A Secret Worth Keeping

Chapter 13

Trigger Warnings!

Hope's POV: I gripped the steering wheel tightly, deeply considering driving this brand new car into a tree just to end the silence. And there were plenty of trees. Great, big tall ones lining the road as if to make sure everyone knew this was a friendly place. Friendly to the ecosystem, friendly neighbors, blah, blah, blah.

I could taste the forced 'pleasantness' like an airborne pestilence. 

It wasn't always like this. This silent tension between us. Some might even say that Lizzie and I had actually gown to like each other over the passed few months. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, but we could sit together for more than fifteen minutes without arguing. I know it didn't sound like much, but for us it was progress. 

But as soon as Lizzie's secret was exposed, it was as if something shifted between us. All the progress that we work so hard to build was suddenly shattered. It was as if we were meeting each other all over again.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I pulled into the driveway, fuming because Lizzie still refused to speak. Granted, the drive had only been fifteen minutes or so, but I had spent every one of those minutes waiting for the answers I had been promised.

I hated waiting. 

I pulled to a stop and froze when I saw a pair of pesky neighbors peering over the hedgerow, they had goofy grins on their faces as they waved good-naturedly. I groaned and forced a half-wave, noticing Lizzie giving a better imitation of civility. The man and woman smiled and waved again before disappearing into their own home, causing me to sigh in relief. 

"When I was a little girl, I always thought I was going to have the perfect wedding", Lizzie spoke up, causing me to frown as I glanced over at her, but she wasn't looking at me, she was still gazing out her window. I shut off the engine and leaned back in my seat, studying the blonde silently. "I had it all mapped out", she smiled to herself. "The flowy, white dress, the lights, the prefect sunset on a tropical beach. Josie would sing our song as I walked down the aisle, and we would kiss and it would all just be perfect", she sighed dreamily, causing me to smile despite myself. 

"What changed", I asked, causing her to sigh.

"Everything", she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "There was a reason I wanted to come back here, Hope. Why no one would remember me", she sighed, causing me to furrow my eyebrows. "It was because of him", she muttered, looking down at her hands. "Our father", she supplied, wrapping her arms around herself. "There were times when I recognized our father, but...it was like something or someone else took over and he became this...monster", she whispered.

"He used to be a regular guy once upon a time", she chuckled bitterly. "He had a job as a history teacher at the old high school, close friends, a wife, but something changed and he just snapped", she sighed. "Dad and his wife, Jo, was thinking about having a baby, but Jo couldn't get pregnant because of some heart condition, so she donated some of her eggs to the hospital and was going to ask a close friend to be the surrogate, but was later stabbed to death by her psycho brother", she explained.

"My father didn't want for her to die without leaving anything behind, so he went back to the hospital where he discovered that our mom was going into surgery. Apparently, her and a couple friends had gotten into a car accident that same night", she explained. "While she was in surgery, he had one of the doctors, Meredith Fell, do the operation in private and nearly drank himself to death that same night", she sighed, causing me to frown to myself

"But this girl was more than just some easy target, she was Caroline Forbes: the sheriff's daughter, Miss Mystic Falls, head cheerleader, and one of his students", she explained, causing my frown to deepen. "They said that she was lucky to even survive the accident. Dad watched her for weeks, showing up to the hospital, and playing the concerned teacher act. But when she showed the smallest bit of progress, he took her. He...he locked her up in that stupid house for months while the whole town searched for her, and...", she trailed off, inhaling shakily.