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Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2019-05-23
Completed:
2019-12-12
Words:
53,400
Chapters:
21/21
Comments:
206
Kudos:
240
Bookmarks:
36
Hits:
4,119

Brilliant Lies

Summary:

“Michael and Nancy and Jane were all part of something I hadn’t been—something big; I can sense it. They can say that it was nothing, that none of it mattered. But we, the Wheelers, are all brilliant liars. It did.”

When teenaged Holly Wheeler is sentenced to an unexpected stay at her older brother's, long-buried secrets begin to resurface. Only, her siblings still remain as stubborn as she is. The more she tries to untangle their truth, the worse the lies become.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter Text

 

" She's mad but she's magic. There is no lie in her fire."
—Charles Bukowski

We are Wheelers

We are the conservatives from the end of the cul-de-sac.

We are willow-limed and white-smiled. We are strong-jawed, dimple-chined, and straight-shouldered. We wear our white collars pressed, our pearl earrings heirloom.

We are scholars, entrepreneurs, and athletes.

We do not mind if divorce tears this family into five. We do not mind if empty wine bottles feed the recycling, if child support checks feed the empty bank. We do not mind if infrequent visits replace a father, phone calls a brother, holiday cards a sister, apathy a mother.

We do not mind if all the children vanish.

We are Wheelers.

We are not accidents. We are not arsonists. We are not broken.

We are not a family burning to the ground.

We are Wheelers. And we are brilliant liars.