Sealed Lips ✔️

Chapter 25

Bethany:

"But we will give it all of our efforts to find out who the criminal is behind the threats," FBI Johnson says.

"Thank you," Jake says politely.

"Thanks," I say with an attitude. I don't believe them. How is Fice, not Marco? How did I never suspect him? Obviously, it's him. He almost killed us, his dad is crazy and I know he hates me. He kind of has the perfect motive.

"Miss Andrews, we know what we are doing, please respect that," FBI Johnson says strictly. Now I feel so guilty.

"I am so sorry, um, your honor, uh ma'am-" I struggle to say.

"What Beth means is, Agent Johnson, we have been going through this for two months. Almost constantly. Fice always found ways to stop us from telling the police about this. We've been through several near-death experiences and I think Bethany is struggling to process the fact that our psycho stalker is still out there, I mean who is ever ready to process information like that? At this stage, Agent Johnson, we would almost do anything to find out who it is and why," Jake says to the agent and she nods, looks at the PI and when he nods his head at her, she smiles at Jake.

"Yes, we understand. Forgive me for being so insensitive. We did find something on the scene of the accident."

Jake and I look at each other and then back at Agent Johnson.

"In the life-sized doll, there was a note. We had to check inside the doll, just in case a bomb was planted. The note said that Fice got Marco to work with it because Marco wanted to hurt you two. It was a bonus for Fice, thus because Fice wrote the note and talked about Marco we know that he is not Fice. We also tried to track Fice's phone down by using the addresses from all the messages, but no luck yet, this person sure knows what they got themselves into. We have to go now. We wish you the best and we will be on the lookout."

We greet them and a nurse takes me by the arm and tells me to go outside.

"Miss Andrews, Jake will be released in three days. On the other hand, you are being released today," the nurse says. Wow, it sounds like we were being held captive in an institution or something.

"Okay, thanks for everything," I say to her and call my mom. She's already at the entrance doors, they probably already called her.

I make my way to the entrance doors and as I walk past all the rooms I look into some of them. Here are so many people suffering from even worse conditions than Jake. Why does life work this way? Why is it always the innocent people getting hurt? 

I see the entrance doors and then our car. When I get in, Briley is sitting behind the steering wheel. "Hey B," I say and she says nothing, just stares in front of her. I give my mom, who's sitting in the passenger seat, a confused look.

"I tried to teach Briley how to drive, since she couldn't learn when you did," my mom says with a sad expression on her face.

"That's cool Briles, how did it go? You should've seen my first time it was terribly funny-"

"Yeah that's great," she mumbles. She is really down, I can even feel it in my gut. "She said I wouldn't be able to do it and it's all I can think about."

"Who said that?" I ask her.

"Lily."

"When?"

I listen as she unravels the memory. "It was two years ago, at school. The day before, I was at her house, and she decided to take her brother's car. We drove to the shops together. But when it was time to head back, she insisted that I drive. I was hesitant, I told her I couldn't, but she pushed me anyway. It was almost a disaster; I nearly collided with another car. She was furious. The next day at school, she gave me the cold shoulder. I kept trying to talk to her, but she yelled at me, insisting I'd never be able to drive, and that I was destined for a car accident. And, now, after your accident, everything resurfaced. I'll never be able to drive."

"Briley, you were sixteen. Everyone struggles to drive at that age," my mom reassures her. In Havenhill, we only get our driver's license when we're eighteen.

"Why did you never tell me about that?" I ask her. I can't believe she hid that from me.

"I would've told you Beth, but I felt too guilty. I left you alone at home that day," she answers me.

"I remember that, was it the day we were supposed to bake the cake for dad and..."

"And then I told you I had to go to the library to meet Max but..." she says and I interrupt her.

"But you went to Lily. Why would you do that? I had to do it all alone. I let you go because I thought you liked Max," I say angrily.

"Briley, switch seats with me. We're going home," my mom says.

"It's okay Briley, it's long gone in the past," I say and she smiles and sits next to me. She hugs me and I understand how tough all of this must be for her. I hope she will be able to drive one day, but I will help her until she can, I won't give up.

Briley:

As I look out the car's window I start to think about Max.

When I saw him at school a few days ago, I almost had a heart attack. My whole body felt numb. I wasn't ready to see him yet.

He truly is a twisted, heartless boy. He treated me like garbage. Like an old, discarded piece of paper. Once he extracted all the information he wanted, I became useless to him, and he just threw me away. It's amusing, though, that when others joined him, suddenly he cared about the environment and picked up the paper. How considerate, right? He's a two-faced brat.

There were times, locked away, when I'd think to myself, 'Wow Briley, you really deserve to be in here. Beth always has been the better half, and I'm grateful she's out there living her life.'"

I've done some bad things...

"I need to confess something," I say out loud and Beth looks at me.

"What is it?" she asks. I can see Mom looking at me in the mirror before stopping at our house.

"Beth I'm not the person you think I am," I say fearfully and she looks so confused.

"Why would you say that?" she responds.

"I think Lily is dead because of me."