She didn’t argue and piled into the truck with Ava in the middle as Hunt took off out of town.
Ray was already on his way back to Emma’s house, and when he knocked on her door again, she was surprised and then angry.
“I already told you I—”
“Hunt and Birdie are on their way out to the lake right now. Birdie said to tell you that you have to come, that she has an important message for all of us. So if I have to drag your hateful ass out to my car, I’ll do it.”
Emma sighed. “Whatever,” she muttered. “I’ll need to leave Gordon a note to—”
“Just get your jacket and your dang phone and call him on the way.”
Emma ran to the coat closet, grabbed her coat, and pocketed her cell phone on the way out the door. Maybe if they all showed up together, it would keep Junior from saying anything to Hunt about their secret. It was old…in the past…and she wanted so much to forget it had ever happened.
* * *
Junior was sitting on a rock overlooking the lake, watching the sun moving slowly toward the horizon. He’d been out here after dark plenty of times, but usually drinking beer with a bunch of guys.
He remembered once when Hunt brought them out that they’d stayed after the sun went down and had a wiener roast down by the shore. Hunt built a little fire right by the water and then cut them green sticks to use to roast their wieners.
Junior remembered the elation of hanging out with his big brother, and what fun they’d had—Hunt telling ghost stories while he and Ray huddled on either side of him eating their hot dogs and sharing that one bottle of root beer because it was all Hunt had the money to buy.
The hurt of knowing what they’d done to Hunt after all the love he’d given them was killing Junior. He wished to God he would just hurry up and die, because most days he was so sad it hurt to breathe.
The sun was sitting on the tree line now. If he squinted just right, it almost looked like it was floating on a sea of green loblolly pines. The breeze finally laid, and the last rays of sunlight were melting like butter on the glass-smooth surface of the lake.
He heard the sound of cars driving up back in the parking area and hoped they didn’t come his way. The sound of voices carried in the stillness, but they were just murmurs. Even though they were coming closer, he still couldn’t hear the words.
He kept watching the curve on the path, and when he saw Ray and then Birdie, he sighed. He should have known Ray would panic. But then he saw Hunt and Ava.
“Dammit, Ray, what did you do?” he mumbled, and started crying.
And in that moment, Hunt saw him as the little brother he’d been. The gentle one. The quiet one. Whatever the hell he’d done that changed him, it hurt Hunt to know how broken he’d become.
He walked up to Junior and put his arms around him.
And that’s what Emma saw when she came running up the path. “Junior! Junior! What did you say?” she cried.
Ray turned, frowning. “He didn’t say anything, Emma. He’s crying. That’s all.”
Emma’s legs were shaking. She was so relieved that she dropped down onto the rock where Junior had been sitting and stared at all of them, wondering what fresh hell was going to happen next.
But none of them were prepared for Birdie’s ultimatum.
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to get us all together but never imagined it would be like this,” she said.
Hunt still had his arm around Junior’s shoulder as they turned to face her, but then he reached for Ava and pulled her close. “What’s going on, Birdie?”
“Do you remember Elliot Graham?” she asked.
Hunt frowned. “Yes. I used to mow his yard. What does he have to do with us?”
“In the past few years it’s become known around town that he’s something of a psychic. He won’t claim it. He just says that he knows stuff. Anyway, he came to the funeral home the night we had Mama’s viewing, said he had a message for me from Mama, and asked if I would step outside where it was quiet, so I did.”
At that point, no one was moving. No one was asking questions. They were riveted to Birdie’s story.
“Hunt, he told me that Mama wanted you to know she was sorry. That what happened to you wasn’t fair, and what our family did to you was unforgivable, but that she didn’t know the whole truth until she was shown it on the other side.”
Junior moaned, and Hunt tightened his hold on him as Birdie continued.
“Elliot said he had no idea what any of it meant, but he was just supposed to deliver Mama’s message. So here’s the message. Mama said it starts with Emma, and Daddy did it. She said Junior and Ray knew and said nothing because Daddy demanded silence from all of them.”
Hunt remembered that paper he’d found behind the picture in Junior and Ray’s room.
“He made you all sign some kind of an oath, didn’t he?” Hunt asked.
They looked at him in shock.
“What are you talking about?” Birdie asked.
“I found it behind a picture in the boys’ room,” he said, and pulled it out of his wallet and handed it to Birdie.
Birdie read it, then looked up at them, frowning.
“What does this mean?”
Emma stared off across the lake.
Ray couldn’t look at Hunt.
But Hunt felt like he’d been gut-punched.
“Birdie, you said Dad did it? Are you saying Dad took my money?”
Birdie nodded. “That’s the message Mama sent. I guess she wanted Elliot to deliver the message to me because I’d had no part in any of it and wouldn’t be inclined to continue the secret.”
Hunt’s arms dropped to his sides, but when Ava grabbed his hand, he held on and started asking questions.
“Why? Emma? What did you do that started it? Junior…how did it involve you? Damn it, Ray, what the hell did they do that was so bad that you would lie to me, too? Why did Dad steal from me?”
When no one talked, he turned loose of Ava and stepped into the middle of them, his fists doubled up in anger. And he began to talk, and the more he said, the louder he got until at the end he was shouting.
“For the love of God. Mom had to die to know the truth, and one of you better start talking. You’ve had fifteen years of grace with no recourse. I’m the one who got hurt. Isn’t that enough? I’m not going to do anything to anyone…but I deserve the truth.”
“I’ll tell,” Junior said.
Emma looked at Ava, and then stood.