Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
I didn’t know what our next move was, but I wanted her to be with us when we made the final decision.
When I reached her house, I frowned, seeing that her car wasn’t in her driveway. She wasn’t even home.
“Damn it,” I muttered beneath my breath as my anxiety started to peak. Where the hell was she? I grabbed my phone and called Marlo, my teeth automatically gritting from tension.
“Hey,” Marlo answered, his voice bordering on a sigh.
“I can’t find Madison,” I told him.
“What?” Marlo asked immediately. “What do you mean?”
“She’s not at the shop or her house. And she’s not answering her phone,” I replied. “Michael just left. You don’t think he already got to her, do you?”
Marlo was quiet for a few seconds.
“No, I don’t think so. Do you think… she’s ignoring us?” he asked.
Of course, I didn’t want to think that. All I wanted to do was protect her, and if she pulled away from us, that would make things ten times more difficult. Ten times more devastating.
“I think we all need to talk about this,” I told him, wanting to hear from the others.
“I’ll call them back to the shop. Maybe she’s there,” Marlo said, trying to sound hopeful but failing.
“I’ll meet you there,” I replied before hanging up and driving back to the shop.
Luckily, the others weren’t too far away. None of them felt like going home just yet, so they were either around the corner or at a nearby store or café to blow off some steam. Once we all gathered back in the shop, I crossed my arms and looked around at them.
“I haven’t been able to find Madison. She’s not here or at her house. Have any of you heard from her since she left to pick up Chloe?” I asked them.
They all checked their phones and shook their heads.
“Maybe her phone is dead?” Taj suggested.
“Nah, I doubt it. She checked the time on it before she left,” Bryce replied, silence following his words for a few seconds.
“It wouldn’t make sense for her to be ignoring us on purpose,” Baker spoke up with furrowed eyebrows.
“Yes, it does. You read that note. It probably spooked her because Michael was pissed that we were hiding her and Chloe from him,” Ti said with a shrug. “She’s a wonderful mother, so she’s going to do what she can to protect her child. We may be trying to help her, but we’ve just stirred the pot even more.”
“We can’t just step away. We can keep her safe from him,” Marcus argued with narrowed eyes.
“I think Ti is right,” Marlo said in a quiet, defeated voice. He lowered his eyes, unable to look at any of us. “It makes sense. He’ll punish her even more for turning to us, so she made a decision. We… we have to respect that.”
“And just let her go?” I asked as my arms dropped to my sides. I couldn’t imagine just letting her step out of our lives like that, but it wasn’t like we could force her.
“If she wants us to be in her life, she’ll reach out. If not, we have our answer too,” Marlo told us before running his hand over his head. He cleared his throat and put his back to us. “We’re closing up shop for the day. If she does come back, she has a key.”
The rest of us lingered where we were for a few more seconds, but the sense of finality that was in the air grew heavier. Even if I didn’t want to believe it, Marlo was right. Whatever decision she made, we had to abide by it, even if that felt like my heart was being ripped out. Like I was losing a piece of myself.
Something told me that I wouldn’t ever feel completely whole again.
Chapter 22
Madison
The pale blue bedsheets in Aisling’s guest bedroom laid tangled around me as I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, my eyes feeling heavy and achy.
Early morning sunlight filled the minimalistic, pastel-inspired room, falling on the queen-sized bed that Chloe and I had been sharing for the past few nights. Restless nights at that.
All I could think about was the guys and how badly I missed them.
Having to ignore their calls killed me, and I had been feeling sick to my stomach with my guilt and worry ever since the last time I saw them. I even had to tell Chloe that they went out of town on a trip because she kept wondering why we weren’t going to the tattoo shop to see them.
They had become so intertwined in my life and tearing them out of it made my heart ache so badly that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t even count how many times I had cried since leaving them behind. This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out.