Past me.
Like I’m no longer the wall she trusts to hold.
Amelia looks from Sophie to me, then to the phone in my hand. She understands enough. Her face crumples with guilt.
“I’m sorry,” she says.
Sophie turns to her immediately. “No.”
“But if I had not come here…”
“No.” Sophie crosses the room and takes Amelia’s hands. “Don’t take blame for rot that was buried before you ever reached that road.”
Amelia’s eyes fill.
Derby looks at me over their heads.
He knows this fracture is bigger than tonight.
I look back at him. “Get Amelia home. Keep August close. Nobody sees them without my say.”
Derby nods. “Done.”
Amelia looks at Sophie. “Are you okay?”
Sophie smiles.
It’s the most heartbreaking lie in the room.
“I will be.”
Then she lets go and walks toward the door.
I follow.
Because I love her.
Because I’m furious with her.
Because our wedding is postponed and our enemies are watching her gate.
Because the woman I planned to marry is going home to Paradise Falls with a secret finally out between us and a hundred more still waiting in the dark.
Outside, the Kentucky sky has turned the bruised color of late afternoon storm clouds.
Sophie steps into it without looking back.
I don’t know if following her is enough.
Chapter Twelve
Derby
I get Amelia out of the old jail clubhouse before the room can bleed on her.
Not real blood. But there are other kinds, and tonight the place is full of them. Sophie’s heartbreak is all over the floor. Legend’s pride is cracked open at the long table. Becki is crying into Royal’s chest like confession hurt. Cider sits pale and haunted with that old Pearly Gates photo in her hands. Whiskey and Deputy Twila Dix are near the front door, both acting like they are not standing too close while the whole damn building burns down around them.
I don’t know what to do with any of it.