I’m not sure if this means that neither version is true or that both of them are. Or that life is like that game of Telephone from when we were kids. The one where you’d whisper something from ear to ear around a circle, then laugh over how the final product hardly resembled the original statement.

“When did you hear that? About the pills?”

“I don’t know, Beck. I’ve slept since then. Several hundred times.”

“Guess.”

Jake exhales again. “I think it was around the time your dad lost his job with the fire department. That’s the only reason I listened. It kinda … It kind of seemed to make sense. At the time.”

“So you believed it?”

“I mean …,” Jake says, and I can almost hear that silent shrug again. “I gave it about an eighty percent credibility rating.”

“And you didn’t think you should tell me?”

“Beckett, I don’t know what you want me to say. Why would I want to tell my girlfriend that her father may or may not have been arrested for stealing prescription pain pills? Besides, I figured your mom could handle it.”

“Handle it?” I sit up straight, fire sparking in my veins. “You think she got the charges dropped? Did you hear that at school too? That my mother’s a dirty cop?”

“No!” Jake groans. “I mean yes, I heard that she fixed things for your dad, when he was arrested. And that maybe that wasn’t the first time. But that’s not what I meant by ‘handle it.’ I meant I figured it was up to her to decide what to tell you. Her, and your dad.”

“Why? Why would you think that? Parents try to protect their kids. That’s their job, even if that means lying. Or omitting. I expected the truth from you. I needed the truth from you.”

A bitter feeling of déjà vu overwhelms me, and my eyes close. I can feel the echo of this plea to him reverberating backward through our relationship. Me begging for the truth. Him withholding it. Or trying to explain why he can’t give me what I need.

Just like with the texts he didn’t want me to see.

“That’s not fair. No one wants to get in the middle of someone else’s family drama. Besides, I liked your dad, and I didn’t know for sure that any of it was true. I still don’t. And back then, you and I had just gotten together. If I’d started accusing your dad of criminal shit with no proof, you’d have dumped me. After you kicked in my teeth.”

Fact-Check Rating: One hundred percent true.

“What about later? When we’d been together awhile? Why didn’t you tell me then?”