Page 108 of The Man Next Door
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Itake Abe’s hand in mine, and lead him to the sofa in the living room. It’s dark, nothing but the moonlight illuminates us. Boxes are stacked next to the sofa, ready to go. “Tell me everything.”
He rubs his hands along the legs of his pajama pants. “I was only nine…” he starts off.
I press my hand on his. I’ve missed his touch so much. “I know.”
“He said that if I told, he’d hurt my mom. Badly. He said he’d kill her.”
I thought of Adele, always smiling, a light in everyone’s life, especially little Abe’s.
“Who?” I ask.
“Uncle Pete.”
My heart stops. Pete.
“I saw him slap her straight across the face,” he says softly. He stares at the floor, not able to look at me. “He hit her so hard, she fell to the floor.”
“Izzie?” I ask, wanting clarification.
He turns to me, and the expression in his eyes completely breaks me. He’s been carrying this all his life, this secret which managed to destroy so many lives.
His eyes are brimming, full of emotion. “I knew he was hurting her, but I didn’t say a word.”
“You were afraid. You were only a kid.”
“I should have said something.” The edges of his words are cracked, heavy with pain. “If I had, Izzie would have never died. Neither would have Gavin.”
I close my eyes. I don’t know what to say because he’s right. He could have prevented it all.
“Even when everyone was accusing Gavin Foster, I could have spoken up. I could have saved him.”
“You were so young,” I tell him. “You didn’t know any better.”
“I went to the police years later,” he tells me. “They couldn’t reopen the case. They told me they couldn’t gather enough evidence. Too much time had passed. People wouldn’t remember. And budget restraints and all. And most importantly, the perp was dead.”
“I heard about that.” Pete Reed died in a bad ATV accident two years following Izzie’s death. I remember feeling nothing at all when I heard the news. I never liked Pete.
A chill slithers slowly down my spine. “So you think he did it?”
“Positive.”
I’d been blind, too preoccupied with Gavin to see. How had I not seen it? Pete was not only a creep, but was also prone to fits of anger. He was known for his short temper. And he and Izzie had always been inappropriately close. She could often be found sitting on his lap. He would sometimes braid her hair. At the time, I thought nothing of it. It was just Izzie being Izzie. Unlike me, she was familiar and touchy-feely with everyone.
Once, we were playing cards, and Pete suggested we play strip poker. We eventually ended the game when we got down to our underwear, but I knew Pete would have taken it all the way. I remember walking back home that day, filled with a strange sensation, something I hadn’t recognized at the time… uneasiness.
The bruises on her wrists and that black eye were not bicycle falls and clumsy tumbles. The older man she’d been seeing was Pete. That’s why she’d been so secretive about it. He was eight years older than she was, not to mention her uncle.
How could I have been so blind?
Abe takes my hand and holds it against his chest. “I should have told you before. I was just scared shitless.”
I can feel his heart beating wildly under the palm of my hand. “Scared of what?”
“Scared that you would hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” I tell him. “And why wouldn’t you tell me who you were? Instead of all these lies… this cover-up?”
