Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Jesus. What the hell is wrong with that town? That piece of shit doesn’t deserve to be remembered.”
“Oh, he definitely deserves to be remembered. Just not like that.”
I scrubbed my sweaty palms over my thighs. Shit. I bet Thea was a mess, having watched that douchebag’s family completely ignore what he’d done to her. Parading it around on TV, forcing it down her throat, and pouring salt in her wounds. I couldn’t imagine how she lived with—
My heart stopped as yet another thought dawned on me.
What if she wasn’t living with it anymore? What if she hadn’t been able to handle it? What if that’s why she stopped writing me letters? What if she’d gotten so dark and the fucking Caskeys had come out of the woodwork and pushed her over the edge? What if that was what Nora’s tears were about?
What if…
What if…
What if…
What if Thea was gone?
I shot to my feet, and the words were out of my mouth before my brain had the chance to filter them. “Is Thea okay?”
Nora’s eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open.
“Sit down, Stewart. Last warning.”
Bile blazed a trail up the back of my throat. Slowly sinking to the chair, I begged, “Whatever it is, just tell me. She hasn’t been writing me and you haven’t been talking about her.”
She closed her mouth and didn’t say a word.
My pulse skyrocketed as my fears assaulted me. “Please. Nora, I’m dying here. Tell me she’s okay.”
A slow Cheshire cat grin stretched across her face as she whispered, “I knew it. I freaking knew it.”
The smile helped, but it was a lot like throwing a bucket of water on a forest fire. I needed the words. I needed proof. Fuck, I needed Thea.
Her smile fell and she leaned across the table. “Tell me you love her. Tell me you are a dumbass who still loves her. Tell me she’s your person and I’ll tell you what Thea has been up to.”
She wasn’t my anything anymore. But I loved her. Every minute of every day, even when I didn’t want to.
Emotions four years in the making flooded my eyes. I refused their escape and shook my head. I couldn’t say it. I’d been through hell trying to forget her. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing her. She was never smiling or laughing the way she had done almost every day during the six years she had been mine. When I closed my eyes, all I saw was Thea crying—broken and shattered. I needed it to stop. I needed her to be able to smile again. It was ripping my heart from my fucking chest to stay away from her, but I wanted her to be able to truly live again.
“Tell me you love her,” Nora demanded.
I sucked my lips in, trapping them between my teeth. I couldn’t tell her that. I didn’t want it to be true.
A tear teetered at the corner of my eye and I scrubbed my hands over my face before it had the chance to fall. No one needed to see that kind of weakness from me. Not Nora. Not the guards. Not the other inmates no doubt gawking from across the room. I was twenty-one years old; collapsing into a puddle of tears wasn’t an option anymore.
“Good enough, Ramsey. Good enough.” Her smile returned. “Thea’s fine. She just got home from Australia.”
My head snapped back, and I coughed to clear the emotion from my throat. “Australia? Really?”
“Yep. She’s been touring the great Outback for the last few months. She got home middle of last week. She asked me not to tell you. I know you guys made plans to travel the world and stuff. She didn’t want to rub it in.”
I nodded, relief coating the inside of my chest. She was better than okay. She was traveling. Exploring the world. Moving on with her life without me. Yeah, it fucking hurt. But it also reaffirmed that I’d done the right thing by setting my Sparrow free.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
Nora shot me a wink. “Any time. All you have to do is ask.”
I wouldn’t. Not ever again. But after that day, Nora went out of her way to make sure I got a Thea update with every visit.
“So, now that we’re on the topic of Thea, I guess I can tell you the other thing she asked me not to mention.”
I looked at the table, not sure I wanted to hear but also hanging on her every word.
“After the Caskeys’ interview, she bought a billboard in downtown Clovert. Two days later, pictures of her bruises and bite marks from that night along with a few magnified lines from her medical records were plastered fourteen feet high, forty-eight feet wide for the whole town to see. She put this big black stripe across the top that said Remembering the real Josh Caskey.