A minute’s silence stretched out in front of us until he finally replied, “I see. When did this happen?”
Swallowing, I replied with more lies, “Today. What do you want to do?”
Call it all off. Please.
“Act,” he replied, and I closed my eyes, temples throbbing. “We move this forwards. It’s not ideal, but perhaps it will work in our favour.”
“How so?”
“Right now she will be confused. It will be easier to get through to her with the truth.”
What is the truth?
“Are you sure, Donald? We’re still weeks off.”
“I understand that, Noah, but we do not have a choice. We cannot risk them running.”
“With all due respect, I don’t think they are going to run. They have nothing to run from.”
“We can’t risk the fear that Scarlett will now undoubtedly have, forcing Jonathan and Marissa’s hand. You know they moved every few years in the past. They don’t know what to do, so they run; it is their answer to everything. We need Scarlett here, Noah, and the longer we leave it, the higher the risk of something going wrong. We have worked so hard for this. Scarlett will be sacrificed so that we may all live on. She is the one, our salvation, our everything. My daughter is the light that will lead us to eternal life. I am not willing to wait, not another four years, not even another three weeks.”
Ignoring the distaste on my tongue and twist in my gut, I replied, “Yes, Donald. When do you want to do this?”
“I’ll call you tomorrow to finalise the details, but we move on Saturday.”
“Saturday? That’s only six days away.” I should have weeks. I need weeks.
“I know. Can you do this, son?” he asked. He often called me and the other guys ‘son’ but this was the first time it bothered me. That alone left me with an uneasy feeling. I used to rely on him for answers. He always had answers, but they didn’t make as much sense anymore.
“I can,” I replied.
“Good. You are strong, Noah. Do not let the outside world make you crumble.”
Donald hung up, and I dropped the phone on my bed. I wasn’t sure that hadn’t already happened.
What have I done?
“Dad,” I called. My heart was stuttering, and my palms began to sweat. “Donald wants it done on Saturday.”
The next thing I heard were three sets of footsteps thudding up the stairs.
MY FINAL WEEK with Scarlett was passing too quickly. She tried to act as though nothing had happened, but she still hadn’t sat down with her parents and sorted their situation out. I wanted them to do it now, more than ever. I didn’t want their last memories of each other to be tense.
It was Wednesday and just three days before we would be in Ireland. And I still hadn’t asked her to come with me. We sat on the bench at school during lunch hour while our friends laid on the grass listening to music.
I was putting off the inevitable. Turning to her, I blurted out in a low voice, “Let’s go to Dublin this weekend.”
“Dublin?” Scarlett said, eyes widening in surprise. “You want to take me to Dublin? This weekend?”
I shrugged, swallowing the acidic taste of bile and took a look around to make sure no one was listening. Chris and Imogen were engrossed in what they were doing, and Bobby was serving detention. If either of them had heard, they would have questioned it or at least looked up “You said you wanted to.”
“I know, but it’s a bit sudden, isn’t it?”
“I suppose, but you could probably do with the break and it would be nice to fall off the face of the earth with you for a while. We could do something that’s just for us. I’ll tell my parents I’m staying with Chris, and you tell yours you’re staying with Imogen.”
“Dublin?” she repeated, a slow smile spreading across her face.
“Yeah, why not? It’s no different to going to London for the day; we’d just take the ferry rather than a train.”
“I suppose. I do like it when it’s just me and you. We don’t get that enough.”
Bending my head, I kissed her and replied, “Me, too. I want us to be alone.”
She gulped, biting the inside of her cheek. “Like…that?”
“I love you.”
Her breathing came out a little harder, then she smiled. “Yeah, I think I really want that. No, I know I do because I love you, too, so much.”
Her words sucked the air out of my lungs until I felt like I was suffocating. Keeping my calm, I said, “I’m so glad you said that. I would also like us to have fun, and I can show you some of the places I visited a lot growing up.”
“And try Guinness?” she asked, giggling.
“If we can get served!”
“You look older than sixteen you’ll get served.”
“Then yes, we will try Guinness.”
She watched me for a minute. I didn’t want to push it and have her get suspicious, but I think I wanted her to say no. When I imagined her agreeing my stomach churned. She looked at me with big, trusting eyes. Her expression for me was different for everyone else, softer, happier. I didn’t deserve it.