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Remy managed to sit up and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t remember doing it.”
I took a big swig of water and noticed a note next to the bottles. I picked it up and looked it over. Seeing it was from Memphis, a feeling of shame washed over me. We had to talk to her and figure out how to move forward. I’d just taken another big drink when the first lines of the note hit me. I choked on the water and ended up spraying most of it across the table.
“We have to go to Memphis.” I clutched the letter in my hand and started moving. “Now. She’s leaving.”
“What do you mean?” Remy stood on unsteady feet and scrambled over a mound of pillows. “She can’t leave.”
I shoved the note at him and watched the blood drain from his face. Wells read it next and clutched his head while moving towards the back door.
“Should we take a car?” I groaned when I saw their looks. “It was just a question. I just feel like fucking death.”
“Just run.” Remy cringed away from the sun like some kind of nocturnal animal, arms raised to protect his head and everything. “Okay, running might be a stretch.”
Wells came out of nowhere and jumped the flowerbed. Once he was in the yard, he sprinted not even ten feet before he bent over and threw up. To his credit, he finished and wiped his mouth and then took off again.
I knew there wasn’t a chance of me jumping in my current state so I stuck to the path and walked as fast as I could without moving my upper body at all. I felt Remy behind me and heard him dry-heave. “Don’t fucking throw up on me, Remy.”
He dry-heaved again before he was able to talk. “I can hold my liquor, asshole. I’m not going to throw—”
It would’ve felt better and more like a win if I hadn’t bent over to throw up right after him. We both just kept moving, unwilling to chance Memphis leaving. Her words echoed around my brain and I fully understood just how much we’d fucked up. We had to make it right.
Wells got to the house just before us and walked straight in. I was right behind him, searching the place for her or her things. I didn’t see anything, but she hadn’t brought much. Against my body’s wishes, I climbed the stairs to the loft and found the bed made, but no sign of Memphis. I looked in the closet and felt a wave of panic. Her things were gone. Just her things. The clothes that we’d bought her were still hanging with the tags on.
“She’s gone.” I looked out the back door and shook my head. “She left. Her stuff is gone.”
Remy sank into the couch with his head in his hands. “It’s my fault. I was so angry. I was cruel to her. I was so sure that I was right.”
“We all thought we were right.” Wells sat next to him. “We just ignored her while she begged for a chance to talk to us.”
I sat on his other side. “She loves us. I didn’t believe Knox when he said she did. I thought he was crazy. We thought we knew everything. I was convinced that since she made a mistake, it meant she wasn’t capable of doing anything else. I can’t even blame Don and his head games, because I’m a grown man. I should’ve known better.”
“We’ll find her.” Remy didn’t sound so sure, though. He sounded defeated.
We sat there in the quiet of the house, feeling shitty and sorry for ourselves. When the door opened, we all jumped; we were so out of it. And when Memphis walked in carrying a basket of fruit and a scowl that would’ve scared the hellhounds, my body lit up.
“You didn’t leave.” I stood up, desperate to pull her into my arms.
“Well, how the hell was I supposed to do that?” She dropped the basket on the coffee table, planted her hands on her hips, and let loose. “You made sure that no one would let me out of this God-forsaken place! I’ve offered everything from money to my body and no one would help me escape the three of you. So, no, I didn’t leave, Boone, but it sure as hell wasn’t by choice.”
It was wrong but I almost smiled. Hearing her shout at me with her accent growing stronger by the word and watching her stomp her foot as she did it was cute as hell for some reason. It also didn’t hurt that she was wearing a dress that didn’t fit her belly anymore and was way shorter than normal because of it.
“Keep your eyes to yourself, Boone. Better yet, keep your eyes out of my house, since apparently I’m not allowed to leave. You’ll have to do the leaving for me.” She looked at all of us and hissed. “I am done with all of you. You self-righteous hypocrites. And you’re all messy drunks. If you think you’re asking Bea to clean up after your disgusting little party, you have another thing coming. If I’m not allowed to leave, then I’m sure as hell going to allow myself the prerogative to call y’all on your bullshit. Let’s start now, shall we?”
I sank back down on the couch and nodded. I was down to be yelled at by Memphis for a while. She deserved the chance to yell and we deserved to be screamed out.
“Let’s start with the fact that you three sat there yesterday and listened to me pour my heart out. I begged you for a chance and you treated me like I wasn’t even there. Immature and hurtful just to be hurtful. Then there’s the way you isolated me from anyone who would be kind to me. That’s what abusers do, for the record. Think about that long and hard while you’re patting yourselves on the back for throwing money at some charity or another.
“And you know what? Guess who else in history tried to breed perfect little children, assholes? The fact that you even deemed every woman below a seven-figure worth unworthy to accept your semen, like it’s God’s gift, is gross and you should be ashamed. More than that, however, is the fact that you don’t even want children.”
My stomach sank.
“That’s right. I know about your daddy’s will and you creating little robot children to prance out to some lawyer so you can keep your inheritance. Oh, Memphis, we’re just so ready to start a family. We lost our dad and now we see how short life really is. We don’t want to wait. Oh, yuck! You’re all liars. Lying liars who had the audacity to lock me away in your backyard for doing the same thing. Only my lies didn’t end with three unwanted children being dragged through the same shitty life that you had at boarding school. Your lies created life. Your lies are living inside me right now, kicking the shit out of my kidneys. The fact that you would snatch this little girl away from me and put her in some room somewhere with a couple of nannies…I was wrong about you three. I thought there was substance and soul behind your eyes, but I can see now that I was just being an uneducated jackass.”
I felt my body sinking lower and lower with her every word. She was done with us. We’d fucked up so bad.
“That should be the final nail in the coffin. There’s clearly something wrong with me, though, because the final nail? It was showing up to find you all passed out drunk last night and then seeing three women show up at the gate for your party. You’ll be sorry you missed them. Great tits on all of them.” Her voice broke but she somehow got herself together right away. “Now, I’m going to cut this fruit up and I’m going to eat it while I read one of your momma’s romance novels. I’ve been too upset before now, but now I know that love isn’t what’s to blame for this mess. It’s trying to love three jerks that’s the problem.”
I stood up, my body vibrating with anxiety. “Mem-”
