A Bend in the Road(33)
Author: Nicholas Sparks

“No, thank you.”

“How about you, Brian?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“So what’s up?”

Sarah absently adjusted her purse strap. “There’s something I… I mean we, have to talk to you about,” she said awkwardly. “Can we sit down?” “Sure,” Miles answered. He motioned toward the couch. Brian took a seat next to Sarah, across from Miles. Brian took a deep breath, almost starting then, but Sarah cut him off.

“Miles… before we start, I want you to know that I wish I didn’t have to be here. I wish that more than anything. Try to keep that in mind, okay? This isn’t easy for any of us.”

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Sarah glanced toward Brian. She nodded, and with that, Brian felt his throat suddenly go dry. He swallowed.

“It was an accident,” he said.

At that, the words poured forth, the way he’d rehearsed them a hundred times in his head. Brian told him everything about that night two years ago, leaving nothing out. His mind, however, wasn’t on the words.

Instead it was on Miles’s reaction. At first there was none. As soon as Brian began, Miles slipped into a different posture, that of someone who wanted to listen objectively, without interruption, the way he’d been trained as a sheriff. Brian, he knew, was making a confession, and Miles had learned that silence was the best way to get an uncensored version of events. It wasn’t until later, when Brian mentioned Rhett’s Barbecue, that Miles finally began to realize what Brian was telling him.

Then the shock set in. As Brian went on, Miles froze, his face draining of color. His hands tightened reflexively on the armrest. Nonetheless, Brian pressed forward. In the background, as if from somewhere far away, Brian heard his sister inhale sharply as he described the accident. He ignored the sound, continuing with his story, stopping only when he described the next morning in the kitchen, and his decision to keep silent.

Miles sat like a statue through it all, and when Brian lapsed into silence, Miles seemed to take a moment to register everything that Brian had told him. Then, finally, his eyes focused on Brian, as if seeing him for the first time.

In a way, Brian knew he was.

“A dog?” he rasped out. His voice was low and gravelly, as if he’d been holding his breath through the confession. “You’re saying she jumped in front of your car because of a dog?”

“Yes.” Brian nodded. “A black dog. A big one. There was nothing I could do.” Miles’s eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to keep control. “Then why did you run?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t explain why I ran that night. The next thing I knew, I was in the car.”

“Because you don’t remember.” The anger in Miles’s tone was unmistakable, barely suppressed. Ominous.

“I don’t remember that part of it, no.”

“But the rest of it you do. You remember everything else about that night.”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me the real reason you ran that night.”

Sarah reached out to touch Miles’s arm. “He’s telling the truth, Miles. Believe me-he wouldn’t lie about this.”

Miles shook off her hand.

“It’s okay, Sarah,” Brian said. “He can ask whatever he wants.”

“You’re damn right I can,” Miles added, his voice lowering even more. “I don’t remember why I ran,” Brian answered. “Like I said, I don’t remember even leaving the scene. I remember being in the car, but that’s it.” Miles stood from the chair, glaring. “And you expect me to believe that?” he said. “That it wasMissy’s fault?”

“Wait a minute!” Sarah said, coming to her brother’s defense. “He told you how it happened! He’s telling the truth!”

Miles swiveled to face her. “Why the hell should I believe him?”

“Because he’s here! Because he wanted you to know the truth!”

“Two years later he wants me to know the truth? How do you know it’s the truth?” He waited for an answer, but before she could respond, he suddenly took a small step backward. He turned from Sarah to Brian and back to Sarah again, as he considered what the answers to his questions meant.

Sarah hadknown exactly what her brother was going to say… Which meant… that she’d known Otis was innocent. She’d tried to get him to back off. Let Charlie handle it, she’d said. What if Sims and Earl were wrong somehow?

She’d said those things because she’dknown Brian was guilty.

But that made sense, didn’t it?

Hadn’t she said that she was close to her brother? Hadn’t she said he was the one person she could really talk to, and vice versa?

Miles’s thoughts, fed by adrenaline and anger, raced from one conclusion to the next.

She’dknown but she hadn’t told him. She’d known and… and…

Miles stared at Sarah wordlessly.

Hadn’t she volunteered to help Jonah, even though it was out of the ordinary? And hadn’t she befriended him as well? Gone out with him? Listened to him, tried to help him move on with his life?

Miles’s face began to twitch with barely suppressed rage.

She’d known all along.

She’d used him to assuage her own guilt. Everything they’d had was built on lies.

She betrayed me.

Miles stood without moving, without speaking, frozen in place. In the silence, Brian heard the heater come on.

“You knew,” he finally rasped out. “You knew he’d killed Missy, didn’t you?” It was then, at that moment, that Brian understood not only that it was over between Sarah and Miles, but that, in Miles’s mind, they had never had anything at all. Sarah, though, seemed baffled, and she answered Miles as if the answer to his question were obvious.

“Of course. That’s why I brought him here.”

Miles raised his hand to stop her, jabbing his finger in her direction with every point he made.

“No, no… you knew he’d killed her and didn’t tell me… That’s why you knew that Otis was innocent… That’s why you kept trying to tell me to listen to Charlie…”

Sarah finally seemed to register the implication, and she suddenly, frantically, began shaking her head.

“No-wait-you don’t understand-”

Miles cut her off, unwilling to listen, each statement more furious than the last.

“You knew all along…”

“No-”

“You’ve known since the moment we met.”

“No-”

“That’s why you offered to help Jonah.”

“No!”

For a moment, it seemed as if Miles would strike her, but he didn’t. Instead he lashed out in another direction. He kicked the end table over, sending the lamp crashing. Sarah flinched and Brian rose from the couch to reach for her; Miles grabbed him before he could and spun him around. Miles was both stronger and heavier, and Brian could do nothing to stop him from wrenching his wrist up his back toward his shoulder blades. Sarah instinctively moved away from the commotion before she even realized what was happening. Brian didn’t resist, even as pain shot through his shoulder. He winced, his eyes closing, his face contorting.

“Stop! You’re hurting him!” Sarah screamed.

Miles held up a warning hand in her direction. “Stay out of this!”

“Why are you doing this! You don’t have to hurt him!”

“He’s under arrest!”

“It was an accident!”

But Miles was beyond reason, and he twisted Brian’s arm hard again, forcing him away from the couch, away from Sarah, toward the front door. Brian almost stumbled, and Miles grabbed at him, his fingers digging into Brian’s flesh. Miles pushed Brian into the wall as he reached for the handcuffs that were hanging on a peg near the door. Miles slapped them around one wrist and then the next, pinching them tightly.

“Miles! Wait!” Sarah shouted.

Miles opened the door and pushed Brian out, forcing him onto the porch.

“You don’t understand!”

Miles ignored her. He grabbed Brian’s arm and began dragging him toward the car. It was difficult for Brian to keep his balance, and he stumbled. Sarah rushed up behind them.

“Miles!”

Miles spun around. “I want you out of my life,” he hissed.

The hatred in his voice shocked Sarah into stopping.

“You betrayed me,” Miles said. “You used me.” He didn’t wait for Sarah to respond. “You wanted to try to make things better-not for me and Jonah, but for you and Brian. You thought if you did that, you’d feel better about yourself.” She paled, incapable of saying anything.

“You knew from the beginning,” he went on. “And you were willing to let me go on without ever knowing the truth until someone else got arrested for it.”

“No, that’s not the way it happened-”

“Stop lying to me!” he boomed. “How the hell can you live with yourself?” The comment lashed at her, and she responded defensively. “You’ve got it all wrong, and you don’t even care.”

“I don’t care? I’m not the one who did anything wrong here.”

“Neither did I.”

“And you expect me to believe that?”

“It’s the truth!” Then, despite her anger, Brian saw her eyes begin to well up with tears.

Miles paused momentarily but showed no sympathy at all. “You don’t even know what the truth is.”

With that, he turned and opened the door to the car. He shoved Brian in, then slammed the door and reached in his pocket for his keys. He pulled them out as he got in behind the wheel.

Sarah was too shocked to say anything more. She watched as Miles started the car, pressed the accelerator, then jammed the car into gear. The tires squealed as the car moved into reverse, backing toward the road. Miles never glanced her way, and a moment later, he vanished from sight.

Chapter 33

Miles drove erratically, smashing the accelerator and slamming on the brakes, as if testing how hard he could push the car before one or the other ceased to work. More than once, his arms locked behind him, Brian nearly toppled over as the car careened through a turn. From his vantage point, Brian could see the muscle in Miles’s jaw tensing and relaxing, as if someone were flicking a switch. Miles held the wheel with both hands, and though he seemed to be concentrating on the road, his eyes continually darted to the rearview mirror, where they sometimes caught Brian’s.

Brian could see the anger in his eyes. It was reflected plainly in the mirror, yet at the same time, he saw something else there, something he hadn’t expected. He saw the anguish in Miles’s eyes, and Brian was reminded of the way Miles had looked at Missy’s funeral, trying and failing to make sense of all that had happened. Brian wasn’t sure if the anguish Miles was feeling came from Missy or Sarah, or even both. All he knew was that it didn’t have anything to do with him.

From the corner of his eye, Brian watched the trees whizzing past his window. The road curved, and again Miles took the turn without slowing down. Brian planted his feet; despite that, his body shifted and he slid toward the window. In a few minutes, he knew, they would pass the spot of Missy’s accident.

***

The Good Shepherd Community Church was located in Pollocksville, and the driver of the church van, Bennie Wiggins, had never had so much as a speeding ticket in his fifty-four years of driving. Though it was a source of pride for Bennie, the reverend would have asked him to drive even if his record hadn’t been so good. Volunteers were hard to find, especially when the weather wasn’t so good, but Bennie was one he could always count on.

On that morning, the reverend had asked Bennie to drive the van to New Bern to pick up the donations of food and clothing that had been collected over the weekend, and Bennie had shown up promptly. He’d driven in, had a cup of coffee and two doughnuts while he waited for others to load the van, then had thanked everyone for their help before getting behind the wheel to head back to the church.

It was a little before ten when he turned onto Madame Moore’s Lane. He reached for the radio, hoping to find some gospel music to liven up the ride back. Even though the road was slick, he began fiddling with the knob. Up ahead and out of sight, he had no way of knowing that another car was heading his way.

***

“I’m sorry,” Brian finally said, “I didn’t mean for any of it to happen.” At the sound of his voice, Miles glanced in the mirror again. Instead of responding, however, he cracked the window.

Cold air rushed in. After a moment, Brian huddled down, his unzipped jacket flapping in the wind.

In the reflection, Miles stared at Brian with unbridled hatred.

***

Sarah sped around the corner much as Miles had done, hoping to catch up with his car. He had a head start-not much, maybe a couple of minutes, but how far was that? A mile? More? She wasn’t exactly sure, and as the car hit a straight stretch, she pressed the accelerator even harder.

She had to catch them. She couldn’t leave Brian in his care, not after the uncontrolled fury she had seen in his face, not after what he’d nearly done to Otis.

She wanted to be there when Miles brought Brian in, but the problem was that she didn’t know where the sheriff’s department was. She knew where the police station was, the courthouse, even the City Hall, since they were all located downtown. But she’d never been to the sheriff’s department. For all she knew, it was located in the outer reaches of the county somewhere. She could stop and call, or check a phonebook somewhere, but that would only put her farther behind, she thought frantically. She would stop if she had to. If she didn’t see him in the next couple of minutes…

***