“But,Mom—”
“Cindy.” Her dad’s gruff voice crackled through the line. “Your mother’s right. You should come home and face the situation head-on. You can’t runforever.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking me to do,”shesaid.
“It’s therightthing to do,”hesaid.
“Since when has playing by the rules worked for me?” she snapped. “I tried that and look at where itgotme.”
“You chose to go down this path. I could have paid for anotherlawyer.”
“How can you turn on me, knowing everything that happened?” sheasked.
“Enough’s enough. You’ve been running for a year,” his voice cracked. “Come home. This isn’t just hard on Brooke. It’s hard on your mom too…andme.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. I should have listenedtoyou.”
“I warned you,” he said. “I told you something like this couldhappen.”
“I know.” She hung her head. “I know. I wish every day that I could go back and changethings.”
“You can’t change the past. You need to learn to accept it and move on,” he said softly. “Don’t call back until you’re ready tocomehome.”
The line went dead. She stared at the handset in disbelief. He’d never hung up on her before. She’d listened to all of his advice until that one fateful day. If she could go back and slap her twenty-five-year-old self in the face, she would. What a difference seven yearscouldmake.
She set the phone down and returned to her bag. Less than a minute later, the phone rang. She frowned beforeansweringit.
“Hello?”
When no one responded, shewaited.
“Hello?”
A subtle shift of sound carried through the line. It wasn’t a breath, but it wasn’t static either. Someone was on the other end.Listening.
She slammed the handset down and scurried to zip the bag shut. In her rush, she knocked the photo onto the floor. In the second it took to retrieve it, a knock sounded onthedoor.
She froze. Her heart pounded in herchest.
“You in there, Nancy?” a man’s voicecalled.
Nancy?She quickly ran through a list of her aliases. Oh, right. She’d checked in asNancy.
She ran to the window and peeked out. The barrel-bellied manager stood with his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his overalls. She quickly openedthedoor.
“I’m here,”shesaid.
“You paid through last night but not for today. Either pay up, or get out,”hesaid.
“I was justleaving.”
She forced a smile while cursing her mistake. Usually she’d pay for an extra night and sneak away before the reservation ran out. But with her money running low, she’d only paid through lastnight.
“All right,” he said. “Bring the key up whenyou’redone.”
“Iwill.”
As he shuffled away, she glanced around the parking lot. Three tall lamps cast faint pools of light through the darkness. Overhead, a thin slice of moon rose up like an executioner’s scythe. She backed into the room and grabbed her bag. She dropped the key on the nightstand before racing out tothecar.
