Page 39 of Safe With Me
Elizabeth spun in Gracie’s direction, nose wrinkled and mouth open in exaggerated disgust. “How dare you?”
“Elizabeth . . . it’s okay if you want to ruin your life.” Gracie popped the lid off the chicken salad. “It’s not okay to mess with Hannah’s.”
“I havenotmessed with her life.” Elizabeth cast a scathing look at me, raking head to toe. Her lip curled.
In a deliberate motion, Gracie laid her phone on the island between them and tapped to play Elizabeth’s latest video, her voice filling the room.
“ . . . you can guess who’s responsible for that, for all of it . . .”
With a stab of her finger, Gracie stopped the playback. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
“I never mentioned her name.”
“Elizabeth, this isme.” Gracie propped both hands on the island, spread wide. All business and no nonsense. “Not Mama. Not Daddy. Not your followers. Stop the bullshit and own up to what you’re doing.”
“Or what?” Elizabeth punctuated the question with a slight tilt of her head. Eyes narrowed, she stared Gracie down.
“Oh, my Lord.” Gracie threw up her hands. “My nine-year-old knows better than that. Honey, what is going on with you?”
The silence grew heavy, broken by the click and hum of the refrigerator. That quiet, loaded with unspoken emotion, almost made me think Gracie was making progress.
Elizabeth’s mouth worked, lower lip trembling, before her mask fell into place. “Nothing’s going on with me. Life’s peachy.”
Gracie looked back at me and Elizabeth exploded.
“Oh, my God.” She slammed her glass on the countertop so hard I thought the stem would snap. Wine sloshed over the rim, despite the fact very little remained in the globe. “Stop with the secret sister club looks.”
Mouth pinched to a tight line, Gracie pointed at her. “Get yourself together.”
“I am not one of your children, Grace Anne.” She tossed back the last bit of wine.
“Stop acting like one, then. You’re the one making a big deal about Hannah being here, but I haven’t heard one reason why she shouldn’t be.”
“Because I hate her!” Elizabeth screamed, and this time the glass shattered.
Like my heart.
Chapter Eleven
Hannah
Halfway home, the crazy-call bridge Tate had told me I could cross when I reached it lit up the smart hub screen in my SUV. The ringtone screeched through the cabin, and I startled, staring at Mama’s number through a blur of tears. I’d walked out of Gracie’s kitchen, leaving her to deal with Elizabeth because I wasdone.
Devastated, but done.
Hearing Elizabeth say she hated me sharpened my understanding of everything she’d done in recent weeks. She hated me, thus she hurt me on purpose. She wanted me to suffer.
I didn’t have to hang around to hear anything else. And I didn’t have to tolerate that in my life.
The ringtone shrilled again, and I stabbed the button on the steering wheel to decline Mama’s call. All she’d do is go on at me about what I was doing to Elizabeth. I’d been her problem child since I’d gone to live with Daddy, and I was done with that role, too.
Almost immediately, the screen lit up, the ringing streaming through the speakers again. Okay, blocking that number when I got home.
I dashed at my wet cheeks and slowed for the red light at the 37 intersection. Almost home, then I could lock myself inside and cry for real. At least Tate was gone. He’d headed home when I’d left for Gracie’s. I’d promised to call him when I started home, so he could come play fearless protector. I didn’t need that right now.
All I wanted to do was crawl onto my bed and sob in peace.
I made the left, passed Walgreens and turned into my driveway. Clumsy and fumbling, I braked too hard, jerking to a stop. For a moment, I rested my forehead on the wheel. Opening the door and getting out loomed like an insurmountable task. I was so freaking tired.
