Conspicuous Secrets

Chapter Fifty-Five

Sorry for the delayed post. I couldn't avoid it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I approached the unfamiliar house with Officer Peyton walking beside of me. The building was large, and surrounded by palm trees. It looked expensive. I had known that Aria came from a wealthy family, it just hadn't occurred to me that they would own such a nice beach house for some reason. The building in front of me seemed like a place that I could definitely get used to.

I couldn't deny it—this was a nice change of scenery. Coming from someone who had never been to the beach, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Although I had a feeling that I wouldn't hate it here, it wasn't exactly home. I had never thought that I would think of our temporary lives back in Ohio as home, but now, I do. And I would miss our lives there until we were able to get them back—whenever that may be.

After we left our house, Daniel drove Gavin here to the beach house in Virginia, while Peyton took me to the hospital to get that MRI done that Daniel had set up. There, it was confirmed that my skull was fractured, but it seemed as though there wasn't any serious damage done to my brain—just some minor bruising. I was glad that the delay in getting my head checked out hadn't caused any more damage. In the end, they gave me a pair of sunglasses to wear in the light and a bottle of strong pain killers that I was supposed to take for the next few weeks. Then, I had another appointment scheduled just to make sure that everything healed correctly. To me, it just seemed like a long boring process for a problem I hadn't even asked for. My person to blame was Charles, even though I couldn't one-hundred percent defend that claim.

As we reached the front door, Peyton stopped. "Gavin is probably either inside or on the beach. You are free to roam around the property, but don't go past the tree line on either side of the private beach and don't leave this street. If you want to go anywhere, call me, Daniel, or another officer," he told me. I nodded, remembering that on the way over here, he had given me at least a dozen numbers that I could call if I needed to. Though, with the risk of being killed by Charles, I didn't see either of us wanting to go anywhere outside of this property.

I reached out and opened the door. "Call if you need anything," he said one last time before turning and making his way back to his police car. Breathing deeply, I walked inside. The beach house was big but wasn't too extravagant for Aria's family of four. The entrance opened up into a large living room with a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. Gavin was sitting on the white L-shaped couch, with his feet propped up on the ottoman. As I walked in, his eyes diverted from the TV show to me. He immediately stood and walked to me as I closed the front door, then gently wrapped me up in his arms. "How's your head?" he asked me softly, looking at the new bandage wrapped around it.

"Fractured," I answered, "but I'll heal completely. They gave me pain medicine." He nodded and gently kissed the side of my head where there wasn't a plaster. "How are you doing?" I decided to ask as he pulled away from me.

"I miss them already," he admitted after a shrug. "But this was the right decision. We'll see them again soon."

I nodded, truly hoping he was right. Looking around, I knew I wanted to see more of this beach house. "Will you show me around?" I questioned, making him nod.

Gavin then led me further into the house and showed me around. It was a four bedroom house with two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, pantry, and a backdoor that opened up right on the beach. "And they've already gotten us groceries," my brother told me, opening the pantry door and showing me inside. "A couple of people will be stopping by every Saturday morning to replenish all of our stuff. And they've set up a temporary station just on the edge of town in case we have an emergency."