Page 15 of Room 4 Rent

Emmie touches her hand to my shoulder. “No way.”

I don’t say anything. I’m not sure I can.

“How do you know it was Collin?” Emmie asks, and I don’t have to look over to know she’s near tears. “You could be wrong.”

“His ID in his wallet and the Tesla he was driving was registered to him.”

The officer who delivered the news hands me a business card. They tell me things like I can contact a counselor and where to pick up his belongings. And that his accident occurred on Interstate 60. While they continue talking, I think, why was he down that far? His bank is in North Phoenix. It doesn’t make any sense.

Died. He died?

Fear knots in my throat, and it’s as if someone is choking me. As I close the door, reality crashes against me as I stumble back. What do I do? Who do I call first? His mom? His dad?

Oh my God, Tatum.I don’t know why, but I hadn’t thought of her, until now. I want to rush up the stairs and hold her. Cry with her, but I’m afraid to tell her. How am I going to tell her that her daddy is gone? I was twenty-one when my dad died. I was an adult and understood that death happens as you get older. It didn’t mean that I like the fact that I lost both my parents in the same year, but Tatum’s three. She has her whole life ahead of her and now has to face it without the one man she looks up to.

When I woke up this morning, I didn’t know my world would be turned upside down, and every aspect of my life forever altered. Nausea rolls through me, my only thought, fuck, I’d been an asshole to him this morning. Had I known that was the last time I would see him, I would have… hugged him? I don’t know.

Reality smacks me in the face. It’d been two days since I told him I loved him. Two days!

He knew though, didn’t he?

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