Then my phone dings and I glance down at the screen.
Massive Jerk: I’ll be there.
The sound from the text echoes in my head long after it stops. It sounded more like a death knell.
*
I wait in the park for Jordan to arrive. The sky above is filled with ominous clouds. Rain in Texas is not something to trifle with. That’s fine. I want to keep this short anyway. The idea of seeing him again already fills me with a bittersweet pain. I’d been so wrong to think we have anything in common. Our lives couldn’t be more different. We couldn’t be more different.
People believe Chief Vega is someone to admire and look up to. He works hard to keep us all safe—or at least that’s what everyone thinks. When Jordan and Matthew support their father, they’re heroes. They’re martyrs for sacrificing time with him for the good of the community.
But when I support my father, I’m a monster. The same people call my father a murderer. He is the lowest of the low and we are either sick or foolish for believing him and standing by him when he tells us again and again that he’s innocent.
Devotion counts for little once the world has made up its mind about you.
I see a big dark motorcycle pull in and recognize Jordan’s wavy black hair from across the park when he tugs off his helmet. He pulls a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and puts them on his face, despite the lack of sunshine. When he gets to me, I silently watch him from my spot on the swing. I’m not at all sure where to start.
“I’m glad you texted me.” His face is hard to read with his eyes hiding behind the sunglasses, and he keeps his head straight ahead instead of looking down toward me. All I see when I search his face is the reflection of the dark sky above.
“We need to talk.” I force the words out before we can get sidetracked. “I know you said you haven’t told anyone, but this morning it became really important that you don’t.” I push off my tiptoes, swinging closer to him, and then reach up for his sunglasses. He freezes as I pull them down on his nose until I can see his warm brown eyes. “Please, Jordan. You can’t tell anyone what I said—ever.”
He doesn’t respond. I wait for a few seconds, deciding I need to hear him speak the words. To say out loud that he won’t tell anyone, but a new thought occurs to me and my breath catches in my throat. “You haven’t told your father since we talked last, have you?”
“No.” He pulls the glasses the rest of the way off his face and they dangle from his fingers.
“Good.” I somehow feel more empty and miss Jordan more than before he came. “I hope you’re telling the truth.”
Jordan’s voice floats to me as I head toward the grass, but his words hold a weight that flattens my heart like a rolling boulder. “We should talk about this morning, Riley.”
I stop walking. “Why?”
He crosses to me immediately. Worry, guilt, and sorrow play across his features. I don’t know which I trust to be real. “Why won’t you just talk to me? I’ve known about your dad’s confession almost as long as you have and I haven’t told a soul yet—even though we both know my dad would want to know. What would prove my loyalty to you more than that?”
“Maybe telling me the truth from the start?” I shake my head. “We’ve already discussed my father way more than we should have.”
He reaches out and rests a hand on my shoulder. It sends an unexpected shiver through me. “I just want to help you, Riley. Besides, Dad insisted on heading up this new case. He’ll have to look at the evidence and decide whether this is the same killer, won’t he? Does what your dad said even matter anymore?”
“Chief Vega insisted on it, did he? Well, that’s just super.” My defenses immediately rise like walls against the enemy. “Go ahead, assign the one cop to the case who actually benefited from putting my father in prison. Like he’s going to be interested in looking for the evidence that says he made a huge mistake in the first place.”
Jordan inhales sharply. He doesn’t speak, but he refuses to look at me, studying the park around us instead. I think over my words, regretting them instantly but not taking them back. I meant what I said, but I hadn’t been trying to hurt Jordan.
“Listen…,” I finally say, but he doesn’t let me get any further than that.
“My father is a good man, and he knows he’s capable of making mistakes.” Jordan’s eyes are on me and I can’t look away from their intensity. “I promise that he doesn’t want to put the wrong man in jail. He would never want that. Besides, from what your dad told you, it seems his so-called bias about your dad being guilty may have been right all along.”