Page 96 of From This Moment (After We Fall 4)
“Fuck,” I muttered. Rolling down the passenger window, I pulled up alongside her. “Hannah!”
She stopped running and squinted at me. “Wes?”
“Get in!” I leaned over and pushed the door open, and she jumped in.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as I rolled up the window. I could hear the panic in her voice.
I parked next to her. “I needed to talk to you.”
“About what? What’s going on?”
Shifting in my seat, I faced her and spoke calmly, even though I didn’t feel calm inside at all. “First, I don’t want you to panic. Everything is fine.”
“Then what are you doing here? And why does Abby have a stomachache?”
“My parents know about us.” Rain hammered the roof and windshield.
“What? How?”
“A combination of things. My dad said he could see it happening. My mom probably suspected, but Abby sort of confirmed it.”
Her jaw dropped. “Abby?”
“She said we hold hands and kiss.”
&
nbsp; She gasped. “She’s seen us?”
“Apparently. I guess we’re not as careful as we think.”
“Oh my God.” She clutched her stomach, just like Abby had done. Her eyes closed. “I knew it. I knew something bad was going to happen. I could feel it. What did they say?”
I exhaled. There was no use in sugarcoating this. “My mother is very upset.”
“Of course she is. And your dad?”
“Privately, my dad told me he doesn’t think it’s wrong. But he also said he can’t side with me against my mother. He’s sort of staying neutral, I guess.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “Tell me everything that happened.”
I filled her in on the entire breakfast table conversation, watching her grow more and more dismayed, her eyes filling with tears.
“Oh, God,” she whispered when I told her that Abby had heard my mother yelling at me. “The poor thing is probably totally traumatized.”
“It was pretty rough for her,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck.
She shook her head, tears dripping down her cheeks. “I’m a terrible mother. This is all my fault.”
“Hannah, stop.” I reached over and took her hand. “I’m the one who stayed silent while my mother poisoned Abby’s mind. I should have spoken up.”
“And said what?” She pulled her hand away. “What could you have said that would make your mother see this any other way?”
“I don’t know,” I said miserably. “Something.”
“The truth is, your mother has always had something against me, and she was never going to be okay with us. She was barely okay with me and Drew!”
“Don’t say that.”
