Page 128 of Heart & Hope

Ma is in front of me, her palms on my face. Her face blurs as I slide from the bed, knees hitting the wood floor. I lean forward, trying to shake the pain from my arms.

Nothing gives.

“. . . Reed,” Ma coaxes.

I rock back and forth. Images of Ruby, her cut-up face, her hanging from the seatbelt upside down. Her happy laugh and smile, all faded as she lay still in the hospital bed.

Ruby distraught over those fucking hussies that ruined her event and her plans. The lawsuit. The months she lost on her own work because she was here, helping me.

Sweet Jesus.

I groan, pushing to my feet.

“Reed? Are you alright?” Ma’s face sharpens, her brows lowered, her eyes devastated.

“I can handle it.”

She grabs my hands. “No, you— You got this from me. The anxiety. I’m so sorry.” Worry lines her face.

“I’m fine, Ma. I can handle it. Ruby taught me.”

Yet another thing that beautiful woman gave me. How can I ever repay her for that? For giving me my freedom back. All she did was give and give. She helped me, and what did she receive in return?

A fucking nightmare.

I’m not going to take away the things Ruby wants so I can have the one thing I want. God, I’m an utter idiot for telling Hudson what to do when this was where him and Addy were at. It’s not as simple as being in love. It ain’t.

“Can I borrow your truck?” I ask Ma as I push past with Ruby’s bags and head down the stairs.

“Of course.” She doesn’t follow.

Harry is waiting by the door, arms crossed. Hat pulled down, brows lowered. God above, what now?

“Your truck was towed to the wreckers.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Insurance will cover the cost of a new one.”

“Thanks.”

I couldn’t care less. I grab my coat from the back of the door and make my way to Harry’s truck. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Take your time, son.”

I toss the bags in the back seat of the silver Chevy and climb up into the driver’s side. When the engine fires up, the first sob lodges in my throat, cutting off my air supply. After everything that has happened, never in a million years would I have thought this is how Ruby and I would end.

My forehead hits the steering wheel, hands gripping it until my knuckles turn white.

My heart cracks right in two.

Chapter Thirty-Two

RUBY

The second the door of my east side Manhattan apartment closes behind me, I know I don’t belong here anymore. Everything is cold. Foreign. Clinical.

Lifeless.

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