? If Lincoln’s memory wasn’t faulty, and she had jumped and died.
Chapter Forty
Maybe I’d gotten too used to Logan skipping his own classes to come to mine, but I felt like every class I sat in was a bore. Half of the time, I spent working on my articles about the various community events around the city, all which of course included members of The Eight. Logan had been playing catch up in his own classes and making sure his grades were up before he left for an entire week.
