I rose from my chair.
“She violated?—”
“She walked into grief you never explained,” Geoffrey interrupted.
The room felt smaller suddenly.
“You cannot punish her for ignorance you created,” Geoffrey added softly.
The words struck cleanly. I looked between them.
“You expect me to chase her.”
“Yes,” Chandler said immediately.
“No,” Geoffrey corrected. “We expect you to repair what you broke.”
The silence stretches. Finally, I reached for my phone and dialed her number.
It rings once. Twice. I heard a faint vibration.
I walked into my room, and there was her phone resting on the nightstand beside my bed exactly where she left it.
And for the first time since I saw those taillights leaving the gates, real fear cut through the anger.
25
BELLE
Ididn't remember driving or even grabbing my keys.
I did remember my chest feeling tight and hot and hollow all at the same time. I remembered the nursery. The music box. His face.
After that, it was just headlights and instinct.
I pulled into Eleanor’s neighborhood sometime before dawn. The houses were quiet, with dark windows and manicured lawns, and the soft hum of sprinklers in the distance.
I didn’t knock. I didn't want to wake them.
I parked along the curb, climbed into the back of the van, and let muscle memory take over. The bed platform was still there. The thin mattress. The folded blanket. The space I almost convinced myself was freedom.
It didn’t feel like freedom tonight, if it ever had. Before I knew what was happening, a tear slid down my face. I was crying silent tears until, eventually, exhaustion won.
A sharp rapagainst the window jolted me awake. I bolted upright, disoriented, sunlight flooding the van. For a split second, I didn’t remember where I was. Then it all came back to me, but I didn’t have time to process because Mel was standing outside the driver’s side window, arms crossed, eyebrows practically in her hairline.
She looked . . . confused.
I slide the door open.
“Morning,” I croaked.
She blinked at me.
“Why are you in your van?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I should have remembered that Eleanor and Mel were neighbors. I wanted El’s comfort last night, but it looked like I was getting Mel’s fire this morning.
“Long story.”
