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I didn't expect him to be here today, but I'm so glad he is. He might be the only reason I went through with it.

His brow furrows. “Grace, I'm so sorry. I've wished I could redo that night a million times. I just knew that whatever I said in that moment would get back to Leila, and I froze.”

I smile. “I know. It's fine.”

“Not to ruin your big romantic reunion,” says Kappy, “but you’re my ride, Ford, remember? And we'd better hustle before they start some Midsommar shit in here.”

The pastor gasps and an unexpected giggle escapes my throat.

He didn’t mind the accusations of rape, the dramatic cancellation of my wedding. But cursing? In the church? Now that’s a step too far.

Ford looks around. “Is there a back door?” he asks, looking from the sea of mutinous men to the area behind us.

I nod but then turn to look at my family again. Come with me, I silently beg of my mother. She shakes her head.

She really believes they’ll come to more harm outside Bright Covenant than inside it. My dad will be tried for what he's done—there are too many witnesses here for it to get swept under the rug. If my mom and my sisters are lucky, they’ll be permitted to stay. If not, they’ll be quietly shuffled off to the community in northern Michigan, with poorer housing and schools and brutal winters, twenty miles even from a small town, fifty from a city. If so, Hope and Faith will either need to run away or marry a boy from New Hope to escape it.

Maybe that makes me a monster. There’s something wounded in my mother’s eyes even now that tells me she thinks so. But it’s better that she hates me and that they suffer through some hard years than that my father go on the way he has, unchecked.

Hope waves with tears in her eyes and I smile at her, with tears in mine too. Kappy brought her some books today. I’m almost positive they were wrapped in fake covers and I’m guessing that Hope will have none of my early qualms about reading them. Maybe she’ll find a way to come find me when she’s old enough. If not, I’ll try to come find her.

“Go,” Miriam mouths to me, something urgent in her eyes. She’s got one arm around my mother, the other around Faith. I choose to believe it means she’ll take care of them.

“Come on.” I grab Ford’s hand, then Kappy’s, and we push past the pastor.

No one stops us. I guess I’ve proven that I am, indisputably, not meant to remain a part of Bright Covenant. They’ll tell stories to each other about how I suffered on the outside. They’ll say I became a drug addict or a prostitute. Someone will claim to have seen me sleeping under a bridge or begging on a street corner.

I plan to start college as soon as possible, though, so I’m fairly confident they’ll be wrong.

“Do you think it was enough?” Kappy asks, as we push through the back door into the bright sunshine and weave through the parking lot.

“If my mother does what she promised, it will be.” I glance back toward the church. I wish I could save my sisters too. I’m still looking for a solution. But I’m not their legal guardian and the covenant will come after us if I try. I really thought my mother would come with us.

Ford presses his lips to my head as his beat-up old clunker comes into view at last. “You did what you could,” he says.

“But my mom–”

“Could have come with us, Grace. It was her choice and she made it.” He nods toward the car and hands me the keys. “You guys get in. I’m not letting Tommy get off that easily. Take off if I’m not back in five.”

I grab his hand. “Tommy didn’t do anything. I screamed at him and hit him in the head with a flashlight and he started to cry. I told him I’d marry him so they’d think he’d gone through with it.”

Ford’s nostrils flare. “He shouldn’t have tried to do it in the first place.”

I smile and step closer to him. “We just left him in there to face a mob of very angry people. He’ll pay for it one way or another—believe me.”

Ford’s gaze drops to my mouth and Kappy sighs. “I know what that look means. I’m gonna get in the car now, but it’s ninety fucking degrees, so don’t take your time.”

Once she climbs into the back seat, I turn toward Ford and he takes my hands in his own. “Do you forgive me?”

I smile up at him. “I think I'd forgiven you the moment you walked toward my dad's van that night to explain.”

His palms spread over my cheeks, and he leans down to kiss me. He breathes in deep, as if he’s wanted this for a long time—and I know I have. It feels as if it’s been years, not months.

My fingers climb up his neck, thumbs grazing his rough jaw.

His hands slide to my hips, yanking them against him, but no sooner has he done it than he’s releasing me entirely and stepping away. “Let's get out of New Hope, okay? I just want to know that you're safe.”

“We’re going to try that again once we’re out of here, though, right?” I ask.