Trust Broken

Beneath the Fractured Sky

Located on the coast, Havenridge looked like the kind of town where everyone led a calm existence, but bore no other secrets than the tides. It was a stormy night, and Evelyn Carter stood by one of the oldest lighthouses in the town. Facing her, was the man she had been in love with for the past four years, Lucas Hall. But the love she felt for him was deeply buried in anger and confusion at that point.

“How long have you been deceiving me, Lucas?” Evelyn asked him, her tone shaky.

Luke was torn, his hands deep in his coat pockets. “Evie, it’s not what you think,” he said, almost too quietly in a pleading way.

Evelyn coughed out a harsh Alaskan laugh. “Not what you think? You’ve gone out of your way l to see someone for how many months? Don’t you have an idea of the bitterness of such betrayal?”

Evelyn was impatient. The silence stretched unbearably until Lucas said, “In truth, yes. For some six months now.”

Most people would agree that this news was difficult to take. She couldn’t understand how the planned wedding did not set off alarm bells in the man’s head while he was hiding such important information.

“I wasn’t cheating you,” he said rather too fast. “I had been rather talking to someone who claims to know about my real parents.”

Evelyn felt a pang in her chest. She did understand that Lucas had never seen his biological parents and that this topic brought much pain to the man. But why didn’t he speak to her about it?

“I didn’t want to build you up,” Lucas clarified. “I wanted to make sure first before I mentioned anything. This woman… says she knows the reason they left me.”

Evelyn turned her head away and blinked furiously. “You could have said it earlier. We are meant to be open with one another Lucas. Why should I depend on you if you keep secrets from me?”

Lucas tried to take her hand but she stepped back. “I don’t want to talk; I need to think,” she said softly walking away in the midst of the raging storm.

____________

Another metamorphosis in life was occurring simultaneously in Havenridge. With an old Jeep, Briar Hayes entered the town with hope of a new beginning. She had been given a tiny little house by her mother who had not been in contact with her for over a decade.

When Briar stepped into the small house filled with dust and the scent of lavender, she felt conflicted between the past she was trying to leave behind and the fresh start she was hoping to find. She had no idea that in a matter of days, she would get entangled in someone’s problems.

The next day, Briar went to the local café and found Lucas alone. He appeared to be in deep thought, staring into his cup of coffee as if the caffeinated beverage had the solution to all his problems. Briar, always the one to speak her mind, took the seat in front of him without seeking permission.

“You look weighed down by something,” she commented nonchalantly.

Lucas blinked, taken aback. “Do I know you?”

“Not really,” Briar replied with a slight grin. “But let’s face it – there’s always more comfort in talking to strangers.”

For some reason that he could not comprehend, Lucas found it easy to vent. He narrated to Briar the tale of his quest for his birth parents, the woman – or rather, the stranger who promised details, and the tussle with Evelyn.

Once he was done with the story, Briar eased back and observed, “This is the thing about secrets – they are not easy to keep especially in cases when one tries to keep someone in the dark for their own good. They create problems instead.”

Lucas didn't give her an out-loud response, however her voice echoed in the back of his mind for some time.

____________

Evelyn, on the other hand, remained at Clara’s house as that was her best friend. Lucas was not and never ever will be Clara’s favorite and she never denied it.

Clara was quick to rebuke Evelyn’s stubbornness. “He’s hiding things from you, Evie,” she said. “If he is capable of concealing something this important, what else do you think he can keep from you?”

Evelyn was at a loss. She had Lucas in her heart, but the trust they had was delicate, and his wit and silence had blown hers away.

________________

Weeks passed, and Evelyn and Lucas’s distance kept expanding. She started spending her idle hours with Briar whose past was dark, but her personality was the honest and warm one that Evelyn appreciated. They became close friends yet neither of them understood how interwoven their lives became.

Evelyn’s heart stopped one night when she witnessed something – Lucas coming out of Briar’s cabin.

________________

The next day, she took it to Lucas. Her voice was laced with bitterness and shame. "You said you weren’t hiding anything, Lucas! What were you doing in her place?"

“It’s not what you think,” was Lucas’s protest, the truth of the words did not change Evelyn’s opinion of him.

Briar tried to make sense of it all, however, her own undisclosed matters only made it even more complicated. Evelyn felt let down by Briar and Lucas too.

When the dispute was over, all was left in shambles. There was no trust left, hearts had been damaged and there were more questions than there were explanations.

To Be Continued…