The whole room went silent at that.
Everyone stared at everyone else in abject shock.
It couldn’t be.
“But . . . how?” I finally whispered.
It sounded so unfathomable to me. I couldn’t even imagine it was true, let alone believe it.
“With who?”
And then, Eve burst into huge, heaving sobs.
The motel was dingy, but it was better than the house. Anything was better than that house.
At the little table in my room, I repacked my things into my suitcase more carefully, now that there was time.
The first thing I’d done, after nearly blacking out from the shock, was sprint upstairs, while Daniel shouted at Wally and Francis for what each of them had done, Bear tried to calm everyone down, and Eve continued to cry. I didn’t know where you were, Nell, but I hoped that Tam had taken you outside, so you didn’t have to see all of it. I tore everything of Francis’s out of the dresser drawers and threw it over the banister and down the stairs into the middle of the living room, for the rest of them to see. Then I changed my mind and pulled out my own suitcase and started packing that.
I probably could have convinced the group to throw Francis and Eve out that night, but I didn’t want to stay, anyway. I couldn’t sleep in the same bed where I’d been sleeping with him that whole summer—not until the sheets had been stripped and washed, or better yet, thrown out like trash.
I just wanted to escape. To get away from all the lies and secrets, away from the house, away from the town.
While everyone else continued to interrogate Wally, I forced Francis to drive me to Rockland and drop me off at a motel there. I didn’t know if I could bear to be near him, but it was also the cruelest thing I could think to make him do, in the moment. I yelled at him for half the drive, demanding he tell me everything, every disgusting, shameful detail, then refused to speak at all for the rest, no matter what he said or asked me, and then yanked my suitcase out of the back seat and left him begging me for forgiveness in the parking lot without saying goodbye. When he tried to follow me into the lobby, I screamed at him so loudly that the clerk told him she’d call the police if he didn’t leave me alone. Francis left, tears streaming down his face, and the clerk gave me what she said was the best room they had.
“If that bastard comes in here again, I’ll say you already checked out,” she told me, patting my hand sympathetically as she handed me the key.
I still could hardly wrap my mind around it. That the whole summer, Francis and Eve had been sleeping together, right under my nose. Every day he’d gone to Agloe to be with her, and then the same night, crawled into bed right next to me, turning me into a fool, over and over.
I thought I was going to be sick.
And the worst part of all—even worse than Francis’s betrayal, somehow—was that Wally had known about it.
He had known all this time, and instead of telling me the truth, he’d held them hostage and used their secret to his advantage.
He’d betrayed me, too.
I heard someone on the stairs outside then, and held my breath as I waited to see if they would pass by down the corridor or stop at my door. If Tam had come to try to comfort me, or Eve to apologize, I didn’t know what I’d do. I was terrified I might try to throw them over the banister outside, the way I had Francis’s clothes back at the house—or even worse, break down crying. I would not let Francis know how much he’d hurt me. I would not crumble.
The footsteps crested the landing, and then, after a long moment, there was a knock. My eyes were so hot, burning like acid, I could barely see. I willed the tears not to fall.
“Romi?” Bear asked softly, through the door.
I waited at least five minutes, but he didn’t go away.