The Secrets We Keep

The Fifty-Third Chapter

Christopher

A Few Moments Earlier

I know I've picked the right location when I hear a distant gunshot. Eric pulls the car to a stop as I rip open the door. 

"Call the police," I tell him as I take down the road and onto the dock as quickly as I can. Some of the water sprays up at me and wets my shoes but I don't stop until I find Nathan's family's boat. 

Victoria. The name engraved on the side of the vessel stands out to me as I jump from the dock onto its wooden planks. I don't hesitate as I cross the rest of the way to the door and wrench it open. 

And then she's there. "Hayden," I gasp and I didn't realize how worried I was that I might never see her again until I feel such crushing relief that my legs want to give out. "Come on." I hold out my hand to her, taking in her battered appearance. Her eyes and cheeks are gaunt. Her hair is matted and stuck to the one side of her head but more than anything, I can feel fear radiating off her as her chest heaves and her hands clutch the lamp she's holding tightly to her chest. "You have to get out of here-"

"I can't," she says, her eyes wild and torn as she looks back where I can hear thuds and groans coming from down the boat. "I have to help Nathan. His mother's fucking crazy and she's probably going to-"

Fuck sake. The last thing she should be thinking about right now is this. 

I run down the steps to get to her and immediately start pushing her toward the steps and taking the lamp out of her hands, "Get off the fucking boat, Red. I'll help Nathan." When she doesn't budge, her eyes conflicted, I grab her by her thin upper arm. "Run." And my voice comes out desperate. "Find my car and stay with Eric. The cops are on the way." 

And I tilt my head up when I hear the sounds of sirens blaring in the distance. I don't know if they're here because of the phone call Eric made or if maybe Grace did call the cops and told them how Nathan had framed Damien. 

Hayden hears them too and then runs on out. My breathing steadies once I've waited for her sneakered feet to disappear from view and then I take the lamp and turn toward the sounds steadily coming closer. 

I hear a shriek but before I can even exit the cluttered living space and enter the passageway, Nathan comes running out and slams the door there closed just before we hear something smack against it. 

Nathan turns to me, his eyes wide as he finds me standing in the room. He searches the space for Hayden and as I come over to help hold the door closed when I see the handle move up and down, I look at his face, at the bloody nose and the scratches gauged into the side of his face. 

"Where's Hayden?" He gasps. 

"She's ok. She got out-"

Before I can finish my sentence, a bullet comes flying through the door, splintering wood and just missing my shoulder. We back away before the next one can hit either of us. With our bodies no longer holding the door, it comes flying open with Nathan's mother running out like a goddamn mad woman. 

I swing the lamp into her face and it bends and buckles and slows her down just enough but before I can swing it again, she brings up that gun and fires wildly at both of us. 

I think this is what they mean when they say people snap because, right now, there's something strange in her eyes, something broken and wild and unseeing as she scrambles up the steps and out of the open door. 

Nathan and I scramble after her up the stairs but as Nathan tackles her back down to the deck, her gun-wielding arm is still free. 

We both flinch as another shot goes off, both of us close enough to her and the smoking gun to have been hit. But when no pain flares up through my body, I grab the gun from her, ripping it from her hands and disengaging it as she struggles in Nathan's hold. 

"It's ok," I say. "The cops are-" They're lighting up the sky with their blue and red lights as we speak but as I look down at Nathan's face, his eyes widen. 

I follow his gaze, just in time to hear a loud splash. 

"Hayden," he says, twisting his body to hold down his mother's writhing arms. "Christopher, Hayden-"

I don't wait for him to explain more as I run toward the foaming water where her body has just fallen. I dive in, my burnt arms protesting as they break through the water's surface. 

It's hard to see clearly through the murky water as I search for her body. At least, we can't be that deep this close to the dock and I force my arms to move as I spy something like fire drifting through the water. 

My arms close around her as I push us back up to the top, my legs kicking frantically as I look down at her face. Her eyes are closed and her face has smoothed out into a peaceful expression. 

I'm the only one that gasps as we make it back to the surface. I shift her body in my arms to better move us forward and once my hand hits the splintered wood of the dock, I heave her up before following quickly after. 

"Come on," I say, turning her onto her back. Her shirt has turned a reddish brown color and I lift it up and turn her slightly to see if the bullet made an exit wound. It has and I smooth her hair back from her face as I start chest compressions. "Don't fucking die on me now," I beg as my hands press down on her chest again and again. 

I think my heart stops entirely as I look at her pale face but just as I'm starting to shake, her lids flutter. She coughs a second later, her whole head jerking up as water and something red streams out of her mouth. 

I'm so grateful. My heart hammers as I shift her body and draw her into my lap, my hands coming down to press down onto the hole in her abdomen. 

Her head moves from side to side as she murmurs something incomprehensible. I stop her movements by bowing my head down and leaning it against hers. 

"Christopher." I look up to find Nathan walking toward me, dragging his mother behind him in a strong grip despite how she still struggles occasionally. But gone is the mad woman from before. This person in front of us, looks at the scene behind us, at the cops no doubt running to our rescue with expressionless eyes. 

"Stay the fuck away from us," I say, tightening my hold on Hayden. 

His eyes don't leave her as he says, "Please. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

But it's not enough. And it's too late. I look away from him as I hear the pounding of several footsteps echo behind me and race toward him. 

But as I watch the first cops on the scene hold up their guns to the mother and son pair and tell them to hold their hands high up in the air, something about Nathan's face grates at me. 

Maybe it's just my imagination. Maybe it's just what I'd like to believe of him, but something tells me he's relieved to be caught. And maybe that's why he got Grace to do his dirty work. He needed something or someone that would guarantee he never got away with this. 

-

I'm allowed to ride with Hayden in the ambulance. Mostly because the paramedics took one look at me, at my unraveled bandages, and realized I needed to go there too. 

They start working on her immediately. The one at the back starts applying pressure and all sorts of things onto her bullet wound and as he does, her hand comes up, reaching for me as her tired eyes blink slower and slower. 

My hand wraps around hers and we stare at each other as the ambulance tumbles along to the hospital.

It's over, I want to say. Everything's going to be fine from now on. But neither of us can say a thing as the world around us starts to blur and tear apart at the seams.