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“Oh God” Cadence cries, memories suddenly crashing back to her. “The dogs! We killed the dogs!” She falls to her knees, and in the blink of an eye she is surrounded by her people, Her liars. Her Gat. He holds her close, fingers gently brushing the dark hair from her face as she sobs.
“After we ran out…” Johnny starts, but stops just as quickly, unsure if he should go on. One glance at Mirren, and he decides to continue. “We had a plan, and it was working. We set the house on fire, and then we ran like hell. It felt great. That’s when we heard the barking.” His voice cracks. “We didn’t mean to leave them in there, it just happened, we just forgot. But when we heard the barking, you ran back in to save them. We tried to stop you, but you were too fast. Gat tried to run after you, but by that point the smoke was too think, we couldn’t go more than a few feet in.” He looks away, blinking away his tears. He is the oldest Sinclair boy after all, and no matter what he should not be seen crying.
Mirren takes over. “We thought you were dead. That there was no way you would make it out. But you did. Somehow you made it. Your dress had caught on fire though, and you ran to the beach to put it out. That's when the flames hit the gas line, and the whole house exploded. You were knocked unconscious in the water, and Johnny and Gat dragged you out just in time.” Then she whispers “I thought you were dead”
Cadence looks at them. She really looks at them, the kind of look you use when trying to truly see through a person. And for the first time this summer, she realizes that they are telling her the truth. No lies, no dodging the questions. Just the truth. The raw, terrible truth of what happened in summer sixteen.
“Why didn't you tell me?” She asks them. “I deserve to know my own story!”. Gat takes a deep breath. “We wanted to, but we didn’t want you to have another episode. Your mom said that it was better if you remembered by yourself. The doctors thought you blamed yourself, and that's why you couldn’t remember. You loved those dogs.”
Of course Cadence blamed herself. It was her stupid idea to start the stupid fire to burn down the house. And Gat was right. She did love those dogs. They weren’t very good dogs; they were always stealing food from the tables and chewing up the fancy chairs, that’s why her mom gave them the anxiety pills in the first place. Oh god, she hopes those pills were still working when the fire started. Maybe then they wouldn’t have been so afraid when they died. But she remembers their barks, how they sounded more like screams, and she knows. The dogs were scared, and in pain, and it was all her fault.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Gat says, and he sounds so convinced of it. “We were all drinking, we all lit the house, none of us remembered the dogs. It wasn’t your fault.” He repeats it, like saying it again might make her believe it.
“It was my idea” Cadence argues. “If I hadn’t suggested it-” Gat breaks her of by grabbing her hand. “Cady, I’ve thought about burning that house to the ground hundreds of times” He says, and Cadence lets out a small laugh. Johnny notices, and continues: “Someone had to do it, show Harris that he’s nothing special, that there's more to life than things. And it worked! The moms haven't been fighting this year, didn’t you notice? They’ve started talking to us, treating us like human beings. My mom even tried to get help for her issues!” Then Mirren adds, “My mom is even considering letting me go to art school instead of business! Like, yeah, we did something bad, but maybe…” She takes a deep breath. “Maybe it led to something good?”
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
Maybe it led to something good.
How many times will she have to think it before it feels real?
But then-
The moms haven’t been fighting over the black pearls (they’re gone, burned in the fire). Harris can’t sell Tipper's beloved paintings and replace them with something she’d surely hate (Tipper's favorite boat painting is nothing but ash now). The ivory figurines, the ones that Johnny pointed out were illegal, are no longer a source of conflict (they don’t exist anymore, they broke them before the fire consumed them). The moms, and even Harris, are treating them like real human beings, like they matter (Carrie nearly lost a son. Bess and Penny almost lost their daughters. Gat was the one who saved Cadence)
So maybe they did do something good.
The media says it was an accident; A worker's mistake, a faulty gas line. The moms don’t believe it, but they will never admit to raising children that are less than perfect, that are capable of arson. Harris doesn’t believe it either, of course, but his memory has been acting up lately. Maybe he’s going crazy. Either way, his grandchildren are innocent, and therefore, so it Gat. It is a lie, but they will go along with it.
It turns out, they aren’t very good arsonists. If they were, they would have remembered the gas line. They would have remembered the dogs.
They are, however, excellent at lying.
After all, they are liars,