So I drive in silence, dreading it.
And soon, I drop her off, tell her to stay home, then head to my new job working second shift at Los Palamas Meat Processing Plant. Just as I walk in, my phone buzzes.
Meghan
Miss you come home baby
Yeah, no.
It’s tempting. I’ll give her that. I’m dead tired and mentally drained. But I ignore her, as usual.
That woman is gone. A comfort that was a drug, always an overdose, but a high nonetheless.
Besides, I already belong to someone else.
Buzz, buzz.
Charlotte
I charged it!!!! I love you.
I exhale as if I’ve been holding my breath all day. I thumb out a reply fast:
Good girl love u too
I do love her. Too damn much.More than I can survive. She’ll be the death of me.
Chapter 34
Grayson
Weeks pass. I’ve earned five grand, but barely keeping the bank at bay. I’m trying. For her. For Atticus. Sixteen-hour workdays. It’s all I can give her.
Charlotte’s top of her class. She’s thriving.
And me? I’m unraveling.
I’m a walking zombie.
When I arrive home, I expect her curled in bed or sprinting toward me like always.
But she’s on the couch, still, tense, eyes locked to her phone like it’s holding a loaded gun.
“Charlotte?”
She flinches, snaps the phone face-down onto her lap. “Oh! Hey, babe!”
Too quick.
She jumps up, forces a kiss on my jaw, but I don’t lean down.
I’m already reaching. Already unlocking her screen.
One swipe.
One breath.
Blink.
