Page 48 of Boys Who Hunt
She points at the front door, and I can feel my blood running cold.
I suck in a breath and pat her on the head. “Finish your breakfast now, Cora. It’s about time for me to go back to the university.”
“Aw …”
I swiftly put on a blue skirt and a black top, along with my jacket, and I stuff some high heels into my bag for later. “I’ll see you again in a few, okay?” I kiss Cora on the cheeks. “Be nice to Mrs. Schwartz. She’ll pick you up in five minutes. And if she gives you a tough time, just feed a few of those hot dogs she always gives you at lunch to that wiener dog of hers.”
“Mr. Squiggles?”
“It gives him the runs.” I wink, and her loud giggles are the last thing I hear before I close the door behind me.
CHAPTER 12
Heath
“Where is she?Why isn’t she here?”
“She’s at a boarding school,” Mom says, curling her long blond hair around her finger.
My eyes widen. “WHAT?!”
My nostrils flare as I listen to my parents talk about Cecelia like she’s no longer with us. Like she’s dead and buried, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“It is for the best,” Dad says, running his fingers through his dirty-blond hair.
“Bullshit,” I growl. “You sent her away.”
“Heath …” Mom sighs. “Please, don’t fight about this.”
“When were you going to tell me you sent away my goddamn sister?” I make a fist with my hand, staring at the coffee in frontof me. I thought they invited me over to the house to catch up on things, but this … this is a bombshell I was not prepared for.
Mom sighs, pouting her rosy lips. “We couldn’t. Not until after she’d already left and—”
I slam the table with my hand. “No! Cecelia loved it here. She never wanted to leave. She told me she wanted to go to Spine Ridge University too, and now you’re telling me she’d leave without telling me? No. I don’t fucking believe it.” I scoot my chair back. “You shipped her off to some boarding school, fuck knows where!”
“Heath, stop,” my father growls. “You don’t get to talk to your mother like that.”
“Where is she?” I respond.
He keeps his mouth shut, biting the piercing in his lip as if that’ll keep him from telling me the truth, but it only makes me laugh. “Really?”
“If we told you, you’d drive over there today,” Mom says.
“Damn right, I would,” I say, shoving the coffee aside. “I’m done here.”
“Heath … please. Talk to us,” Mom says as I get up.
“No, I’m done here. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her. You can kiss your early Thursday morning coffees every week with the family goodbye.” I march out the door before they can say anything else to convince me to stay.
Cecelia was always there for me when I needed her. I couldn’t wish for a better sister. But this? This is a backstab.
It can’t be fucking true. It can’t.
As I rush to my car, I pull my phone from my pocket and message her.
Me: Is it true? Are you really at some boarding school?
Me: Where are you?