Page 120 of Broken Butterfly
The fine hairs along my skin raise and I take a step forward. Ryder comes running down the hallway, calling my name, and I turn to spear him with a look that tells him to stay back.
“Please,” I beg him, holding my palm up to tell him to stop, which he does, concern apparent on his gorgeous face. He flicks his worried gaze from me to Fallon, but, thankfully, he keeps his distance. I snap my head back around to Fallon and take another step closer to the liar in front of me, wishing so badly that I could beat the rest of his excuses out of him.
“Bullshit! You did what you had to do to protect your brother.”
“That’s what you think? After what he did to me, to you, to your family? You think I would protect that evil son of a bitch? You are so naïve, kitten. You have no fucking clue! You never did!”
“You’re a heartless bastard, Fallon! Everything out of your mouth is a lie!”
Fallon rushes forward the remaining three feet, Ryder cursing him as he approaches me, but I stand my ground. I will not run away or flinch. I’m facing the truth of my nightmare.
“You forget, kitten. I warned you that I was one of the villains in your story. I fucking warned you that I would destroy you. I told you that you would hate me.”
“Tell me everything,” I demand. “I deserve to know the truth.”
“Tell her,” Trevor says from behind me. He must have just come back. His sudden presence has my head spinning. How does Trevor know? “We should have told her a long time ago. She deserves to know.”
I feel like my body is on a swivel as I turn around again. “You knew? You’ve been lying to me too?”
So many things become clear. Trevor’s sudden appearance at the beach the day we first met. How, even though he’s a senior, he wound up in my English Lit class for freshman and sophomore years. How he’s always been overly protective of me. All the times he told me he needed to tell me something important.
“Fallon, tell her, or I will.”
“Fuck you!” Fallon rails at him, grabbing the sides of his own head.
“Was it Peter?” I shout back at him, needing to know for sure. Needing the truth. “Tell me, Fallon! Was it Peter that night?”
Fallon stumbles over and slams his back into the wall as if it’s the only thing that can hold him upright. His desolate pale cerulean eyes hold me prisoner as he nods yes.
My bottom lip trembles. Peter killed my parents. He killed Hailey and caused Elizabeth Ann’s death. He stabbed me and left me on the floor to die. The weight of finally knowing who was responsible for that night eases its relentless grip on my soul and I take a deep breath.Knowledge is power, Fallon used to say. I missed the clues, the signs. I should have started to put the pieces together when Fallon told me about Peter. About the night his brother came into his room with a knife.The goddamn knife. How Peter straddled him and stabbed him. How Fallon spent weeks in the hospital recovering. All the times Fallon promised withabsolutecertainty that the man from that night would never hurt me again. The clues were there, right in front of my face, but I never saw them.Don’t you see, Elizabeth? Open your eyes and see.
I feel Ryder edge carefully up against my back. Automatically, without thinking, I lean against him, reaching back with one hand until I feel his hand grip mine.Breathe, Elizabeth. You aren’t alone. The monster is dead.
A new question creeps in. “Ryder, did you know?” I twist my head around so I can see his eyes.
“No,” he softly answers me.Thank fucking God. I sink back into him, needing him to help hold me steady.
“Peter was obsessed with you,” Fallon begins, and his words cause bile to boil up into my esophagus.
“Like you?” I snarl accusatorily at him.
A flittering of pain briefly replaces the emptiness in his eyes until he shuts it down. “It was my fault. I was the reason he noticed you. Because I was interested in you… wanted you.” He scoffs. “But you’re right, kitten. I was obsessed with you too. Perhaps I’m no better than my brother after all. Perhaps my fascination with you is what led him to you like a lamb to slaughter.”
“What are you saying, Fallon? Was Peter stalking me? Did you stand by and watch and do nothing?”
“Peter could never get close to you. You were always surrounded by Jay, Ry, and Julien. I tried to protect you from him on my end as best I could.”
“You did a fucking piss-poor job of protecting me then,” I hurl at him, motioning to where the scars are on my side.
“At some point, when Peter failed to get near you, that’s when he set his sights on your sister.”
I’m sifting through every thought, every word, every moment of my life, thankful for once that I have my memories back. As I do, I realize that Fallon has always been in the background protecting me. He also protected the boys I love. He made sure that the video of the fight with Marshall never saw the light of day so Jayson, Ryder, and Julien wouldn’t get into trouble. He got Marshall kicked off the Highland High soccer team after he intentionally injured Julien during a game. He made sure Jacinda left me alone in high school after her stunt with Jayson at the party. He has always stood by Ryder and has been there for him when I couldn’t. He threw himself in front of me to protect me after I punched Marshall for running Ryder off the track during a race at the Fields. Fallon took me in and helped me heal when my mind was shattered with returning memories that I didn’t know how to handle. He flew Ryder to Barcelona, bringing the man I love back to me. He bought my parents’ house to fulfill my dream. Fallon has been protecting me in his own way for years. And I never saw it.
Open your eyes and see.
“When Peter got his claws into Hailey, I was horrified, but also relieved. He filled his obsession on you with her, and I figured that, as long as she occupied his attention, you’d be safe. I was wrong.”
“Peter was the older guy that Hailey was secretly seeing?” I need confirmation. I need to hear him say it.
