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A fresh wave of resentment toward my mother washes over me. There are days when I feel regret over what I did, but that vanishes in an instant—I should have done it sooner.
Everything is different after that. My father isn’t perfect—he’s an ex-con and recovering alcoholic—but he tries his best to give me a good home.
When someone deserves bad things, he says, it’s sometimes up to you to dispense justice. My father taught me a lot of things over the years. But this is one piece of wisdom I will never forget.
I grabbed a baseball bat that was lying with other sports equipment in the field next to the school, and I went to town on Mr. Harrel’s car before anyone could stop me. Eventually, they did stop me, which might have been a good thing since the next thing I would have done was turn the bat on Mr. Harrel. If I’d done that, I might be living in a jail cell rather than a cabin in the woods.
And this is why I don’t have a boyfriend. Who could spend the night with me when I wake up screaming half the time? Certainly nobody I have dated so far.
I stare down at Jolene, cowering on the kitchen floor. I never thought I could hate someone as much as I hated my mother, but here we are.
Legally, I am Elizabeth Casey Carter, although I have pretty much entirely dropped my first name. Nobody has called me Elizabeth or Ella in years. Most people don’t even know it’s my first name.
“Casey, I’m sorry. I was just flirting like I used to when I was young, and I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I deserved what you did to me.”
“He knew all about you when he moved in.” What? “What do you mean?” I say slowly. “He was asking me questions about you. By name. I remember he said, ‘The woman in the other cabin, Elizabeth Casey.’”
Omg i think I got the 2nd twist Either Lee is Anton or Lee is Anton's little brother
“Except in the news story, they kept saying that Jolene Kettering was killed today. Today. Not last night. Not yesterday. Today.”
“You never went to the police station, Casey,” he says. “I know you didn’t.” Any hope that I might have misread him flies out the window. He’s really doing this. I keep my voice even. “What do you mean?” “Well,” he says in a slow, pointed voice, “you were with me and Nell all afternoon at my cabin, so you couldn’t have gone to the police station. Or anywhere else. How could you be in two places at the same time?” What?
“it’s just my opinion, but anyone who could do what that woman did to a little girl doesn’t deserve to be alive.”
Yes, there are things about him I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that he’s a good man. My father would have approved.
How can I explain it to her? How can I tell this girl that the boy who was her father was my very first friend? That I loved him in my own way—a way I’ve never quite felt since then. That I’ve missed him every day since the police hauled him off in handcuffs. And now, somehow, he’s dead.
After high school, Bradley became just plain Lee. Like Casey, I wanted to leave my old life behind by changing my name.
Anton’s blanket instruction has always been that if anyone asked about him, I should tell them he’s dead. He doesn’t want anyone to know he’s spending his life in prison—he insists on it.
Wow did not see that coming
The next day, when Anton found out what our father did to me, he lost it. He drove out to the bar where my father was currently getting drunk, and he beat him to death with his bare hands. Anton had been lifting weights for years, and he always talked about how one of these days, he was going to be ready for our dad. He was ready all right—too ready.
But I can’t kiss her—not yet. I can’t make a move without my brother’s blessing. Because even though I love her, he loved her first.
