Page 54 of The Chad Next Door
Duke decides right then that he’s done greeting me and wants nothing more than to try to tackle Hope as he jumps up to give her kisses as well. She bursts into sobs—not a good sign—and then runs to her car, leaving my bewildered dog behind as she drives off.
The man clears his throat and looks at me as Duke returns to my arms. “Everything okay? What was she saying about a closet?”
Though stepping into Hope’s house is the last thing I want to do right now, I can at least show him the window and the tracks leading to and from the house. Which I do, though I’m in a daze as I replay the sight of Hope driving off. The guy is thrilled and promises to come back tomorrow with a trap so we don’t have to worry about a wild animal in the house, but at this point, I’m not sure it matters. I may have messed up too bad for Hope to ever want to come back.
I don’t know yethowI messed up, but I know I did. I wouldn’t feel this awful if I didn’t.
I spend the rest of the day on the deck so I don’t have to watch Hope pack up nearly everything I love after she comes back with the kids. I listen to them, Zelda and Link screaming with joy when they see Duke and Hope doing her best to sound excited about spending the weekend with her aunt. When Zelda asks if I’m coming with them, my heart screams for me to open the door and tell her yes. I’ll go anywhere they are, no matter how far. But there’s no hesitation in Hope’s voice when she says I have too many important things to take care of.
The kids don’t like her answer, which only makes it all feel worse because I know she’s not going to change her mind.
I don’t leave my chair until long after the house has gone silent, and going inside hurts even more than I thought it would. Stepping into that place where the Duncans have imprinted so many memories feels like intruding on someone else’s life. Someone who doesn’t do and say the wrong thing and drive away the woman who holds his heart. How am I supposed to stay here without her? Without all of them?
They’ll be back. I tell myself that over and over, even if it’s hard to believe. Hope is smart enough to know it’s a bad idea to uproot the kids after they were just starting to feel settled. But they’ll go back to their own house, which suddenly feels entirely too far away.
When Micah sends me a text, it feels like the universe telling me that it’s time to wake up. The dream is over.
Half-pint: Are you going to be home for Halloween?
I sigh, fingers stiff and slow as I type back a reply. It’s like my body doesn’t want to admit what my mind already knows.
Me: Yeah, I’ll be there.
Half-pint: Yaayyaayay! You can meet Fischer! And Brook is bringing Jordan! And apparently Houston is bringing a date though I have no idea who. Hopefully it’s Tamlin Park because he was totally flirting with her during the entire game of trivia last night!
I smile a little, though the gesture feels forced. She’s just as enthusiastic in text as she is in real life, and I love that about her. I love less that everyone is going to be paired up at our annual Briggs sibs Halloween party. That’s going to feel great.
Me: Tamlin Park? The reporter?
Half-pint: You should have seen them! The sexual tension was insane!
She proceeds to tell me all about trivia night and how our confident brother has met his match in the sports journalist who is known for taking down athletes and doing it with a smile. I hope he is being careful around her, and I’m glad Micah is making it sound like he might be dating someone else so there’s no risk of him getting mixed up with someone he shouldn’t. He’s likely dating another model, though Houston has been acting strange lately, so I could be wrong. I’ll have to look into it since I just promised my baby sister I would be home for Halloween next week. It will be good to be around my siblings again, though I can’t like anything that takes me farther from Hope.
Just before I go to bed, I try calling her. I don’t expect her to answer, but I want to try to apologize if she’ll let me. I should have let her talk. I should have gotten her side of the story, no matter how scared I was.
The call goes straight to voicemail, which is a pretty clear sign that I’m not getting any second chances anytime soon. Maybe eventually, but I won’t hold my breath.
I worry, if I do, I may never breathe again.
Chapter Twenty
Hope
October 26
When Todd walked into thediner looking far more stressed than he’d been the other day, my gut told me that I had to take my chance. And when I invited him to join me when June headed back to her store, he looked like I had just handed him everything he could ever want. And while I knew it wasn’t necessarily the smartest plan, I could see in his eyes that he was getting desperate.
I had a pretty good feeling that he wasn’t after Chad at all, and it turned out I was right.
“He told me that he’s Link and Zelda’s dad,” I tell the lawyer who came to visit me at Aunt Phoebe’s. Todd is already in custody, picked up just a few minutes after I called the police while I was “in the bathroom” at the diner, AKA using the phone in the office in the back. The minute he mentioned the kids, I knew he was bad news.
Mostly because I finally recognized him from an old photo I’d seen in Bailey’s stuff. Back when they were secretly dating while she was in school, apparently. Bailey had mentioned something about spending time with her professor once, but I’d never thought anything of it. It makes sense now why she was so eager to move away from Alabama after she got pregnant with Link.
“It was pretty easy to believe him,” I continue as the lawyer writes down everything I tell her. “He looks just like Link, and he knows a lot about Zelda. Like her birthmark on her hip. So I didn’t question him.”
The lawyer nods, scribbling a few things. “That’s when he asked for the money?”
“Yes. Which, I’m still a little confused about. No one has been able to tell me where it came from.”
