Just as I’m about to slide in next to it, my eyes stray to my family home. My heart beeps in my neck when I spot my dad’s shadow standing at his office window. He’s peering down at me, begging me not to go. I love him, but I’m too hurt from being lied to for years to speak to him right now. So instead, I slide into the taxi with my cheeks as messy as my heart feels.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Nick
Ryan, a detective at Ravenshoe Police Station assists me in filing a restraining order against Megan. When the judge approves my request, Megan is no longer allowed within five hundred feet of me. I request that Jenni be included in my order, but Ryan informs me that she needs to request one of her own. With that in mind, the first place I go after leaving the police station is Jenni’s house. I want her to file the order immediately, but I also want to check in and see how she's feeling.
After parking my truck at the front of her mansion-like house, I dash up the stairs two at a time before banging on her front door. It takes several hard knocks before her dad answers. He’s a little disheveled, like he’s hit the bottle early.
When he notices my amused smirk, he mumbles something incoherently before staggering into his office. I follow him inside, closing the front door behind me. When he slumps into his chair in his office, I take the stairs two at a time to Jenni’s room.
I’m surprised when I find her room empty. After striding to her bathroom, I knock on the closed door. Several seconds pass in silence.
I’m about to knock again when a soft, accented voice says, “Jenni is gone.”
Pivoting around, I see Maria standing in the doorway. I smile at her, but she doesn’t smile back. That’s odd. She was super friendly last night.
“Is she better?” Hope is evident in my voice.
When Maria shakes her head, my brows scrunch. As a sense of unease rolls through me, I sprint back down the stairs. I race through each room in Jenni’s house, calling her name. I don’t get a single reply.
Jenni is gone, and her mom is nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Jenni?” I ask her dad, who’s chugging down whiskey directly out of the bottle in his office.
His glazed eyes drop to his watch. “At the airport?”
My heart slithers into my gut. Jenni isn’t scheduled to fly home until Wednesday, and the last time she left early, I didn’t see or hear from her in months. My heart races as I sprint back to my truck. The heavy compression of my accelerator leaves a cloud of dust when I skid out of her driveway. While weaving through the heavy traffic that always clogs the streets surrounding Ravenshoe, I dial Jenni’s cell phone on repeat.
She doesn’t answer any of my calls.
I make the forty-minute trip to the airport in under twenty. I leave my truck parked in the drop-off only section and bolt to the entrance. A parking attendant screams at me to come back when I dart through the double glass doors, but I keep going. This is more urgent than any ticket he could possibly give me.
My eyes scan the departure board to check when the next flight to New York is leaving. The board informs it's currently preparing to depart. Not thinking about the repercussions, I vault over the security barrier that requires a boarding pass before sprinting to the assigned gate. An overweight TSA officer runs after me, but his chubby legs can’t keep up.
It’s lucky I live in a small town, otherwise I would have been tasered by now.
When I reach gate thirty-four, commotion stirs in my gut. Jenni’s plane is taxiing away from the gate. I’m about to beg the gate staff to stop her flight, but my words fail when I’m suddenly tackled hard from the side. The weight of the security officer slamming me to the ground nearly crushes me to death. He is at least one hundred pounds heavier than me and wheezing with exhaustion.
After fixing cuffs to my wrist, another officer assists him in arresting me. I’m read my rights, ushered out of the airport terminal by five guards, and remanded in police custody.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jenni
Call me a sucker for punishment, but I switch on my phone the instant I deplane in New York. I have missed several calls from Nick, but I’m surprised to notice I only have one voicemail message.
With my stomach in my throat, I dial my voicemail then push my cell to my ear. “Hey, baby, I hope you're feeling better. Give me a call if you're well enough to go out.” Nick chuckles nervously. “Actually, just call me. I love you, Jen.”
My heart soars during the last part of his message, then my stomach swirls as I recall the last time I saw him. After clamping my hand over my mouth, I bolt for the bathroom.
* * *
Miserable. That’s the only word I can describe how I’m feeling right now. I left home two days ago, and I haven’t heard from Nick that entire time. I’m beginning to wonder if he realized why I was sick Thursday night. When you put all the pieces of a puzzle together, it isn’t hard to work out what’s going on. I hate admitting this, but I think my mom was right. The instant Nick had an inkling I was pregnant, he ran.
When I arrived home, I couldn’t stop crying. All I did Saturday was sleep and cry. By Sunday, I was angry. I wanted to yell at Nick and tell him to grow the hell up. I hadn’t planned on having a baby so young either, but I can’t run from my problems like he can.
By this morning, denial hit.Baby? What baby? Nick? Nick who?That’s been my motto the entire day. I’ve gone about my day as if it's any other Monday. I had brunch at the corner café; I went grocery shopping, then for the past two hours I’ve been working on the design for Emily’s wedding dress.
