Seconds Away

CHAPTER 49

There was enough time before we caught the plane to Los Angeles for one final, important stop.

Even as Rachel buzzed me in through the gate, I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do. I thought about what Mr. Caldwell had said. He wanted to protect his daughter. That was his right as a father, wasn’t it? I thought about my own father and the way he had sheltered me from harm. Who was I to interfere with that? Why force Rachel to live with the guilt that her mother was dead because of her? A father had thought this through and made a decision about what would be best for his daughter.

Who was I to contradict that?

I was seconds away from turning and heading home when Rachel appeared. She spotted my face and said, “Mickey? What is it? What’s wrong?”

Seconds away.

“Mickey?”

But then in those seconds, I thought about what Uncle Myron had said, about how the lie never leaves you. I thought about the Abeona Shelter and my friends and what Dylan Shaykes had said. Yes, Ema, Spoon, Rachel, and I had originally joined forces to save Ashley, but what kept us together, what really gave us our unbreakable bond, was our need to know the truth.

I looked at Rachel and felt her strength. The truth could hurt her, sure, but not like a lifetime lie could. And forget Dylan Shaykes-Spoon had said it all as he fought through the pain on the hospital bed:

You can’t stop until we find the truth.

“Mickey?” Rachel said. “What is it? You’re scaring me.”

It wasn’t an easy decision for me. Uncle Myron had warned me that life was rarely simple. But in the end I had promised Spoon we wouldn’t stop until we found the truth. You don’t do that-you don’t make those sacrifices-just to let your friend live a happy lie.

“I have to tell you something,” I said to Rachel, taking her hand in mine.

She looked in my eyes. “Is it that bad?”

“Yes.”

Rachel swallowed and stood tall. “I’m listening.”

And then I told her the truth.