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“Yeah. Why?” his suspicion is evident.
“I just have something to tell you all and I really don’t want to have to repeat it if I don’t have to.”
I hear him call out to our parents. “It’s on speaker, Jay,” he says.
“Jaxon, what’s wrong?” my mom asked with nothing but concern filling her voice.
I inhale a bracing breath before telling them what has happen. I get through it but even I can hear the robotic tone in my voice as I work to keep it together with my parents on the line.
“Oh, my baby. All of my babies,” my mom cries.
This has all been so damn hard on her. I never thought of my mother as anything but strong and tough. An unbendable, unbreakable force of nature that has worked her ass off to help my father provide for our family, but when I told her what happen last year, she crumbled. When I saw her like that, I fell apart also.
“What’s the plan, son,” my dad’s voice booms through.
“The plan is to bring her back home by any means necessary. Zane and I are fully prepared to get a court order if we have to, but I don’t think it will come to that.”
“What makes you so sure?” my dad questions.
I think about it for a moment. I said the same thing earlier, and I realize that I believe what I’m saying. “The same way I knew last year that she’d ran away. I can’t explain it. I just feel it in my soul.”
“Then you bring her back, baby. You bring our girl back so we can help her heal,” my mom says warming my heart.
We say a couple of quick goodbyes, but Rory doesn’t hang up. He just takes the phone off of speaker. “How you doing, Jay?”
“Just trying to keep it together. Although, I lost my shit when I saw Maddox,” I tell him honestly.
He chuckles for a moment. He knows there is really no love lost between Maddox and me. “I’m glad he was there.”
“So am I because she’d be dead right now. She called me tonight.”
“What did she say?” he asks.
“Haley answered my phone. She answered my fucking phone, Rory. Zoey called me and another woman answered my phone.”
“Fuck,” I hear him mutter. “That doesn’t make this your fault, Jax. You didn’t know she was going to call. And you didn’t tell Haley to answer your phone.”
“Do you think that matters?” I hiss.
“To you? No. No, it doesn’t matter, but you can’t feel guilty, Jay. Zoey ran away from all of us. You were never expected to live alone for the rest of your life pining after her.”
“That’s what’s going to happen, Rory. I was only using Haley to see if I could move on. It wasn’t fair to her. What I said to her before I left damn sure wasn’t fair. I know Zoey would expect me to move on, but that doesn’t mean I was ever going to be able to.”
“Did she say anything to Haley?”
“No. I don’t think so, but about an hour later, she text me. She was fucking texting me goodbye while she was bleeding out, Rory.”
“I hate to say it, Jay, but it sounds like she wanted you to feel bad. She was trying to make you feel guilty.”
“No. She wasn’t. She was telling me that she was happy I found someone, and that she hopes that I was happy. She said she was sorry she wasn’t stronger, and that she hurt me. She told not to blame myself. The doctors said she should’ve died before the paramedics ever arrived.”
“Then it sounds like she didn’t do it right,” Rory says in that matter of fact, cold tone he sometimes gets.
It makes me clench my jaw and fist. “No, Rory. She did it right. The drugs alone should have killed her. The doctor tossed the word miracle around a couple of times,” I say through gritted teeth.
I hear him exhale through the phone. I can almost imagine him running his hand through his hair – a habit we both have when we’re stressed. “I’m sorry, Jay. I know Zoey would never do that normally, but she’s been through so much. I shouldn’t assume, though.”
A tear slips down my face that I didn’t realize was there. “I don’t know what to do, Rory. I want to bring her home. I want to make this all go away for her, but what if she won’t let me? What if she still shuts us out?”
