Hold on,I beg myself, my fingers finding my locket.Just hold on.
Because if I slip all the way back into that quiet, agreeable version of myself… I don’t think I’ll survive losing her again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Dallas
January 25th
Bad news doesn’t usually arrivewith a siren.
Today, it’s my phone buzzing in my pocket while I’m halfway through a stack of invoices Boone swears are “simple.”
Nothing about this week has been simple.
I stare down at the screen, and my stomach tightens, like it already knows whatever’s on the other side is going to hurt.
It’s Faith’s mom.
Caroline’s voice is tight when I pick up, careful in the way people get when they’re trying not to crack.
“Dallas,” she says.
“Caroline.” I clear my throat, push back from the desk. Lila’s crayons are scattered near the edge, a half-finished drawing of a horse and a stick figure of me with a too-big hat. I keep my eyes on it. “Any news?”
There’s a beat of silence. Too long.
My heart drops anyway.
“Charlotte called me,” Caroline says finally. “She… she heard from William.”
The name hits. Even just hearing it out loud makes my insides go hard and sharp, a switch flipping.
“And?” My voice comes out rougher than I mean it to.
Caroline exhales. “He says Faith is back in the city.”
I stop breathing.
Just… stop. The air locks up in my lungs because my brain can’t decide if it should take that as relief or panic.
Back in the city could mean she’s alive. It could mean she walked out of this. It could mean she chose to leave. Chose to go back.
It could also mean…
“Dallas?” Caroline wavers. “Are you there?”
“Yeah.” I swallow. “I’m here.”
“She didn’t call me,” Caroline says, the words sharp with disbelief. “She didn’t text. She hasn’t…” Her voice catches, and when she speaks again, it’s lower. “William’s saying she went back willingly. That she… missed Evan.”
My grip tightens on the phone until my knuckles ache.
Missed Evan.
I picture Faith’s face on my porch in December. White with cold, eyes wide, lace tangled around her legs, panic shaking through her. I picture her flinching every time her phone buzzed. I picture her mother turning that phone face down. She was closing a box on a venomous thing.
Missed Evan.
