“I was wrong,” I sobbed. “I shouldn’t have left home for him. You warned me. He ruined me. Please… please take me back.”
My voice fell apart into something between laughter and despair.
“And if you can’t save me… maybe just end it for me instead.”
My brother’s voice exploded through the phone, raw with alarm.
“Eleanor, stop scaring me. What are you saying? What happened? Is this about Nathaniel again? If you’re destroying yourself over that jerk, then you’ve completely lost it. He’s gone—and even if he weren’t, he never deserved you.”
“He isn’t gone,” I said quietly, the words shaking with anger and heartbreak.
There was a long silence on the other end. I could almost hear him holding his breath.
“What do you mean, he isn’t?”
“I mean exactly that,” I replied. “Nathaniel is still alive. He staged his own death, Adrian.”
His tone shifted instantly, sharp with urgency. “Do you want me there right now? I’ll get you out of that house. You can start over, Vic. You don’t need him. I’ll help you find your son—”
My throat burned. “So you already knew what kind of hell I was living in?”