Half truth

Chapter Twenty-One

I was looking over my shoulder, thinking about the letters I’d just read. God, was Lana having an affair with my father? Could he do that? I knew he wasn’t a saint. My parents seemed to be on the brink of divorce every five years, and a lot of their arguments stemmed from him being unfaithful. It was something they would never discuss in front of us, but we weren’t stupid. Lincoln had almost come to blows with dad last Christmas. That made me pause and stop dead in my tracks. Could it have been about Lana? She’d started writing those entries in April. It was possible that she was with whoever she was writing about in December. She disappeared in May though. This was all too much. I started walking again. Obviously, Lincoln was involved with this secret society, but was dad?

Even if I didn’t manage to get the two points I needed, I’d find out. Evidentially, as secretive as they thought they were, a lot of people knew about the money. They must have dangled it in front of countless people. I wondered how many chomped. Most of us were wealthy kids from wealthy families, trust fund babies who knew under very rare circumstances they’d end up poor and wanting, yet that money called to us for some reason. Maybe because despite what was promised to us by our last names, what we really wanted was something that was wholly ours. What I wanted above anything else was a way to help Lincoln. A way to understand what he’d been through and why he’d ended up the way he did. I needed answers because I absolutely knew he didn’t try to kill himself. He’d said it himself, but even if he hadn’t, I knew my brother.

“Boo.”

I shrieked at the sound that came out of the darkness and braced myself for a fight. When he walked out in front of me, it wasn’t a cloaked figure, but Nolan, laughing at my reaction. Laughing so hard, in fact, that he doubled over. I pushed him as hard as I could, hard enough that he fell over onto the grass and continued to laugh.

“What the hell, Nolan?” I pushed his leg with my foot.

“Holy shit. I would apologize, but that was the highlight of my week,” he huffed. I kicked him in the shin, and he laughed harder. “Ouch. Okay, I’ll stop. I’ll stop.”

I crossed my arms and waited. He laughed a few more times until he finally recovered and stood up, dusting off his joggers and grey school sweatshirt. I started walking again.

“Why are you walking all alone anyway?” He started walking beside me. “You know the rumors aren’t just rumors. That girl really did disappear.”

“You mean Lana?” I looked at him quickly. I was already on edge for so many reasons, and he’d gone and brought her up. “What do you know about it?”

“Not much except that she disappeared.”

“Do you think she’s alive?”

“I think if she was, she would’ve been found by now.”

“So you think she’s dead.”

“I mean, her parents had crews of privately hired people who looked for her everywhere.” He shrugged. “It is sad though. She was a great girl.”

“You knew her?”

“She used to take pictures of the team. Kind of the way you do.” He smiled a little. “She was always nice.”

“Do you know if she got into any bad things?”

“What’s your definition of bad?”

“What’s yours?”

His eyes danced. “I don’t know but something tells me your definition of bad is way tamer than mine.”

“Probably,” I said. “Do you know if she was with someone? Like in a relationship?”

“I don’t know.” He glanced away from me and looked forward as we walked. Something about the way he answered that question and the way he looked away, made me think he was lying. “Some people think she ran away,” he added.

“Why would she run away though?”

“Dodging responsibility? I don’t know.”

“Would you run away to dodge responsibility?”

“No.” He chuckled. “Even if I did, responsibility would hunt me down and find me.”

I thought about that. Would Lana have run away? Maybe once things ended with the man she was seeing, she decided to leave? Maybe she’d left because she wanted to prove a point, to make him miss her? It didn’t make sense, but anything was possible.

“Have you seen any cloaked people walking around?” I asked.

“Why? You looking for one?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Nolan’s wide grin sparkled in the moonlight. “Because we’ve been waiting for you to leave the damn library all night.”