Sometimes, it was the littlest of things that allowed me to sleep at night. Jaden was
one of them.
18
BAIT
F or the next few days, I continued my usual routine with Holly and the occasional
Scott, proving every day that I was beyond over this shit. I wanted off this
godforsaken island even though I knew my situation wouldn’t be much better when
I returned to the mainland. If I thought I was isolated on the island before, I was in
for a real treat when we got back to the estate. But I had to keep telling myself to
bite the bullet and deal with it. I had earned those consequences, and they were still
fucking worth it knowing Jason and my mom and brothers were out of Darren’s
clutches.
“Come on, Jaden, just one more,” Holly said, almost sounding bored. I furrowed
my brows as I finished my last one-arm push-up and stood on my feet.
“You okay?” I asked as I tried to catch my breath.
“Fine,” she replied dismissively.
I looked at her and cocked an eyebrow, knowing full well something was up.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Let’s go for a run.”
“Okay,” I said a little taken aback by her tone.
I followed her out of the gym, Blondie and Hank in tow as we made our way to
the beach. Leaving our shoes on the grass, we took off at an easy jog. I couldn’t help
but glance at Holly every now and then as we kept an even pace along the shore.
She was acting completely out of character. She was quiet, which was completely
unusual, and her eyes kept gazing off as if she were deep in thought about
something.
“Holly, what’s wrong? Are you upset we’re leaving the island soon?”
She shook her head. “No, Jaden. Just something Mr. Davis said to me this
morning.”
I stopped in my tracks, grabbing her arm to halt her to a stop as well. With Hank
and Blondie a good twenty feet behind us, we could conceal the conversation with
how loud the damn waves were.
“What did he say?”
Holly shook her head. Looking down at the ground, she locked her lips together
to keep from spilling what she so obviously desperately wanted to.
“Holly,” I warned, narrowing my eyes at her.
She sighed, dropping her shoulders as she looked on to the ocean.
“He thanked me for my services, said I’d done wonders with you, and that … he
couldn’t wait … for your mother to see how much you’ve improved.”
I felt my heart stop as Holly regarded me closely.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Darren had told her my mother had died in the “car accident” I was supposed to
have been in, explaining the cause of my injuries. Why would he fuck up his own
lie? It wasn’t like him to contradict himself, and I doubt he forgot what he had told
her.
Holly’s eyes remained on me as she stared me down like she had more to reveal.
“So, as you can imagine, that left me very confused because after I had left his
office, I remembered being told your mother had perished in that car accident you
were in and was to never bring it up since it was too traumatic for you to talk
about.”
My stomach twisted in knots as Holly’s eyes grew angry.
“So I did a little digging and went through your medical records, which
happened to be very easy for me to access, by the way. There was no mention of a
car accident nor was there any mention of other injuries that would coincide with a
car accident, such as scrapes or cuts. And if that so-called “accident” was severe
enough to take the lives of three people, you’d have a hell of a lot more external
injuries than just bruises. Your injuries don’t make sense for a car accident, Jaden.
Because that’s obviously not how they happened.”
All I could do was blink; blink and pray this wasn’t happening.
He baited her. Oh, my fucking God, he baited her.
I closed my eyes as I tried to keep my breathing even, to keep the tears from
falling. I tried to conjure up some excuse, some reason for the shit that obviously
didn’t make sense, but I wasn’t that good of a liar. Holly was clearly too set in stone
in her convictions for me to have an impact anyway.
Instead, I wrapped a hand around my mouth to try to keep my chin from
trembling. Turning from Holly, I fought to reclaim my fears, knowing full well the
consequences that were about to play out. It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have
prodded her. I should have just ignored it and let it pass long enough for her to
leave the island because here I was confirming her suspicions with my broken
silence.
Why would he do this? Why would he bait her into making this kind
