Chapter 8 - "You Didn't Get to Decide"
I drove straight to Marcus's house. He opened the door and took one look at my face.
"What happened, Andrea?"
I held up Grant's old phone. "He already had one."
Marcus looked like he'd seen a ghost. "You were supposed to go," I said.
Silence.
"I changed my mind Sunday morning," he finally admitted. "I was driving toward the lake when emergency vehicles passed me going the other way."
I held my breath. His eyes filled. "I got there after the search had already started."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"What would it have changed?"
"I deserved to know, Marcus."
He looked down. "I've spent six years thinking that if I'd been on that boat, maybe there would've been another adult. Maybe I could've done something."
"And you decided I couldn't handle knowing that?" I shot back.
"I thought you already had enough to carry."
I looked him straight in the eye. "You didn't get to decide what I could carry."
He flinched. Then I told him about the extra flotation vest. He looked up. "He bought that for me?"
"Apparently."
May you like
His face crumpled. "I never even used it."
That became our next question. If Marcus never boarded the boat, where had that extra vest actually gone?
