Page 187 of As They Are

Page List

Font Size:

My feelings crashed even more.

I opened the door to let him in.

“What thehellwere they thinking?” he asked. “I mean, really, bringing your mother here?”

“Are you okay?”

He turned to me. “AmIokay? Who cares about me?”

“I do. You’re so angry. I know you hate that.”

“I’m angry because they hurt you.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And they don’t seem to fucking care that they did.”

“Did you talk to them?”

“‘Talk’ isn’t the word I would use.”

Shit.He’d yelled? In front of the whole town? Wasn’t that exactly what he’d been trying to avoid?

“Henry, you should?—”

“No.” He shook his head. “We’re not talking about me. I wanna be sureyou’reokay. And if you need to leave, then we leave.”

“But—”

“Wren, we need to handle this thing with your mother. Everything else can wait.”

My heart lurched, but he wasn’t wrong. I was hiding out like a coward when I had things to do.

“I’m mostly fine.” At his narrowed eyes, I added, “Iam. I’m honestly just shocked she’s even here. At first, I thought shewas an actress. I mean, she’s avoided me for so long, why let it change now?”

Had she missed me? Did she have some explanation for not ever reaching out? These were questions I didn’t expect to ever have the answers to.

Until this moment.

“What are you feeling right now?”

There were too many things happening. My heart pounded. My chest was tight. Honestly, it felt like I was having a heart attack. I took a shaky breath, remembering how tense Henry was. I didn’t want to add to anything.

“I’ll survive once this is over.”

“Wren, you don’t have to do anything right now.”

“I could get answers.”

“Do youneedthem?”

My fists tightened. To anyone else, it should have been easy to write off Mom as a monster. And ninety percent of the time, I would agree. But she washere.And I needed to know if there was some other reason she left. Or if she regretted it.

I had a feeling Henry wouldn’t like that answer.

I shrugged. “I still have to finish filming.”

“You don’thaveto do anything.”

“Henry, she’s here.” I shook my head. “I mean, I’m shocked, and I didn’t know what to do, but at least I could get some answers after faking it for the camera.”

“Are you convincing me, or yourself?” he asked.