Confronting Past Mistakes

The car ride home was euphoric. Mitchell’s hands trembled on the wheel—not from fear, but from triumph. He’d dominated Tony not with weapons, but with words. The manipulation, the control—it was as good as blood.

At one point, he had to pull over. The memories came like a flood: the pleading, the silence, the power. It overwhelmed him, stoked him. His body responded.

What was next? Would Tony stay quiet? Would he crumble? Mitchell didn’t know, and that made it perfect. He savoured the uncertainty. If this was his last night of freedom, it would be one worth remembering. Perhaps it was time to celebrate.

Tony, meanwhile, was scrubbing blood from the floor and writing excuses for a wound his wife would soon see. But his thoughts weren’t on logistics—they were on Amanda. Nudgee Beach. 1988. A mistake? A misunderstanding? Or something darker?

Mitchell’s accusation stirred something Tony hadn’t buried deep enough. Amanda’s eyes. The gossip at Woodridge High. The students who stopped joking once the attack happened. There were no charges, no closure. Just secrets—shared, silent secrets.

Tony had believed himself good. Loving. Misjudged.

But Mitchell had seen through the costume.

Now the question wasn’t whether Mitchell was guilty.

It was whether Tony ever was.

And that truth—the one neither of them wanted to speak aloud—bound them together more securely than any rope could.

[from SEETHINGS, downloadable and free for a limited time].