Page 54 of Where He Ended

“You have to. I told you, this is the only way I can keep you safe.”

“I don't understand what that means!” I shout.

Is he walking anxiously like me? Or is he sitting with his knees spread, the way he sat on his bed the night we held each other. “My father doesn't want something to happen between Annie and you two. He recognizes that she's dangerous right now in her state of mind. And he agrees with me that there's no reason to keep you both here, anyway, since Joseph has made his position clear. But I can't be sure that my mother won't try to go after you unless I'm at her side, watching and paying attention. As long as I'm here with her, I'll know for sure that you're safe. Don't you get it? We could never be happy, Laiken. Not like this.”

“No,” I sob, and I give up fighting my tears. Standing on the side of the road with the cold wind tugging at my hair, the wetness on my cheeks burns like frostbite. The tears dry from the air before they can stick. “Please, no. I love you, we can be safe together.”

“We can't,” he says firmly. Unrelentingly. There is no room for argument here. Dominic has never been someone who buckles.

I choke on my tears, dropping to the ground and crying into the phone. Maybe if he hears my sadness, how much I truly love him, he'll do something. I don't know, I can't think straight. I'm too broken apart, my body a piece of glass that's been shattered into a million pieces.

“Do you remember what you told me before?” he asks gently. “You said you wanted to go home. That home is waiting for you, Laiken. You and your sister are free now. If the last thing I can do is give you this, then it's enough for me.”

My tongue is tied as I think of every single way to get him to reconsider.

The line goes dead. There's nothing but painful silence.

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