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That I was wanted.
That I was loved.
The realization washes over me in a brutal wave, a sob shoving its way out of my throat and into the still air around me. Salty tears flow freely down my cheeks, dripping to my shirt and soaking through the fabric.
“I’ve got your book, too.” She turns the camera toward her dresser, and right there atop it is my worn-out copy of The Brothers Karamazov. “We need to get you a new copy. This one is so beat up.”
I choke on the emotions drowning me.
She remembered me.
She wasn’t going to leave me.
Someone remembered I existed.
“Y’all are gonna love Oregon,” she says brightly, turning the camera back to her smiling face. “Evie, wait until you see those beaches. I know you’ll spend all your time out there taking photos. And Ro.” I jolt at the sound of my name on her lips, and bat at my teary eyes. “I found an art school you’re gonna love. It’s the best in the state and only a few miles from our new home. And Evie, they have a photography program, so you can go to school together again in a few years.”
“She thought of everything,” Eve rasps, looking up at me, tears streaking her cheeks. “Everything.”
I know she means me. That her mother thought of me.
“There’s this little bookstore you could apply to work at, Ro,” Jane continues, her face softening. “You’ll be right at home there.”
She really did think of everything.
She noticed everything.
“Alright.” She takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, as if she’s expelling the demons my father forced into her. “Y’all ready?”
I expect the video to end right then, but it doesn’t. Instead, every frame is shaky, like she thought she stopped recording but didn’t press the button.
A soft grunt spills from the speakers, and we watch as she grabs her suitcase before the screen goes black. The video is still on and we hear Jane’s muffled curses.
If you can call her saying, “Crap,” and “Damn it,” cursing.
I smile to myself, knowing for her, it was a big deal. The words sound wrong coming from her heavily accented voice.
Her footsteps are soft against the worn slats of that old Divinity house. My stomach coils with unknown dread. Why is it still going? What happens?
“Should we shut it off?” I breathe, but Eve shakes her head.
“Not yet.”
I don’t know why a bad feeling is creeping up my spine, like we’re seeing something we shouldn’t be. But I can’t look away. I need to know what happens next.
Then a voice so dark, so deep hits me through the speakers and I stumble a step back, my fingers still tight on Eve’s shoulders.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Isaac’s harsh voice slashes through me, and I shake my head.
No.
This isn’t…
It can’t be…
Jane gasps, her phone slipping from her fingertips and thudding on the ground beside her fallen suitcase. “Isaac,” she breathes. “What are you doing home? I thought you were at the conference.”
“Clearly,” he mutters. “I came home early.” There’s a shuffle, a barely there footstep that has my heart racing. “You didn’t answer my question.”
