Page 77 of Fight Or Flight

“I’m not sure . . .”

Anne took a step forward, placed a hand on Natalie’s shoulder. Concern pulled her impeccably shaped brows together. “Mapleton isn’t the right place for you. I think you know that already. It’s a tight-knit community, and believe me, no matter how hard you try, in a town like this, you’ll never escape who you are. People will never let you forget that you’re Robert’s daughter. Do you want your nephew to face this, too? Children can be so cruel. Emily certainly learned that.”

Natalie’s stomach lurched at the mention of Ben. She knew what the kids would say about him at school, knew the kind of shadow he would grow up under in town. She’d dealt with the same thing.

Anne took a step back and let out a sympathetic sigh. “I heard you made a rather pleasant life for yourself, travelling the world. That’s something most people only dream of. You’re smart enough to know you’re better off out there where no one knows your past and people won’t judge you for what your mother did.”

Bile rose in Natalie’s throat. She never had to think about what people thought of her out there. But in Mapleton, everyone talked about her. She’d overheard everyone from the librarians to the grocery store clerks gossiping about who she was. That was the problem with small towns.

She already knew that the only way to silence the judgment was to put distance between her and it. Running was incredibly effective.

Besides, going to Australia had always been the plan. She was happiest when she was travelling. And she had an incredible opportunity waiting for her. An opportunity that, at one point, she could only dream of. If she took Anne’s offer now, it wouldmean everyone would win. And no one would be forced to deal with the pain of this situation any longer.

Five million was a lowball offer, but it was still plenty of money for Chelsea and Ben to have a very comfortable life away from the cruelty of Mapleton. And Ethan would get his pond, and his snakes would keep their home. He’d be better off with someone else, anyways. Someone who could love him for longer than two weeks.

She looked up at Anne. The woman who her mother had treated so terribly. Maybe accepting this offer would help ease some of the guilt she’d been living with since she found out Robert had been married.

Natalie took a deep breath, about to agree, when she saw Mi’s fur pass by in her periphery, the other Mi following. “What about Elizabeth’s cats? Mi and Mi. I inherited them, but I obviously can’t take them with me, and they can’t be adopted.”

Anne looked over her shoulder, then back. She plastered a huge smile on her face. “Emily will take good care of them. She loves cats.”

Natalie nodded. “Good. Chelsea and Ethan will have to agree, but I’m happy to sell you the property.”

Anne smiled, then swayed a little with what looked like relief. “Excellent. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the paperwork and send it over to Mr. Speeler.”

Natalie nodded. The lump in her throat returned, but she couldn’t swallow it away. She knew she was doing the right thing, but for some reason, it made her feel as if she were drowning. An overwhelming urgency to move, to go, to run, started flaring up in her brain.

Anne walked to the door, then paused. “You’ll be leaving shortly, then?”

Natalie’s eyes darted between Anne and the opening between the trees past the grass where Ethan had disappeared. Maybeif she hurried, she could get out of there before he got back. Saying goodbye to him was going to be torture. He knew she was leaving eventually, anyway. She could just scribble a note for him and make it easier for them both. And she’d leave one for Chelsea, explaining that she had Ben’s best interests at heart. Chelsea looked at Mapleton and saw a wholesome life. Natalie knew better.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m going to go right now.”

She closed the door behind Anne, her mind spinning. She threw up a silent prayer that she’d never have to look her in the eye again, and pulled her phone from her pocket as she ran up the stairs to start packing. A quick call to Speeler, a couple notes for Ethan and Chelsea, and a new flight, and this whole mess would be behind them all for good.

seventeen

By the time Ethan made it to the pond, he’d covered enough ground to make the trip three times. He’d stopped more times than he cared to admit and retraced his steps back to the house to speak with Natalie about how he felt, only to think better of it and continue to the pond. Eventually, he made it there with two buckets, forced himself to fill them from the pond, and give his new trees a much-needed drink.

He looked up at the dark sky, but the forecast only called for a few millimetres of rainfall, which would never be enough to soak the trees to the roots. So he began the mindless task of filling buckets and hauling them around to the fifty trees he’d planted.

His mind wandered to that day he’d started planting the trees, when he’d come back from Hudson Bay looking like a mess, and first heard Natalie screaming in the woods. He laughed to himself, remembering how he thought she was just some silly Instagrammer, then he met her and realized she was actually the person who held his fate in her hands, then later realized she actually was an Instagrammer, but not silly at all, and in fact,smart and funny and exciting, and possibly the best person he’d ever met.

He couldn’t believe how wrong he’d got her.

He emptied a bucket onto a scrawny little pine tree, watched the water quickly seep into the ground and disappear, and he made up his mind.

He was going to tell her he loved her and ask her to stay in Mapleton. With him. Forever.

He just needed to think about what to say, exactly.

He filled more buckets, brainstormed, watered each tree, and by the time he’d finished, he had a fully fleshed out script written in his mind, ready to be delivered.

He smiled to himself as he walked back to the house, but as he rounded the corner and emerged out of the tree line, his step faltered at the sight of a taxi idling in the driveway.

Why would a cab be there? Maybe Chelsea’s crappy little car finally gave out, and she had to call a cab to get home?

Jogging to the front door, throwing the buckets into the bed of his truck as he passed it, he took the stairs two at a time and walked straight into the house without knocking.

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