I shake my head, overwhelmed.
“I’ve been jealous of you my whole life,” he admits. “I’m just some rich kid trying not to screw up the family business. You? You’re self-made.”
He claps my shoulder.
“Hold your head up.”
“Thanks,” I say quietly. “That means more than you know.”
I inhale. “Where is she now?”
“Boston,” Tony says. “Daily therapy. Chloe’s watching her like a hawk.”
“And she’s fired,” Mark adds. “Obviously.”
“So it’s over,” Dan says.
“It better be,” Mark mutters.
“She’s got more court dates,” Tony’s uncle says. “This isn’t disappearing.”
Mark exhales. “She’ll still get out of some of it. Girls like her always do.”
No one argues.
Because we all remember the good Sage.
Tony breaks it gently.
“She’s not evil,” he says. “She’s broken. In a way even you can’t fix.”
I nod.
“I can’t stay here,” I say. “Let’s rent it out.”
Tony nods without hesitation.
“I’m going back to the city,” I add. “Selling the condo.”
“What are you gonna do?” Mark asks.
I look out at the mountains.
“I don’t know. But I’m not staying where she can find me.”
A thought settles.
“Maybe the Bahamas,” I say. “Summer. Dockhand. Singing at a bar. No phone.”
Tony smiles. “Sounds perfect.”
“My uncle knows people,” he adds.
“Of course he does.”
A few calls later, it’s real.
Two days later, I walk them out. Boots crunching on the fresh snow.
