It’s me.
FORTY
ZEDEKIAH
Fuckingfinally.
I’ve been watching out the window for Harper. I scoot out the front door the second I see her step out of the car at the curb, pulling two suitcases packed with all our shit.
“What’s going on?” she calls, meeting me halfway down the driveway. “What’s with the suitcases?”
I can see the panic in her eyes, and I hate her having to be upset. But it’s time to pull the ripcord.
She looks past my shoulder, and I know she’s looking for Caleb’s car. “Where’s everyone?” By which I know she meanshim. And then her face crumples. “Did you know? About what Silas was going to do for me?”
I hurry to wrap my arms around her. I breathe her in, my eyes falling closed in relief at having her this close again. Fuck, I’ve missed having her in my arms.
“I suspected,” I whisper into her hair. Not a lie. “And he used his one phone call to tell Helen. I’m so sorry, babe. I mean, Harper,” I say, quickly checking myself. Now’s no time to be making her mad.
I clear my throat when she pulls back, staring again at the suitcases.
“And I’m so sorry, Harp.” I shake my head, voice heavy. “But she kicked us out.”
Harper’s eyes snap back to mine.
“What?” she asks, breathless.
“After what happened with Caleb at school—” I break off, knowing she knows what I’m referring to.
Her eyes drop to the concrete of the driveway, cheeks going bright red. “I can explain?—”
“Maybe if it had just been that…” I trail off. “But then, with Silas going to prison for you, she asked me to pack up our shit and tell you to leave. She couldn’t?—”
I swallow hard. “She didn’t want to look at you again. You know she’s so sick. I don’t think she could handle it. She said she needed it to just be Caleb and her again for a while while she focuses on her health.”
Harper takes a step backward like I just smacked her in the stomach with a baseball bat.
Fuck. This sucks. I hate doing this to her.
“And Caleb?” Her voice breaks on his name.
I try to reach for her, but she yanks away.
“Helen asked him to go to the library while I packed us up. So he wouldn’t be here when you got back. She knew he wouldn’t be strong enough.”
It’s like swallowing a ball of sticker burrs, but I manage to keep going. “He told me to tell you he lovesyou but that you know he’d do anything for Helen. And she asked him to let you go…” I wince as I get the next part out, “… because you weren’t good for him.”
I see the moment Harper’s knees go out, and I’m ready.
I catch her.
“I’m so sorry, Harp,” I whisper, inhaling her sweet cherry-blossom-scented hair. “He said to check your phone for his goodbye but that then he’d be blocking your number.”
“What?!” she cries, yanking her phone out of her pocket. “No!”
She just keeps shaking her head as tears spring to her eyes. I watch her eyes scan the message in record time.
And then she’s immediately stabbing thecallbutton on her phone. But it doesn’t ring. From a distance, I hear the short tone before it disconnects. Harper makes a furious, disbelieving noise before she hits it again. And again.