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No.
It’s not right. No.
“Lance.”
“No.”
“It’s all in here?” she mutters, fastening the strap and testing the weight.
“No, I’m not coming home with you.”
She finally lifts her eyes to mine, one brow raised. “No?”
“I’m not—” I tilt my head back, my nostrils flaring as a rush of air leaves me. “You’re not doing this for me.”
“I am.”
“Scarlet—”
“You have a line of other people queuing up someplace I don’t know about?”
“I can’t have you look after me.”
She stares at me, hurt marring her beautiful face. “Why?” she eventually asks.
“Because. I…”Fuck.
Her face is hard, daring, waiting for a reason good enough.
“Scarlet.”
“Why, Lance?”
“Because I can’t have you save me,” I say resolutely. “I can’t and won’t let you do this—I don’t deserve it. You think I don’t see that look in your eyes. That I don’t know how badly I broke you. If I could take it all back, I would, but I can’t. I have a choice here. I can walk away this time.”
I can do the right thing.
For once, I can do what’s best for her.
I have to.
I wait for her to speak, to find her words. She simply, too calmly, reaches down and picks up my bag, placing the strap on her shoulder. “Waverley thinks you’re coming home. Maybe that’s on me, and I should’ve discussed it with you first. If you choose not to, I’ll have her come visit here so that the two of you can finally meet. You can tell her yourself that you won’t be coming back to the estate with us.”
She continues toward the door before stopping and turning again.
“Water under the bridge, Lance.” She shrugs, and instantly, I know I’ve hurt her. “But if you knew me at all, if anything ever meant what I thought it did, you’d know the lengths I was willing to go to. Yes, I might have fallen apart when you left—maybe I’m still a little bit broken now, but there wasn’t—isn’t—a second ofusI’d ever take back.”
She pulls something from her back pocket and places it on the bed—a picture. Once she leaves the room, I lean down and pick it up, my chest caving in as my eyes scan the image.
A picture of something, someone, I just told her I’d take back.
TEN
Lance
Lowerwick Estate is over an hour’s drive from the hospital, and yet as we take the tree-lined lane toward the circular drive, a lump grows in my throat, and the drive is suddenly not long enough. The house comes in to view too quickly for me to fully prepare myself. To be ready.
“I saw her.”
