Hoverfly Girl

by Parker Wren

  “I checked with John, of course,” she said. “And after learning about your background, realized that there was no way you were here to protect Henry. I thought you had just seduced Dom, using him as a way in, though it was obvious that Grayson was who you really wanted. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that Dom was in on it too.”

  “Dom didn’t do anything,” I said defensively.

  Brit shrugged. “It’s okay,” she said. “I haven’t caught Dom anyway. I’ve just caught you.”

  “Please,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Caught me of what? Being in a home that you invited me to stay at?”

  “And what do you have there?” Brit said, motioning to the packet of her papers behind my back.

  I met her gaze and didn’t break eye contact. “Proof,” I said. “Proof that you’ve been moving money around for John Matheson.”

  “Take it,” Brit said, and her lackeys came over to me. One grabbed me on the shoulder, and I winced. The other snatched the envelope and handed it to Brit.

  “Oh, Ariel,” she said, cocking her head, with a sinister look on her face. “What are we going to do with you?”

  I didn’t know what Brit had planned. I imagined that it couldn’t be anything too crazy—after all, it would be a lot harder to explain away a dead guest then it would be to intimidate me or blackmail me into silence. Still, I didn’t want to take any chances.

  I calculated the distance to the deck door, and sprang to my feet. I ran as fast as I could. One of Brit’s guys, the one who had pointed a gun at me, came sprinting after me. I was able to reach the door, unlock it, slide it open, and slam it shut just as the man’s hand came through. He howled as the door hit his hand.

  I ran. I knew I couldn’t go back towards the front of the house; Brit and the other guy would probably be there waiting for me. I didn’t know if one of them had a gun.

  I had to make it to the neighbor’s house. Or, I would jump into the ocean and swim if I had to.

  I sprinted down to the beach, across the sand, looking at the neighbor’s house in the distance. Why did the house have to be so far away?

  I felt my phone buzz in my hand. It felt incredibly surreal, my phone ringing at this moment. It was as if reality had snapped me out of my primal need to escape. I saw it was Grayson.

  I looked behind me. Nobody was chasing me. “Grayson!” I yelled into the phone. “Don’t come home! They are here! They know.”

  “Ariel,” he said, his voice shaking. “I’m here, at the house, now. You need to come back.”

  I slowed down my run to a walk. I should call 911, I thought.

  Grayson seemed to have read my thoughts. “I’m safe, Ariel,” he said. “It’s just me and Brit. I asked the other two guys to leave. It’s fine. No one is going to hurt us.”

  “How do I know that you don’t have a gun to your head?” I said. The terror was still clear in my voice.

  “Ariel,” he said. “I don’t. I understand why you would think I might. Those guys are crazy. But this isn’t what it seems. Please, just come back.”

  “Okay,” I said, too tired to fight, or even think.

  I walked back slowly to the house, first texting Dom and telling him what had happened. Just in case.

  “OMG!! WTF!!” he wrote back.

  “Will call as soon as I have an update,” I replied in text.

  I felt like I was walking into a house of doom.

  As I entered through the deck door, I saw blood on the floor, presumably where I had smashed Lackey #1’s hand. Brit was on the couch, her face pale. Grayson was stood across the room. As soon as he saw me, he ran over to me and wrapped me up in his arms.

  I squeezed him tightly, willing myself not to cry.

  “Brit,” Grayson admonished, pulling me close to his side.

  Brit looked from me to Grayson, then back at me. She then lowered her eyes. “Ariel, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was never going to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you….”

  “You bring two fucking guys in here that had previously pointed a gun at my head, so damn right you were trying to scare me,” I said, the fury finally bursting through my mouth. Grayson kept his grip tightly on me.

  Brit focused her attention to Grayson now. She was begging.

  “Grayson? Isn’t there anything I can do? Grayson?”

  Tears were welling up in her eyes. Why was she suddenly ingratiating herself to Grayson?

  Grayson turned to me and explained.

  “Henry called me on the way to the store,” he said. “He told me…he told me that he had found out about Brit’s affair with John.”

  Brit hung her head in shame. I tsked.

  “Funny how you can go from one guy to another in a matter of days, but I do it, and suddenly it’s a cardinal sin,” she mumbled, glaring icicles in my direction.

  “I don’t care about who you sleep with,” I sniped back. “I care about who you steal money from.”

  “Hold on,” Grayson said to me. “Just hold on.”

  He was pacing now, scratching his head, uncertain of what to do or say next.

  “Grayson,” I said, “what’s going on?”

  He stopped and looked at Brit.

  “Did you do it all?” he asked. “Did you move the money from the accounts? Everything was in your name, your flights, everything?”

  “Yes,” she admitted, quietly.

  Grayson shook his head. “I don’t think there is much you can do, then.”

  “Grayson, what is going on?” I pleaded.

  He looked at me, his eyes filled with a sadness that I hadn’t seen before.

  “Henry knew, Ariel. They did it together. Him and Brit. Moving the money. But he had her do everything, made his father think that it was all her doing, for the money. Henry found out this week when he was back in New York about Brit and John, the one thing he didn’t know. I guess people are talking more now. And…he turned her in. Henry turned in Brit. For what he did too, even though he didn’t admit that part. He turned his dad in, turned her in, all for immunity. He called to tell me. I’m not sure why he decided to confess to me now. I guess he needed to tell somebody.”

  I stood there in shock. Brit was silent, jigging her foot up and down, over and over again.

  “But…but…why?” I asked. “I don’t understand. Why did he—why would Henry do that?”

  Grayson shook his head. His jaw was clenched tightly, and he looked like he might start crying.

  “For the money, I guess,” he said. “As an ‘eff you’ to his father? Who knows. They must have thought they were scamming him on some level.”

  We both looked at Brit. Only she could understand what her and Henry had done, and why. She shook her head, and said, emotionless, “he was cheating all those people out of their money anyway. Why shouldn’t we get a cut?”

  I couldn’t believe the things she was saying, the things that Grayson was telling me about Henry.

  “I can’t believe him,” Brit said, shaking her head vigorously. “That son of a bitch. He told me it was safer if I did it, he swore to protect me, he promised—“ she stopped herself, her eyes brimming with tears.

  Even though I knew that Grayson likely felt nothing but contempt for Brit now, he went over to her and kneeled in front of her.

  “Brit,” he said. “Look at me.”

  She looked up. I couldn’t read her eyes.

  “Tomorrow you are going to go home. To your mom’s house, not to see Henry. Do you understand? You can’t talk to Henry ever again. Okay? You find a good lawyer. A really good one.”

  Brit just nodded. Grayson stood up, but then thought about it again.

  “And don’t you ever—and I mean ever—talk to or come near Ariel every again. Do you understand? Say that you understand.”

  “I understand,” Brit whispered.

  “Here,” Grayson said, handing me the car keys. “I’ll get our stuff. We are going to a hotel tonight. And never coming back here.”

 
CHAPTER 44

  Grayson and I were silent during the car ride to the hotel. I started to talk a few times, to ask him the hundreds of questions that I had, but I stopped myself.

  My phone buzzed. It was a text from Dom.

  “ARE YOU DEAD?? NO SRSLY- ARE YOU DEAD??!?”

  I smiled, in spite of what had just happened.

  I texted Dom back. “Not dead,” I said. “I’ll call you tomorrow, k?”

  “K,” he wrote back.

  Grayson and I checked into our hotel room and sat on the bed. Finally, he started talking.

  Grayson recounted how Henry had called him on the drive to the store, obviously drunk. Henry was crying.

  “It’s done,” he had said to Grayson.

  “What’s done?” Grayson had replied.

  Henry told him how it was over between him and Brit. He hadn’t informed Brit yet, but after finding out about the prior relationship between her and his father, he said that he had to do something.

  “What did you do, Henry?” Grayson had pleaded.

  “It’s her fault,” Henry had said to him. “She made me do it. She always wanted the money. And after what she did…with him, of all people…she deserves it.”

  Grayson pressed Henry for more information. That’s when Henry told Grayson—in a bragging tone that Grayson had never heard from his best friend—that he had devised the entire scheme for Brit to approach John, and ask if she could help the business in any way. Henry had helped his father forge financial documents in the past, and knew that the firm was in trouble. He fed Brit the right things to say to get John on board, with Brit agreeing to help him move money in exchange for her (and by default, Henry) keeping a cut. John didn’t know that Henry was in on it, and assumed that Brit was going behind Henry’s back.

  “I was so shocked,” Grayson said. “I mean, I thought when I found out about you…and I had just met you, no offense, but still…that nothing could be crazier. And then to find out that this person I knew, thought I really knew for so many years, could be so…so…”

  “Vindictive?” I said, thinking of the way that he had put all the blame on Brit, and might as well have thrown her in prison himself.

  “Yes!” said Grayson. “I mean, had he told me about the rest of it…I don’t know, I would have been furious, but the way he just sold her out like that…I don’t even know him. I don’t know him at all.”

  Grayson’s face looked pained. He bit his lip hard. I took his head and put it in my chest, holding him tightly.

  “It’s awful,” I said, “so don’t think I’m minimizing that. He’s not who you thought he was. But he also still is. You know? The good stuff still happened. There’s nothing wrong with you for not seeing the bad stuff.”

  Grayson straightened back up and stroked my cheek with his thumb. “Well, I clearly would never make a good spy,” he said. “For all I know, you’re still playing me.”

  I pushed his hand away and looked at the ground. “Please don’t say that.”

  Grayson collapsed on the bed and groaned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “My mind is just so fucked up right now.”

  “I know,” I said. “Let’s go to sleep.”

  After getting ready for bed, we turned off the light and lay on our sides, backs facing each other.

  CHAPTER 45

  I finally called Dom the next morning while Grayson was taking a shower.

  “Ariel,” he said, “you’ve got to get back here. Manuel needs to talk to you. Apparently there’s been a warrant issued for John’s arrest. But nothing for Henry. I told him about Brit attacking you last night. What is going on?”

  “Dom,” I said. “It was Henry too. It was Henry all along.”

  I explained to Dom everything that had happened, and everything that Grayson had told me.

  “Aw, shit,” Dom said. “Even more reason why you Manuel needs to see you. You’ve got to tell him all of this.”

  I knew I needed to see Manuel too, but not for the reasons outlined by Dom.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let me talk to Grayson. I’ll figure out a time to get to D.C. I’ll text you and Manuel.”

  I quietly waited for Grayson to finish getting ready. He came out of the shower with just a towel around his waist, and I tried to not let my mind wander to inappropriate places.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked Grayson quietly.

  He started combing his hair in front of the mirror. I watched as he squinted his eyes, trying to keep his unruly locks in place.

  “I don’t know, Ariel,” he said. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Can I ask you something though?”

  “Of course,” he said, walking over to me and sitting next to me on the bed.

  “You said…after everything…that you wouldn’t hold it against me. The reason that I first came to Vineyard Haven.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “But I feel like…” I second-guessed myself for a moment before continuing. We were in a brand-new relationship; was it normal to be having issues already? I tried to remind myself, though, that our experience had been anything but normal. “I feel like after everything that’s happened with Henry, now that he’s not who you thought he was, that…you are holding that against me.”

  Grayson sighed and put his forehead in his hands.

  “I know Ariel, and I’m sorry.” My heart sunk at his admission. “You have to understand that for me…a boring schoolteacher…this is all somewhat extraordinary. I like you. I like you so much.” He turned to me now, searching my eyes. “But I also just found out that my best friend is not who he said he was, and he basically just put his fiancée in jail. I’m not saying she’s innocent, and doesn’t deserve it, but I’m just questioning everything right now.”

  I nodded. I had really already known all of that, but I was glad for Grayson to say it.

  “Okay,” I said. “Well, I need to get to D.C. anyway. Manuel wants to meet with me. Are you okay with me telling them everything that happened?”

  Grayson shrugged. “Hell if I care,” he said. “There’s no one for me to protect anymore.”

  “Yeah,” I said, thinking that he left out one name: Mine.

  “Can I get a ride to the ferry? Whenever is good for you is fine with me,” I asked. I tried to keep my voice steady, and not reveal that inside, my heart was breaking.

  “Yeah, sure,” Grayson said, his eyes not meeting mine.

  Ask me to stay, I thought. Why won’t you ask me to stay?

  When Grayson dropped me off, I was still hopeful he would say something, anything, about us. Part of me felt selfish—he had a lot to process.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?” I asked. I kept giving him chances; I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help myself.

  Grayson shook his head. “I think I just need to be alone right now,” he said.

  I was suddenly furious at both him and myself. I had opened up with him a way that I never had with anyone—and it was incredibly foolish of me. How could I have believed his promise that he wouldn’t hold things against me?

  “Well,” I said, echoing my thoughts to him even though I knew I would regret it, “I feel like a fool. I can’t believe that I let myself buy in to your promise.”

  Grayson’s eyes looked pained, and he grimaced. “I know. But I’m not saying never, Ariel,” he said. “I’m not mad at you, okay? This isn’t your fault. I know that. And I know…I know I’m breaking my promise. It’s a shitty thing to do. But I can’t…I just don’t know right now…

  “Fine,” I said, letting my voice turn cold. I thought about my past relationships, and the way that I was able to handle them ending. I was usually the one ending them, but even when I wasn’t, I was able to compartmentalize my feelings pretty quickly. This time, I wasn’t so sure. I could feel the ache slowly taking over my body, leaking from my mind, and I willed away the pain. I would be able to push thoughts of Grayson aside. Just like the others.

&nbs
p; “Ariel…” Grayson said, concern in his voice, but uncertain of what else to say.

  “Can I ask you just one thing,” I said. “Everything I told you—about me—keep to yourself.” I felt my regret dig deeper for having shared what I did with Grayson.

  “Of course,” he said, his brown eyes also full of remorse. “I’m good at keeping secrets. I won’t tell a soul, Air.”

  Despite everything, I believed him.

  “Would it be okay if I call you sometime soon?” he asked.

  I shrugged. I knew I should just say no, to make a clean break, but I wasn’t ready to give up on him entirely yet.

  “You can do whatever you want,” I said.

  Grayson tried to come up to me and hug me, but with my arms crossed, I didn’t reciprocate.

  “Bye,” I said.

  “Bye, Ariel,” he said quietly.

  I nodded and turned around, unable to say anything for fear of crying. For that, I waited until I got on the ferry. I cried silent tears, thinking of everything that had been lost, thinking of everything that could have been, and trying my best to shove thoughts of Grayson into a hole in my heart.

  CHAPTER 46

  I stopped to see Aunt Sarah for a few days before heading down to D.C. She was doing better; the targeted chemotherapy she had started was already starting to make a difference. When she asked me about Grayson, I cringed.

  “Oh, honey,” she said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “It’s stupid,” I said, holding back tears. “I mean, I barely knew him,” I said, knowing it was a lie even while I said it. “Should just enjoy the fun days of summer, right?”

  Sarah smiled and nodded.

  When I arrived in D.C., Dom was there to pick me up at the airport. His wide smile and confident stride was like a breath of fresh air. I hadn’t realized how much tension I had been holding onto until he wrapped me up in a bear hug.

  “Glad to see you made it back in one piece,” he grinned at me. I let him hang his arm around my shoulder as we walked to the car. I laughed a little bit thinking about how cocky he must have looked with his sunglasses, backwards hat, and arm slung over me like I was the accessory of the day.