Page 65 of The Exit Strategy

I don’t even know why Natalie was there that day, or why she started recording. But it was enough to make me give up everything to fix it. The worst part is, Natalie held onto that video for close to a year. She didn’t bring it to me until three months after Junie’s mom had passed away, and Natalie decided that her brother’s care was now my problem too.

The corners of the photos bend as I shove them back into the envelope. The anger in my soul makes my writing almost illegible as I write a quick note that saysFor Juniethen toss it all on her table.

But as I walk away, I remember which photos were in the stack. Because if Natalie took them, it means she has copies, and I need to know exactly which moments of our lives she’s still holding hostage.

A war is coming, and I can only protect Junie if I control all the pieces.

Junie sitsin her designated spot between Katie and Dollie, facing the TV screen I set up this afternoon, so she doesn’t see me enter. She and Katie sit with their headstogether like a couple of teenagers while Marley keeps shushing them and asking Junie if she’s updated her matrix.

After sneaking in, I lean against the back wall. I promised to attend, not participate, so that’s what I’ll do tonight.

My mind isn’t in the right headspace for anything else.

The silence lasts for all of five minutes.

“What’s wrong with your face?” Nana Mae asks, dragging a folding chair behind her, alerting everyone to my presence. Including Junie, whose gaze is slowly peeling back the stitches on all my old wounds.

“There’s nothing wrong with my face,” I grumble, thankful when Katie whispers something to Junie to make her focus on the show again.

“There is. It’s doing that thing again.”

“What thing?” I ask, taking the beer she offers.

“The one where you pretend you’re happy, but it makes you look like you’ve been constipated for six months.”

“I am happy,” I grumble.

“You could be, but you’re distracted.” Nana Mae never lets anything slide. “I’ve seen you smiling all week, Cole.”

“See, smiling means you’re happy,” I whisper. If Marley shushes me, I might lose my shit tonight.

“Right, and now you’re distracted, which means you’re searching for ways to sabotage that happiness.”

My scowl has no effect on my grandmother.

“She’s always been under your skin, but now you’re terrified because you know what it’s like to have her in your life again, and you’re just waiting for her to be taken away.”

I stare at my grandmother. Sometimes I forget that the woman who engineers fake engagements and enters my designs into competitions is also the woman who raised me—the woman who helped me sell my grandfather’s cars to pay a debt that wasn’t mine.

She understands the architecture of me better than I do, but she needs to stop talking to Bea so much.

“I don’t need to know all the dirty details of what went down between the two of you—though I’ve always had my theories. But I will say this.” Marley chooses that moment to shush us, and Nana Mae mimes locking her lips right before flipping her off. “Your grandfather didn’t think he deserved me either. You know what finally changed his mind?”

“You told his mother you were married.”

She sighs, beyond frustrated with me. “Before that. He realized that protecting me from himself was just another way of leaving. And Arthur wasn’t a quitter. He fought for me. Even when it was hard. Even when it cost him his family.”

The parallel lands like a punch I saw coming but couldn’t dodge.

Leaving Junie was my only choice. That’s the framework that let me sleep at night.

“It’s not the same,” I manage.

“It’s exactly the same. You just have better excuses.” She pats my knee. “That girl’s hurting more than you know. She’s trying, Cole. She’s giving you openings the only way she knows how.”

“There are things you don’t know,” I say. “About why I left. About what it would cost?—”

“Then tell me.” It’s the closest I’ve ever heard my grandmother come to begging.