Page 86 of Gorgeous Misery

But of course, there were letters that year.

I don’t understand the letters. I’m just glad she had them.

Wendy and I were a little team when she was a kid. She helped me, I helped her, but trust me when I say this, we were not in love. There were no secret looks between her and me when she was fifteen. She didn’t flirt with me and I certainly didn’t flirt with her. She started hating me at thirteen, I guess. It’s a typical girl thing. I looked it up. I was a little hurt when she started throwing me attitude but that was nothing compared to how she felt about me when I sent Lauren away. She wanted to kill me and it took almost three years for her to forgive me for that.

Even on her seventeenth birthday, right after Chek died and she was at her most vulnerable, she still didn’t really like me. She was still mad about the change in our previous routine. Because she didn’t know that I was gonna send Lauren to live with Sasha. I couldn’t tell her. She had a job to do when that was going down.

This is what pissed her off.

I did not lie to her. But I did leave out information. And she didn’t see the difference.

But there is a difference.

At any rate, she was angry. So when she gave me the chance to make it up to her after Chek was gone, I took it.

She wanted that cure so bad. Once the letter-opening was over, the cure was the only thing she talked about. And maybe it was a way to justify what happened to Chek. That’s possible. But I knew better. She didn’t want to justify Chek’s death that day. I know this because Wendy Gale has no idea what she did that day that Chek died.

But I do.

I saw the whole thing.

And then I did what I had to do.

“Dear Wendy,” I whisper again.

She huffs a little breath.

“You are sweet, beautiful, perfect, and whole. You are everlasting, transcendent, exceptional, and extraordinary. You are remarkable, exquisite, priceless, and sublime. You are flawless, marvelous, divine, and sensational. You are heavenly, powerful, glorious, and delightful.

“You are lovely.

“You are majestic.

“You are gorgeous.

“And I will never let you go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - MERC

My phone rings in the grocery store. I know who it is before I even look at the screen. I press accept. “Sasha.”

“Merc.”

“What’s up?”

“What’s up?” She scoffs. “Harrison is standing in my kitchen right now telling me that you’re requesting my presence in Nebraska. That’s what’s up. Why do you need me in Nebraska?”

“He didn’t tell you.”

“No. He said, ‘Merc needs to see you in Nebraska. Do you wanna come with me?’ And I’m like… I dunno. Do I wanna go with him, Merc?”

I let out a long, tired sigh.

“What’s this about?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

I expect a fight over this. Sasha hasn’t been a bossy little brat for a long time now, but I expect her to put a foot down. I expect a little bit of resistance. An argument, at least. So when her silence goes on for almost twenty whole seconds, I know she knows.