Page 28 of Safe With Me
I waited until he was in his truck and gone before I slid into my SUV. Laughter trailed from the other side of the parking lot before the door snicked closed. Were they laughing at me?
My hands shaking, I snatched my phone out of my clutch and launched the YouTube app, searching for Elizabeth’s channel for the first time in days.
And there the video was, Elizabeth sitting on her front porch, crying and holding up her bare ring finger.
“ . . . worst week ever,” she sobbed, crystalline tears falling from her thick lashes. “I’ve been pushed out of the store – I’ll let you figure out who's responsible for that – but Jase and I are no longer together. And I bet you can figure out who’s behind that, too.”
Oh, God.She wouldn’t. She didn’t.
I stopped the video and scrolled the comments, bile burning all the way up my chest.
Cheating whore
Fucking cunt
Bitch
Needs to die
Bullet in her
Kill herself
Lying bitch
All of me shaking now, I dropped the phone and wrapped my fingers around the steering wheel. Elizabeth had threatened to make me sorry.
And she had.
Chapter Eight
Hannah
Until I parked at home, I managed to keep it together, mostly. Silent tears streaked my face while I drove, but once I hit the safety of my carport, the tangled emotions broke through. Clenching my key fob and clutch, I stumbled from the driver’s seat. The first sob ripped free from my throat, followed by another and another, each one pulled deeper from my chest.
I didn’t understand. She was mysissy, mine from the moment Mama brought her home and I didn’t want Gracie to touch her. Once she could walk, she followed me everywhere, from mud puddles in the front driveway to the play tent in the room Gracie and I shared. She’d been an extension of me, even after I left Mama’s house to live with Daddy. I went to Mama’s every other weekend not to see Mama, but to be with Elizabeth.
And she was destroying my life.
The new job with Scott didn’t matter, my booth at Livi’s didn’t matter. Whatever I did, she would poison it or tear it out by the roots.
Crying harder, I stumbled on the walkway. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. People hadapplaudedGail humiliating me, throwing us out. That would spread all over Coney, go small-town viral.
Stomach aching, I covered my eyes and bent forward. A harsh sob worked up from my heaving lungs. Somewhere, an engine rumbled to a stop and a truck door slammed.
I couldn’t stay here.
Why did she hate me? The thought doubled me over further, my forehead almost on my knees. My sisterhatedme. The pain of that hurt like having Tate turn on me. I wanted to scream, thesound scratching to get out of my throat, but the sobs prevented me from getting enough air.
“Hannah.” Strong arms closed around me, a tall body steadying me as my legs folded. “What did that asshole do?”
I cried harder, no words able to get around the awful moans coming out of my mouth.
“Baby.” Tate rocked me, one hand cradling my head into the curve of his shoulder. I wanted to sink into him, let him take care of me – and that desire worsened the pain and fury. She’d ruined everything.
He brushed his mouth over my temple, sweeping a hand from the small of my back up to my nape, and I shoved away.
“Get off me.” Stumbling, I fell on my butt in the damp grass, pain jarring up my spine. He crouched, face sad and wary in the light and shadows cast by my porch light. “Don’t touch me.”
