“You’re a nasty person, Celia. Maybe if you were nicer, I’d feel sorry for you.” Regina threw her book against the dock, which made a loud smack as it hit the wood. “You should leave.”
“I don’t have my car.” The words came out unintentionally, making Celia feel even more inadequate than she already did.
“Then fucking walk!” Regina stomped up the hill.
Celia started breathing fast and heavy. To the left of the dock, Regina’s book had landed beside a huge boulder with a gilded plaque bolted into it. The plaque read: The Douglas Family. Whisper Falls Lake. Underneath the words, there were the painted handprints of each family member. Seeing this emblem of unity added salt to her wounds. Celia grabbed the book and dropped it into the water, smirking as she watched it sink.
She couldn’t believe Regina freaking Douglas just got the best of her. At least no one was around to see. Still, Regina knew her secret, and that left Celia exposed. She sat on the dock and started crying. It was like everything had hit her in one hour. She blamed her phone conversation from earlier. Celia always got a little teary-eyed when she spoke with her mother. It was the only time Celia felt like a little girl instead of Queen Bee.
She was about to leave when she heard a motor rumbling. She blocked the sun with her hand and squinted at the horizon. As the boat got closer, it slowed, preparing to dock. She could spot Roman’s toothy grin before he killed the engine.
“Celia?” He waved both hands wide in the air. “I didn’t think I’d see you here.”
“This is a pleasant surprise then.” She didn’t want him to see she’d been crying, but it was too late.
“What’s the matter?” He hopped off the boat and marched down the wooden planks to where she sat. “Did Cooper leave you here?”
She nodded, grabbing his calloused hand to help her stand. Roman was as handsome as his younger brother, but his features were darker, like the rest of the Douglas clan. His hair was cut short and a layer of stubble covered his chin and cheeks.
“Come here.” He wrapped her in his arms, looking across the yard to make sure they were alone. “Talk to me.”
“There’s a lot on my mind.” Everyone flashed in front of her: her mother and Cooper and Regina.
“Let’s take a ride. We can watch the sunset over the water.”
Roman’s eagerness tended to turn Celia’s stomach, but the truth was, she had nothing better to do. Cooper had no interest in talking to her, and she was too unnerved to attend the bonfire. If she returned to her aunt’s house, she’d spend the night bickering with her cousins over the TV remote. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. Taking Roman’s hand, she followed him to the boat.
He waited until they were in the center of the lake to pick up speed. The wind blew Celia’s hair, slicing the heat from her skin. She sucked in several deep breaths until she felt rejuvenated. They kept riding for several minutes before Roman stalled the boat. They sat together, his arm over her shoulders, watching as the sun sank behind the mountains.
“What happened?” he asked.
She didn’t want to go through it all, so she told him the worst part. “Regina knows about us.”
“What?” He spun his head, searching Celia’s features for a reaction. “There’s no way.”
“I don’t know how, but she does.” She thought back to the dock, how humiliated she’d felt. “I could have snatched that black mop off her head.”
Roman’s posture stiffened. “Don’t say that. She’s still my sister.”
Celia rarely revealed her distaste for Regina around Roman. Cooper didn’t like her catty comments toward his sister, but Roman wouldn’t stand it. He was much more loyal in that respect.
“Now I’m all worried she’ll tell Cooper about us.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “He’s been paranoid ever since he found your shirt in my car. He thinks I’m cheating on him with Steven Burns.”
Roman laughed, kissing Celia’s forehead. “Maybe it’s a good thing. I think it’s about time we tell him the truth.”
“Are you crazy? Why would we do that?”
Celia and Roman had different versions of the truth. Celia’s fling with Roman started out as a game. She’d noticed the stares he’d shot across the dinner table. One night, after a fight with Cooper, she surrendered to temptation. She was attracted to Roman for all the ways he differed from his brother. He was charismatic and confident and fun, but he lacked the potential Cooper possessed. Roman was a wild card. He’d never provide the solid future she hoped Cooper might. In her mind, her trysts with Roman were nothing more than stolen moments when no one else was watching.
Now Regina had seen too much. All Celia could think about was how this decision had blown up in her face. Most of the girls in Whisper would kill to have one of the Douglas boys; she had them both wrapped around her finger, tangling up the world she was used to controlling.
Roman kneeled in front of Celia, holding her hands in his. “I’m crazy about you. I know Cooper will forgive us. He’s still a kid. Once he understands what we have together, he’ll move on.”
Celia blushed. Poor Roman was the one misunderstanding. All day she’d been sorting out which of the esteemed Douglas boys would be the better catch. She might not know what the future held with Cooper, but a life with Roman was far too predictable. He’d treat her like a queen for a few years, then he’d get bored. He’d either develop a drinking problem or find a mistress. That’s what all the bad boys in Whisper ended up doing eventually. Roman was too feral to commit to anything long-term, even her.
She leaned forward and gave him a forceful kiss on the lips. “It’s getting late. Take me back?”
She couldn’t wait to be away from Roman, but she was afraid to walk alone in the dark. She needed him to give her a ride back to her car, and then she could finally be rid of the Douglas family, at least for the night.
Forty-Two
Madison
My alarm goes off at nine. Within the hour, Coop will be home. After finding the pictures, I stayed up researching Laura Price’s disappearance on the internet. I couldn’t find much, but I think my brain was too scrambled to evaluate anything properly. I’m not sure how long I slept after that. Maybe an hour, maybe two.
I check my phone. Coop sent a text when he got on the road. Everything is according to schedule. The schedule we had before I knew of Laura Price’s existence. Now I’m not sure about anything, and I won’t feel better until I’ve talked to him. I brush my teeth and wash my face. These things I do to feel human, to feel capable of handling what’s next. I arrange Laura’s pictures on the bed and sit in the leather armchair by our window. I wait.
“Madison?” Coop calls from downstairs, making my stomach flip. The front door slams. I sit in silence, waiting for him to find me.
I’ve had enough time to calm myself and go over what I want to say. It’s like I’ve uncovered he’s having an affair and I’m confronting him about it, but this is worse.
He walks into the bedroom and drops his bag on the floor. “Madison?” The smile on his face drops quickly; my silence must signal to him something is wrong. “Are you okay?”
“We need to talk,” I say, my knees curled in front of me for protection.
“What’s wrong?”
I nod toward the bed.
He takes a step forward and looks. When he sees the pictures scattered atop our comforter, he freezes. He doesn’t look shocked or angry. If anything, he’s sad. He picks up the photo closest to the edge and holds it between his fingers.
“Who is she?” I ask.
“Why are you going through my things?” he asks, calmly.
“Tell me who she is, Coop!”
“Laura,” he murmurs. He sits on the bed, and a collection of photos slide closer toward him. “We dated in college.”
“Why haven’t you told me about her?”
“I have. Here and there. When we’ve talked about our past relationships.”
“W
hy do you have all these pictures hidden in a bunch of old notebooks?”
“I don’t know.” Finally, he puts the picture down, but he won’t look at me.
“Come on, Coop. You’re not sentimental. I didn’t find pictures of anyone else, but over twenty of this girl.”
“I’m sorry. Okay?” He gets up and walks toward me, his face scrunched. “She’s an old girlfriend. These pictures don’t have anything to do with my feelings for you.”
“I’m not jealous,” I say, flicking his hand away when he tries to touch me.
“Then what is this?” He holds out his hands, trying to decide what exactly it is I’m upset about.
He’s rejected the opportunity I gave him to share the full story behind his connection to Laura. Instead of telling me about her disappearance, he assumes I’m insecure. He’s already failing this test. I bite my lip and look out the window.
“The woman posing as Anne Richards wasn’t Celia’s mother. She was Laura’s mother.” I look back at him. “Her name is Helena.”
I wait for him to say something, but he doesn’t. He returns to the bed and sits, resting his head in his hands.
“Helena told me you dated Laura in college. That you were dating her at the time she went missing,” I say. “Why wouldn’t you tell me about her?”
“It’s been so long,” he says. “I didn’t want to upset you.”
“You told me about Celia. That didn’t scare me away.”
“I’ve had one girlfriend die and another go missing,” he says, his tone biting. “It’s not exactly great first date material.”
“We’re well beyond a first date,” I say, placing my feet on the carpet and leaning forward. “I’m your fiancée. When were you going to feel comfortable telling me?”
“I don’t know.” He exhales and stares at the ceiling, then me. “I don’t like talking about either of them, but I knew if we were going to build a life together here, you’d have to know about Celia.”
“Well, now I want to know about Laura,” I say, holding eye contact. “Tell me everything.”
He cracks his fingers and stares ahead. “We dated during our sophomore year. We’d been together maybe six months when she disappeared. She was supposed to go to some music festival and wanted me to go with her. I didn’t, and she was never seen again.”
Helena had mentioned a music festival. At least that lines up, but I need more. I need to believe Coop is telling me the whole truth. “And that’s it? She went to some festival and was never heard from again?”
“I don’t know.” He stands and paces between the bed and the bathroom. “I spent a good chunk of my college years trying to find out. My family hired private investigators. We tried to track her down. She was just… gone.”
“Did you cooperate with the police?”
“Of course. She was my girlfriend. She… she was the first girl I really loved, you know? Not like what we have, but I cared about her. I couldn’t stand the idea of her being in danger.” His cheeks are red and he’s on the verge of crying. Coop never gets emotional, and yet this conversation is bringing it out of him.
“Why wouldn’t you tell me about her? If she was this important to you, why wouldn’t you mention her?”
“Because at some point, I had to let go. It was driving me crazy. Thinking about her. Where she was. Where she might have ended up. I had to move on with my life.” He takes a deep breath and bites his fist. “I like to think she just walked away from me and everything. That she’s out there happy, living her life somewhere.”
“Is that what you think happened? That she just walked away?”
He stops walking and stands with his arms crossed. “No. I think some monster scooped her up from the music festival. Or maybe grabbed her from a gas station she visited on the way there. Maybe she had car trouble, and someone took her then. Or maybe she was hit by a car and someone panicked, got rid of her body.” His eyes are cold. “Trust me, Madison. Any sick scenario you can imagine happening, I’ve thought of it. I simply prefer to think she walked away from her life. That she’s alive and happy.”
It’s hard to see Coop grieve like this, to hear the unlocked possibilities that have tortured him over the years. I can’t imagine what that must be like. I don’t know what I’d do if one day Coop, the person I loved, failed to come home and I was never given a reason why. But he could have told me about this, just like he’d told me about every other major event in his life. Celia’s death. His father’s death. His love/hate relationship with this stupid town. Why hide Laura?
“You should have told me about her. We can overcome anything together, but only if you let me in.”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to look at me the way you’re looking at me now!” he shouts, stretching his arms in front of his body. “You think I had something to do with her disappearance.”
“I didn’t say that.” Not with words, at least. But this entire confrontation has been geared toward finding out if Helena’s suspicions about Coop are true. I can’t be sure. Because while I love the man standing in front of me, I don’t know the Cooper Douglas who once dated Laura Price. He didn’t give me that chance.
“It’s like I’m cursed. First Celia died. I thought I’d found happiness again with Laura, then she went away, too.” He’s crying now, not even attempting to shield his tears. “I just wanted the past to stay in the past.”
I understand that, wanting to walk away. It’s how I felt in Atlanta when my ‘Chrissy’ story was exposed as a lie. Or how I felt here when I learned people still believed my fiancé was responsible for Celia’s death. I’m about to attach my life to this person and all his prior indiscretions. Be his partner. Bear his children. I need to know everything I’m getting into, the good and the bad.
“I shouldn’t have found out about this from Laura’s mother. You should have told me.”
“I’m sorry for that,” he says, walking toward me. “I should have been upfront from the beginning, but it’s been so long since I thought about her. And I’ve not seen Helena in years.”
I scan the collection of pictures on the bed, finding it hard to believe he no longer thinks about Laura. I look at him and pull my legs closer to my chest. “Helena didn’t just tell me Laura went missing. She thinks you had something to do with it. She thinks you killed her.”
He rubs both sides of his face with his hands. “I know she thinks that. She’s no different from Celia’s mother. She’s grasping at straws, trying to find someone to blame. Any mother would be desperate for answers, and they think it must be the boyfriend, right?”
I look away. Most people would blame the significant other, especially if there’s a pattern. That’s what Helena sees, and I see it, too. “There’s nothing else you can tell me? Nothing else I need to know?”
“I never thought Helena would go to such lengths to try and destroy me. She was persistent in the years following Laura’s disappearance, then she just went away.”
“She didn’t go away! She’s inserted herself into our lives, and now I’m forced to defend my fiancé, not about one woman, but two!” I’m angry with Coop and Helena and everyone involved in this situation. I deserved all this information before I uprooted my life.
“I’m sorry, Madison. I’m sorry for what you must endure by being with me. But I love you. I love you more than anyone I’ve ever met.” Coop kneels in front of me. I try to wrestle away, but he won’t let me. He grabs my hands and holds them. “I hate myself for putting you through this, but you have to believe me. I didn’t harm Celia, and I don’t know anything about Laura. I love you, Madison. I’ll do anything to prove it.”
From downstairs, we hear banging on the front door. Coop stands quickly and looks out the window.
“Who is it?” I ask, afraid Helena has returned to confront Coop herself.
“Regina,” he says, annoyed. “She can wait.”
“No.” I stand, walking away from him and to the packed bag I’d hidden in th
e closet.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m getting out of here.”
“You can’t do that, Madison. You can’t leave.”
“I need time to process everything. Give me that.” I hold my hands in front of my body, trying to keep my distance. Downstairs, the banging continues. “She left her phone here last night. She’s not leaving until she gets it.”
Coop clenches his fists. “Just wait,” he tells me, then marches downstairs.
When he’s gone, I slide the knife I’d hidden under my chair into my bag. I’d sat on it during the entirety of our conversation, just in case. Then I follow him.
“Morning, sunshine,” Regina says, clearly not having picked up on the mood between us. Or maybe she has and is just glorying in it.
“Madison, don’t leave,” Coop says, grabbing my arm. I pull away from him and get into my car. As I back away, Coop and Regina stare, both wondering what I’ll do next.
Forty-Three
Madison
I’m not sure where to go. All my connections in Whisper Falls are through Coop. I drive, following the signs to I-40, then eventually Knoxville. People in Whisper always refer to it as ‘the city’. It’s not my city, but that’s okay. I just need different scenery, so I can think.
An hour seems to have passed in twenty minutes. My brain has been preoccupied, replaying every syllable of my conversations with both Coop and Helena. I pull off the interstate, following the rows of cars in front of me. I’ve driven past four red lights when I spot a familiar restaurant chain and park. I request a seat on the patio and order a drink. Sorting this situation on my own hasn’t produced results. I need someone else’s thoughts, and the only person I can trust is Beth.
“You miss the hustle and bustle of the city?” she asks when she answers my phone call.
The sound of her voice makes me burst into tears. “More than anything.”
The One Before: A totally gripping suspense thriller with a shocking twist Page 17