Page 57 of Wreckage and Rain

Long breath. "What do you need?"

"I need you to know I'm alive. And I need you not to ask me where I'm going next."

"Going? Summer..."

"I'm leaving Charleston. I can't stay. I need you to trust me."

"I trust you. But if he hurt you..."

"Don't. Not now."

"Okay." His voice is rough. "You call me. Anything. Three in the morning. I don't care."

Autumn. The harder call. She'll hear what I haven't said yet.

She answers immediately. "You're at your parents'?"

"Yeah."

"Did you find what you needed at the house?"

"I left him my rings. I left him a note. I left him a wastebasket of pictures."

"Good."

"Autumn. I'm not staying here. I can't be in Charleston while he figures out how to apologize. I'll be at my parents' tonight. Tomorrow I'm gone."

"Where."

"I don't know yet. North. Anywhere I'm not Mrs. Bennet."

A long breath. The sound of someone trying to hold steady for me. "Call me when you stop driving. I don't care what state. I don't care what time. Call me."

"I will."

"I love you, Summer."

"I love you too."

***

I plug in my phone. Set my alarm for five.

I lie in my childhood bed. Same twin mattress. Same quilt Mama made. Same bookshelf full of paperbacks with cracked spines.

I let one thought through the wall.

Eight photos. Posted by the firm where his father is the patriarch and his mother is the queen. They wanted me to see. They wanted me to know.

The thought sits in my chest like a coal.

I don't cry.

I set my alarm.

I'm gone before sunrise.

Chapter 13: What Have I Done