𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 49.

    "𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐁 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, wasn't he." Ward sighed.

"He said the words with a certain tone of disappointment, mixed with worry and anger. It wasn't a question, he already knew. I sat on the leather couch in his office, elbows perched up on my knees, and chin resting in the crevices of both palms. I bit down onto my bottom lip, so hard, that it nearly drew blood. Sarah was next to me.

The spaces in my mind were occupied with John B's face, when I jogged away from him standing there behind the bush, the tears in his eyes, and the sound of his shaky voice— along with his accusations, and suddenly vile targets. Ward, the wound on his arm, and the missing pieces of the story— the story that still wasn't making any sense. And my grandparents, who were probably sitting in their living room, worried sick, waiting for me to come home. It was a jumble of thoughts, and each one made my heart beat even faster.

Somehow, in the matter of hours, everything had shifted upside down. My world, my world of people I love, was split in two, and suddenly I was pinned right in the middle of it.

"Was he here," Ward repeated, but again, the words spilled out in a demanding form, not even close to a question. As if he just needed to hear me say it, or nod my head, or shift uncomfortably to get an answer.

"Yeah..." I huffed, not tearing my eyes away from my bare feet, the bottoms stained green from the wet grass. "He was." I said shortly.

Sarah folded her hands together, looking at me. She knew, she had seen him.

"And, and, what'd he want," Ward persisted, shifting his weight between both feet.

It was hard to look away from the ground, but soon, I peeled them away and looked towards the books along the wall, always avoiding eye contact. "To talk." I said, lowly, adding a lazy shrug. "He just needed to talk to me."

The dried tears on my face made my cheeks stiff, and made my under-eyes drop.

Ward let out a stressful breath, leaning his hand on one of the leather arm chairs, as if he could tell that I was lying. "Charlotte, don't lie to me, this is a very serious situ—"

"So then what happened on the boat," I cut him off, and finally looked up, "Don't lie to us either," I cut a glance to Sarah beside me. My voice was only rising a little bit, because my mind was racing with thoughts, and this was the only moment to get them out clearly.

"I'm not," he claimed, sounding a bit taken aback by my interruption.

"Then tell me what happened on the boat," I stood up from my spot on the couch, my back straight. "The whole truth, not just parts, everything." I tried to not make my voice crack, but the tears shooting up to my eyes was making it difficult.

In the midst of my sentence, Ward scoffed, looked away, outraged. "Charlotte!" He exclaimed, shakily. "I wanted to take the boy fishing!"

As he started, all I could think about was John B, and his side.

"You were there, you saw that, all right?" He took small steps towards Sarah and I. "And I did it because a boy needs a father figure in his life— you know that! And I was gonna—"

At this point, I was stepping away from the couch, and around the opposite end of the coffee table, my arms crossed hard over my chest.

"Look! I was gonna offer him another spot on the job!" Ward tried to explain, stressfully. "So off we go, and it was great, it really was, but then he just starts... drinking, and then,"