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It doesn’t ring, though.
It goes straight to voicemail.
I call her an hour, a day, and a week later, and the result is always the same.
ACT 15 AND A HALF
BACK THEN
TRAVIS
Several Months Later
Manhattan, New York
Penelope opens her eyes for the first time today. She tends to forget that I moved her to another facility to recover and that I’ve never left her side, so I cling to hope that she remembers today.
“Travis?” she asks, slowly turning her head to face me. “Travis?”
“Yeah, Crown?”
“You can get the hell out of my room now.”
“Excuse me?”
“Give me the remote before you leave, so I can talk to the screen instead of you.”
“You do know that I’ve been here every day taking care of you, right?”
“Hayden has been, too.” She shrugs. “I’m still pissed at you for missing out on my last ten or so competitions before Chicago.”
Why are you able to remember that shit but not anything else?
“You haven’t been there for me when I needed you.” She blinks a few times. “Before that, you pretty much ghosted me and left me with Hayden. He’s a manwhore, you know.”
“Be quiet, Crown.” I fluff the pillow behind her head.
“Why did you change your mind at the last minute about coming to the Sochi Olympics?”
I stare at her, wanting to test how much she recalls. “What do you mean?”
“I refuse to believe it was because of some sponsor deal that came up.” She struggles to sit up, so I help her.
“I wasn’t born yesterday, so I know you probably were off doing something else,” she says. “You’d already bought the plane ticket and we’d made an itinerary of things to do together. Then you acted likeIwas the one in the wrong for being upset.”
“Penelope, it’s complicated.”
“Is it?” The pained look in her eyes makes my heart ache.
“Mom wouldn’t be okay with you changing your mind at the last minute,” she says. “Dad wouldn’t understand it either.”
They both would understand…
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you in Russia.” I kiss her forehead. “If there was any way that I could’ve made it work, I would’ve been there. Promise.”
“Was whatever you did insteadthatimportant?”
“I thought so at the time.”
