Page 50 of The Moment You Know

David:

I know you said you didn’t want to read this, but I’m hoping someday you’ll change your mind. This is my story, which impacted our story, ultimately ruining it.

I wish you all the best—now and always—because you deserve it. While our time together probably wasn’t the best part of your life, please know that it was the best part of mine. More than anything, I wish things had been different.

None of it was your fault.

Love, Paige

Less than a week after mailing the books, Paige’s phone rang while she was at work. When she checked the caller ID to see that it was Claire, Paige debated sending it to voicemail. However, her curiosity won out and she accepted the call.

“Mother,” Paige greeted her, with zero inflection.

There was a long moment of silence on the other end and then, in a voice clogged with tears and anguish, Claire choked out, “You awful, awful girl. Do you know what you’ve done?”

Chapter 18

The present

“You look like hell,” Andrea told Paige on Monday morning, on the first day back after the ‘incident’ at Bender’s.

Paige sighed; God, she hated Andrea. “I know. Thanks.”

Paige had done the best she could, but trying to make hammered shit look good was almost impossible. And even though it felt like all she did was sleep for the past ten days, she still looked like she hadn’t slept in a month. Plus, she was still foggy and every once in a while, felt dizzy.

Andrea’s eyebrows drew together. “Should I have lied and said you looked good?”

“Well, you could’ve just not said anything, one way or the other.”

“But then you’d have thought it odd that I was ignoring how bad you look.”

“Actually, I would’ve really appreciated that.”

“Well, unfortunately, I’ve never been able to ignore things that are blatantly obvious. You seriously don’t look well. Should you even be here? Because I don’t want to catch whatever you have—”

“I have a concussion. You’re not going to catch it.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Didn’t Linda tell you?”

“She just said you were out for the week, like you were on vacation or something.”

“I definitely wasn’t on vacation,” Paige said, suddenly worried that Linda might’ve used vacation days for Paige’s days off, instead of medical leave, and made a note to check on that. “So, how did everything go in my absence?”

“Well, let’s just say that Linda signed off on a lot of overtime … and bitched constantly about you being gone.”

Paige made a face.

“How did you get a concussion?” Andrea asked.

Paige gave Andrea the bare bones version of how her date had gone down faster than the Titanic, skipping the part where she spent the night in the hospital with her ex-husband.

“Are you going to see Hale again?”

“No.”

Andrea held out her hand. “Give me your phone. Actually, log into your Bumble account first and then give me your phone.”

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