Love's Cruel Redemption

by C. L. Stone

  But he couldn’t tell her about the Academy and what they were doing.

  And he didn’t feel it was right to tell her about the relationship dynamic they’d developed with Sang. Kota should tell her, if he wanted to.

  If he hadn’t fucked it up after last night.

  The lie formed on his tongue, and he hoped this was the best solution. “It might be my fault, and for it, I’m sorry. But I don’t think they’ve broken up. It may just be a rough patch. But Sang...yes. I think it’s okay if you still tried to be supportive of her right now. Kota wouldn’t want her to feel she had to walk to the grocery store so late.” He sighed and rolled his head back, looking at the ceiling. “If I hadn’t done...what I’d done...maybe she would have felt safe to ask me if I’d been home or...”

  “I don’t know why she couldn’t have asked me,” Erica said. “Do you think maybe I embarrassed her? She’s not ashamed of what happened, do you think? Ever since then, I haven’t seen her much. I wonder if I made her feel uncomfortable, so she’s avoiding the place.” She put her palm to her mouth, covering it as she spoke. “You know, maybe that’s it. And it’s causing them stress when she doesn’t want to come over. And he can’t go over to see her...”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Maybe it is. And why wasn’t he at home last night? He’s avoiding her by not coming in until super early in the morning, the time to go to school, so he won’t have to talk to her?”

  Her struggling with her son’s relationships and trying to put the pieces together seemed to make the whole situation much worse. It must be hard seeing Kota unhappy, and knowing Sang is in a rough patch, and not being able to do anything to help either of them. Blaming everything last night on the relationship got her away from thinking it could be the Academy or something else, so maybe he needed to encourage this line of thinking.

  But he was already collaborating on admitting to this, and not revealing things she shouldn’t be looking in on. Instead of making her feel any worse, he did what he could that might help Kota and Sang, as well as her.

  He reached out to Erica, taking her hand and holding it in his, looking at her face. He needed her to trust him this time. “I know Kota,” he said. “He wouldn’t give up on Sang. Sang...she’s complicated. With her parents... and at school...Kota’s the one that’s been there for her. Helped her. And...they’re perfect together. He’s not going to just let that go.”

  “So where was he last night?” she asked.

  Nathan swallowed and shrugged. “I’m not totally sure but...I think...it might have something to do with Sang. Maybe in his own way he was helping her with what she’s going through. Maybe he couldn’t tell you or her what he was up to.” He scooted his chair closer. “I just know that maybe I did mess things up a bit. This is on me, okay? It’s not you. And I’m sure if you give Kota some space, he’ll figure it out and tell you what he wants to tell you.”

  Erica pressed her lips together and nodded shortly. “I thought to mention to him that first relationships...they don’t last. I wanted to say something to make him feel better. But I thought maybe it was too soon, or too negative Nancy of me to think in such a way.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Nathan said, although her comment settled into him hard.

  First relationships don’t last.

  It was generalized and perhaps true for most people. The others had off and on dates in the past, at least some of them, as far as he knew.

  For Kota, was it his first? At least his first steady...

  Nathan bit his own tongue before thinking too much further. It was hard enough expressing to Erica that Sang was Kota’s girlfriend.

  Not himself.

  Not after all those nights he’d spent with her. Close to her. After all those moments they shared, kissing and just being together. It ached in his heart to think she wouldn’t be around as often.

  Erica tapped her fingernails on Sang’s phone case. “Maybe you can pass it to her. When you see her? Let her know I found it?”

  “Sure.”

  She rose, taking up her purse. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said. She touched briefly at her brow, closing her eyes. “This Academy you two go to and how it’s got you going to that public school this year, maybe it’s stressing them out as well.”

  Nathan stood, putting a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I worry,” Erica said, and she smiled at him. “It’s my job.”

  “Don’t worry about this,” he said. “I’ll talk to them both. And I’ll get Kota to talk to you. If it takes me apologizing to both of them again or getting the other guys to help me out, I’ll do it.”

  Erica seemed satisfied with this and left. Nathan stood in the kitchen alone, looking at the pink phone on the table. His heart raced at the thought of it in Erica’s hands.

  Did she tell the truth about not looking at it? Because if she had...who knows what Sang had said to him, or the others.

  Maybe she was telling the truth, but she didn’t give it up until just now. If Victor hadn’t turned it off because they thought Volto had it, who knew what she would have thought of them all. Of the Academy, as well.

  Erica was too close to the truth. What would she think if she knew her son, and Nathan and the others, and now Sang were involved in the Academy and what it was about? Not to mention the relationship they constantly talked about.

  They couldn’t risk her getting any closer to finding out.

  Behind the Scenes

  For the next few days, a routine settled in. Nathan made sure Danielle and Marie were dropped off and picked up for school, either with him in the car or with someone else. Sang joined Mr. Blackbourne in the principal’s office to sort out files. Classes resumed normally for most students. Occasionally, Mr. Blackbourne called in other students when he found notes tucked away from Mr. Hendricks. He double-checked with them what they were called in for.

  In the evenings, Mr. Blackbourne studied, often with Dr. Green and Sang. They stayed late after school. Sang brought home the books with her when she went back with Kota at night. She claimed to be studying for tests around Erica, and she was, only not for science or geography.

  The police thinned out by the second day. One or two remained on campus just to wait and see if Mr. Hendricks would show back up. His house was monitored. No results.

  After school on the following Monday, Nathan was at home, sitting on the couch alone. His bare feet were on the coffee table. He sat back, looking up at the ceiling. He thought to go running to get his frustration out with exercise.

  Staring was more satisfying in the moment. Idle. Wallowing.

  He’d barely spoken to the others since the other day. Most had genuinely been too busy. A few, he was sure, knew about what he and Kota had done.

  He was willing to believe it was mostly himself avoiding them. He needed the separation, for now. And that meant avoiding Sang as well. Since no one else came to him about what happened, he assumed it wasn’t as bad as Dr. Green made it out.

  It still worried him. Being alone was probably making him more and more paranoid. That was the worst part. For the entire weekend, he’d been isolated.

  The front door opened, breaking him of his floundering thoughts. Nathan groaned but didn’t bother to go see who it was. If they didn’t knock, it was one of the guys. It certainly wasn’t Sang. She was still at the school.

  “I’m here,” he called out to whoever it was.

  Footsteps came closer and he twisted on the couch to look.

  Danielle stood by the couch, just behind it. Her hair was pulled back in a very short ponytail.

  He raised an eyebrow and pulled himself off the couch to stand up. “What are you doing here?” He looked behind her and then to the doorway into the kitchen. “Where’s Marie?”

  “She’s at home,” she said. “Checking in with her mom.”

  “So what are you doing here?”

  She walked around the couch, p
utting her hands on her hips and looking at him. “I’m tired of this stupid thing we’re doing.”

  Nathan cocked a brow. “You mean getting you out of school?”

  “We’re still going to school,” she said. “We may as well spend our days in in-school suspension. All we do is sit around and occasionally take a test.”

  “They aren’t hard.”

  “That’s not the point,” she said, her tone rising sharply. “I didn’t sign up for this. You said you could get us out.”

  “We can get Marie out,” he said. He had no patience for this at all right now. Whatever stupid reason she wanted out of school for, they shouldn’t have been encouraging it. “What do you think is going to happen when your mom finds you aren’t going to school anymore?”

  “Let me deal with that.”

  “What do you think you’re going to do?” he asked. “Hide in the Sorenson house? Hide here? Well, you can’t. You can’t spend the next year and a half hiding. Your brother and your parents aren’t stupid. They’ll find out.”

  Danielle threw up her hands and her eyes flared wide. “I said I’d handle it!” She pointed to her chest. “I’m not going back. I’m done. We’re wasting time. You’re just keeping us there.”

  Nathan sputtered for an answer that would sink into her thick skull. “Do you not see everything going on at the school? You go to lunch. You don’t see the police? Hear what’s going on?”

  “It doesn’t have anything to do with me,” she said.

  “It has everything to do with what you want,” he said. “Do you think for one second you’d just waltz out of school and no one would notice? Every option to get you out involves a principal’s approval, among other things.” He waved his hand outward. “The principal is gone, Danielle. Gone.”

  She frowned. “Sang’s out. You got her out.”

  “She’s still going to school. Only she’s taken all the tests and not complaining about it. She knows she has to stay in for now. And she’s doing far more work than you are for what she wants.”

  Danielle threw up her hands again and waved them around. “Fine! It’s whatever. I’m trying to help you, after all. I don’t need to tell you about her real mom. Or help you with Erica...”

  Nathan glared at her. “Help? What are you talking about? And I don’t even know if you know about Sang’s mom. How would you know anything? I can just ask Marie.” He pointed a finger at her. “And it’s really shitty the way you’re using Marie and Sang and their situation to get something out of it.”

  She reeled her head back and then stopped. She turned, blew out a breath and then lowered her shoulders a bit, dipping her head. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  He blinked rapidly at how her whole demeanor seemed to change. It reminded him that he was supposed to become friendly with them to get the answers they might have. Answers weren’t going to come if he was yelling at her. “Look, I just don’t understand how to help you. You wanted out of classes, we did that. The process to get you out of school, though, that’s on hold until we’re absolutely sure things can’t be questioned about your exit. It takes time, okay?” He paused. “And what did you mean about Erica?”

  Danielle lifted her head, gazing at him with her big brown eyes. “I told Jessica you and I were hooking up.”

  Nathan stopped himself before he could make a gagging noise. “What?”

  “I asked her why you two were fighting in the yard. She said it was because you were trying to kiss Sang. So I helped you by letting her think over the last week I was coming over more, hanging out together with you.” She reached into her back pocket, pulling out her cell phone. “I put a pic up on Facebook of back in the day when we used to hang out together. She follows me.”

  She turned her phone around, showing a picture of Nathan and Danielle at the pool in his backyard. It must have been at least five years ago, if not before then. He barely remembered taking the picture.

  Nathan shook his head slowly. He pressed a palm to his forehead. “I don’t...understand...why you thought that would help.”

  “Are you kidding?” she said and returned the phone to her pocket. “I saved your ass. Jessica was ready to tell the world about how she saved Sang from getting harassed, to tell other people to stick up for people like her. She was practically going to tell everyone about this. I stopped her. You didn’t deserve it. And now that you’re ‘dating’ me, and you’re back to friendly terms, she’s okay with keeping it a secret.” She pointed a finger at him. “So don’t tell me I’m not working for the benefit of all of us.”

  God. Fuck. If Jessica thought he was going out with Danielle...Did Jessica end up telling this to Erica? Is that why Erica came to him the other day? She thought he was over Sang and safe to integrate back into the family?

  Nathan turned away from her, heading to the couch and sitting on it. He buried his face into his palms. The worst part was, Danielle thought she was helping. And it was perpetuating the lie he and Kota had developed for Erica’s benefit.

  Their lies were making it so much worse.

  He felt Danielle sitting next to him on the couch. “I believe you about how difficult it is right now getting us out of school,” she said. “I hadn’t thought the principal being gone put this on hold. So...I’ll wait. But do I have to take those tests? Can’t we just bring a tablet to school or do something else?”

  “You don’t have to take the tests,” Nathan said. “It’s your situation that makes this more difficult than them. You’re going to have to figure out what to tell your parents. We can put you in homeschool. That’s probably the easiest. You can take the classes online. You’ll graduate on time. It’s up to you if you want to take the SATs or apply to college. Or whatever you want to do.”

  “I’ll handle it,” she said. “Then maybe I can talk to Marie. Maybe I can tell her to go ahead and let you all know what she knows.”

  Nathan picked his head up. “You’d do that? I thought you knew?”

  “I was just saying that to get you to do what I wanted,” she said. “But I was the one to tell her she should tell Sang the truth about her real mom, about what she knows. She didn’t even want to.”

  A flicker of appreciation developed inside of him. Despite everything that was going on, was Danielle really trying to help them out? Even if it felt like a disaster, maybe it was helping. She was willing to lie about her own relationship status online to help save Sang and himself from that sort of attention.

  “And maybe you can do me a favor,” she said. She took her phone out and showed it to him. “Can you take a picture with me? For Facebook? It’ll help with Jessica, I think.”

  It didn’t seem like a horrible idea. But he needed time to think if this was helping the situation or hurting it. He wasn’t totally sure why he was willing to do that part anyway.

  She wasn’t working with Marie out of the kindness of her heart. Not without getting something out of it. What would Danielle get out of letting people think they were dating?

  The door to the house opened then, and heavier footsteps came through. It had to be the guys this time.

  Danielle pulled herself away from the couch, tucking her phone into her pocket.

  She didn’t want anyone else to know. That made Nathan even more suspicious. He put the thought on the shelf for now.

  Victor and Silas appeared. Victor had changed into his usual dark pants and Armani shirt and carried a backpack. Silas wore jeans and a blue T-shirt.

  They both stopped as they looked in on Nathan, leaning into the room from the kitchen area. They paused, glancing at Danielle’s embarrassed expression and then Nathan’s. She appeared guilty as all hell.

  He’d have to explain to them after she left. It probably looked weird.

  “Is it okay to come in?” Victor asked tentatively.

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” Nathan asked.

  “I was leaving,” Danielle said. She waved shortly to Nathan. “I’ll see you before school, okay?” She walked out, and the
y heard her leaving through the front door.

  Even then, they all waited a few moments. Silas left the living room and then returned. “She’s gone.”

  “What are you two doing here?” Nathan asked, sounding grumpier than he meant to. It wasn’t them. It was Danielle making things weird.

  Victor shot a look over at Silas and then back to Nathan. “I need to ask you a few questions. About what happened the other night.”

  Nathan groaned and dropped his feet off the coffee table, starting to sit up. “I don’t want to talk about Lily,” he said.

  “No, not about that,” Victor said. He crossed the room, sitting on the coffee table in front of Nathan and putting his bag on the floor. “I mean about Volto driving North’s Jeep.”

  “I want to hear about Lily,” Silas said, remaining closer to the fireplace on the far side of the room. He stood in front of it, hands in his pockets. “But I’ll wait.”

  Victor pulled out his laptop and turned it on, waiting for it to boot. “Volto was the one driving, wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” Nathan said. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “What’s this about?”

  Victor looked at his screen. “According to the reports, someone leaned out the passenger side. Ms. Johnson said there was someone sitting in it.” He turned the screen around, showing the highlighted portion of a witness report.

  Nathan carefully read the neat cursive handwriting detailing seeing a face and the arm that threw the smoke bomb. “She didn’t recognize him?”

  “You were following the Jeep,” Victor asked, gazing at him over the laptop screen he was showing him. “Do you remember seeing two people?”

  “No,” Nathan said. “I only saw the Volto mask the driver was wearing. And I thought he somehow threw the bomb out the other window.”

  “It would have been more difficult to do,” Victor said. He flipped the laptop around again. He started clicking around. “But here’s the weird part. Check out who I found coming into the school with the Jeep.”