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“Are you okay?” Jason asked me quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged it off just as quickly. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. I just need to get to Heather before she makes a mistake we can’t undo.”
“What are you talking about?” Lauren asked.
I hated myself for sharing stories that weren’t mine to tell, but I needed everyone to be on the same page here. “Just before she came out here to help her mother, Heather’s engagement ended after her fiancé cheated on her. With her best friend.”
“Oh, my God,” my sister breathed. “What’s his goddamn name? I’ll make his life hell.”
“This isn’t your information to act on,” I told her. “Or to discuss with Heather unless she broaches the topic first. This is information I am only giving you because I need to know right fucking now where she went.”
“She said she couldn’t stay,” Jason said. “That she had to leave.”
“Collins?” I asked, striding toward the door.
“She’s safe,” Lauren said quickly. “She’s fine. Fast asleep. Go get Heather.”
My first thought was Carol, Heather’s mother. I dialed her number as I drove, the tires squealing with each hairpin turn I took too fast.
“Mr. Hilborne, it’s late. Is everything okay?” That was pure Carol—never wasting time with any small talk. I appreciated her now more than ever.
“Is Heather there?” I asked her. “It’s an emergency.”
“She isn’t,” Carol said, her confusion bleeding into worry. “What is the emergency? Is my daughter all right?”
“Josie came back,” I said grimly. “She didn’t leave after the mediation, and she showed Heather something she had created, not something that had actually happened. Heather left.”
“Left where?”
“I don’t know. If she’s not there, I just don’t know.”
I was motoring to some unknown destination, completely impotent while strongly hoping I could figure out where the woman I loved was heading.
“Do you know exactly what she said?” Carol asked. “I’ll start calling her and will let you know if I come up with anything. Any exact words?”
“That she just couldn’t be here anymore,” I said, hating myself for the thickness of my throat and for just how ineffective I could be.
“The airport, maybe? Is she going back to New York?”
“There’s nothing for her there anymore.”
“In her mind, it might still be a better option if there’s nothing for her here.”
“Fuck,” I groused. “Sorry, Carol. Thanks so much for your help. I have to go.”
“Please let me know if you find her.”
“You do the same.”
The white stripes marking the lanes of the highway lapped at my tires faster and faster as I urged the Tesla onward, breaking way too many traffic laws to count. I had already decided to lead the police on a chase all the way to the airport if I had to. Thankfully, I still made the airport in record time and with no encounters with the law until I parked the Tesla in the departures and arrivals lane area.
“Sir, you can’t park here,” a woman with a clipboard called to me. “It’s for picking up and dropping off only. You’ll have to take your car to the short-term or long-term parking.”
“I’ll be back for it,” I called as I dashed for the entrance.
“Youcan’tpark here!”
“Then tow it!” I roared, pushing at the automatic doors that didn’t slide open quickly enough for me. I eyed the departure board as I walked toward the first attendant I saw. He cringed back at what had to be an absolutely furious expression on my face.
