Page 11 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“If she wasn’t out there, drinkin’ in that car that she stole, not payin’ attention to the road, our sister would be alive. She would be fuckin’ alive, and I wouldn’t have to be livin’ through this.”
“I know you and Celia were close, Tanner, but your guilt is clouding your judgement. You’re letting your hurt rule.”
“I’m not fuckin’ guilty for anything,” Tanner barks. “You fuckin’ know nothin’, Andrea. You didn’t even know Celia the way I did.”
Dead silence for a moment, then Andrea’s voice comes through as an angry hiss.
“Tell yourself whatever you want, Tanner. You can deny it, but you have doubt. You want so badly for her story to be false, because if it’s true, it means you didn’t know Celia as well as you thought. It means your little bond wasn’t as strong as you thought. It means you let her down, because you didn’t help her when she needed it. It’s easier to blame Callie than it is to accept you were in a shitty place at the time and you let your sister down.”
Oh.
God.
“Get the fuck out!” Tanner barks. “Get the fuck out of my house!”
I turn and run before Andrea walks out of the house. I stumble over a few bushes, cursing under my breath. I reach my car, open it and get in. I start it and drive off, still pulling my seatbelt on as I go. I don’t know if anyone saw me, but I couldn’t risk being out there when Andrea stormed out of that house.
My mind spins as I navigate the streets to our apartment.
The first thing that’s getting to me is Andrea.
She’s not one-hundred-percent on board. Neither is Ethan. Which tells me they’ve gotten to know me and maybe considered that I’m not the monster they’ve painted in their heads. That gives me hope, a glimmer of light during a dark time. Maybe I can change their minds, maybe, just maybe, I can make this better.
Then, I think of Tanner.
His bond with Celia is one I don’t understand. I didn’t realize the two were so close. They had quite an age gap, and it makes me wonder what happened in their lives for him to feel so protective of her. He speaks as if he’s her father, as if he had some sort of responsibility for her.
Oh, Celia.
I’d do anything to talk to you.
Anything in this world to get the answers I seek so desperately.
You hold the key to everything.
“SO, SOMETHING WAS GOING on between Celia and Chase?” Jo asks as we walk toward the café the next morning.
She’s coming in to have coffee with me, but mostly I think she’s making sure nothing happens to me on my first day back at work. She’s worried, and I understand why. It’s confusing, it’s messy, and neither of us has any idea what exactly it is they’re planning to do or not do. Everything is up in the air, and it isn’t a nice feeling.
“Yeah,” I answer her question as we cross the road. The sun shines down on my skin, warming me, reminding me of how much I adore its presence. Cars whizz by, everyone in a rush to go to work. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the sound of being in the hustle and bustle of a city. It’s the little things you miss when you don’t see them every day. “I found some emails on her laptop from Chase. Something about a HIV test. He kept saying how sorry he was, and how he wanted to help her. I couldn’t find anything else, though. She had deleted everything except those.”
“Do you think he sent them after the accident?” Jo asks, stopping and turning to me when we reach the sidewalk.
“No, I don’t think so. Nothing is making sense to me right now. Amber said that Celia was frantic because Chase disappeared a few days before she died. Nobody knew where he was. In the emails, though, he was frantic because she wasn’t talking to him. I’m missing something, but I don’t know exactly what it is I’m missing. I feel like I’ve reached a dead end again.”
“Maybe Amber didn’t have her story correct?” Jo suggests.
“I thought that, too, but she was adamant that Celia was upset about Chase not being around, and nobody could find him.”
“He could have sent the emails and freaked out when Celia didn’t reply. Maybe he was scared of something or someone and disappeared, then Celia got wind that he had left and freaked out? It’s possible. Whatever went down between the two of them, it was intense, and it was horrible. I wish we had more information to follow. I almost need answers now as much as you do,” Jo mutters.
“I do have something interesting, but it isn’t enough to give me a clear answer on things. His yearbook and everything else we found had Chase Wick, but the emails he sent to Celia had Chase Redford. I’m not sure which is his real last name, but that name did seem familiar somehow …”
