Page 252 of Heartache Duet

“Hi, Connor.” I realize now that I could go the rest of my life never remembering my mother’s voice and I’d never miss it. Not for a second. “How have you been?”

Where to start? “What’s going on?”

She clears her throat. “I guess we’re done with pleasantries, then?”

“Honestly, I don’t really have much to say to you anymore.”

“Okay,” she says. Then pauses a beat. “I accept that.”

I stay quiet. She doesn’t really have a choice.

“Connor,” she says with a sigh. “Do you have a lawyer?”

“No. Why?”

“Because you’re going to need one…”

FORTY-THREE

connor

I get to school early the next morning because I have things to say, and I know the person I want to say them to will be ready to hear them.

It only takes a few seconds for Miss Turner to call out, “Come in,” after I knock. She smiles when she sees me, and I don’t know her well enough to know if it’s genuine or not. After what I saw in the video last night, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she blames me for Ava leaving.

I ask, “Are you scheduled to meet with someone or…”

“Well, this was Ava’s time with me, so no.” She points to the seat opposite her. “Is this a sit-down or stand-up type of conversation we’re about to have?”

I sit down.

She nods once. “Good.”

I ask, not wanting to play games, “I know that you’re not going to tell me what I want, but can you at least tell me if she’s okay?”

“She’s okay, Connor. Her mom’s getting the care she needs, and so is she,” Miss Turner answers, her tone gentle. “I promise you that.”

I slump farther in my seat, get comfortable. “She said you were trying to help her get her mom into a place near Duke?”

“Yeah, I was,” she responds, a smile playing on her lips. “God, Connor, you should have seen her face when she got that letter from Duke. She came in here all excited, and then her reality hit, and she was trying to work out a way to be able to do everything.” Pity laces her tone. “Classic-Ava, right?”

I nod, trying to picture Ava’s reaction when she got that letter, but I can’t… all I can envision is the heartache from the video I watched.

“She would’ve loved to start with you,” she rushes, as if she’s been dying to tell me all this but didn’t know how. “But she had to make sure her mom was okay and that she’d be settled in her placement. She didn’t want to rush things, and that’s why she deferred a year.”

My eyes widen. “She did?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t even know she got into Duke until she told me she was leaving.”

Now her eyes widen. “Ava just wanted to keep it a secret in case things didn’t work out with her mom,” she tells me. “She didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then…”

I frown at the thought.

“What are you thinking, Connor?”

I shrug. “It’s just fu—messed—up how we kept so many secrets from each other because we thought we were protecting the other person, and in reality, we were just causing more and more damage.”

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