57. Chloe
57
CHLOE
T he next morning, after my first full night out, I made my way home in Sean’s car, nervous but excited.
In my hand, I held the extra key fob to Sean’s penthouse.
He’d insisted I have them.
Well, not Sean’s penthouse, but ours , I corrected immediately.
I’d enjoyed my night with Sean, and I was thrilled at the idea of moving in with him.
Henry had texted and called me a few times throughout the night before giving up.
I’d set my phone on silent, and I noticed his missed calls on my ride back home.
I’d need to check with Henry, of course, but going by how the two were getting along, I didn’t foresee many problems.
I saw that I could have a normal life, and I could see beyond to weeks and months ahead.
And I liked what I saw.
Days and evenings filled with Sean, Lucas, and Henry.
Not having to pick only one of them, but all of them.
I wanted Henry to meet Lucas and to be a part of my weekend mornings with Sean.
When the car dropped me off at home, I all but bounded up the sidewalk to the apartment door, opening it with a flourish.
I was this close to bursting into song when the open door revealed a pale and sleepy-eyed Henry in the hallway.
The happy words on the tip of my lips died when I saw a long and bloody scar on his forehead.
Without thinking, I rushed up to him, dropping my handbag and kneeling down next to him in an instant.
“What happened to you?” I asked hoarsely.
“Where were you?” he responded.
Ignoring his question, I looked around the living room.
A heart-shattering mess of broken glass shards took up most of the living room floor.
My heart almost stopped at the sight.
Had he broken most of the glasses we had?
I turned back to Henry in shock.
“Dad showed up last night,” Henry said, looking at me with anger.
I felt faint. “Last night?” I echoed, wondering how I’d missed him.
I had left home around six p.m. “When?” I asked.
“At eight p.m. The second time I’d called you last night, and you didn’t answer,” Henry said, putting his head in his hands and looking distraught.
He lifted his head, and there was a new fire in his eyes.
“How dare you reach out to him and ask him to show up for my graduation ceremony?”
Oh shit.
“He showed up here, telling me he was planning to be there after all, and I told him to go to hell. I don’t want that man anywhere near us,” Henry spat.
“I hate him for the way he treated us, and how could you find it in your heart to go back to him, Chloe?”
I almost broke down sobbing.
Henry was right. The man had given up his claim on us a long time ago, and only Henry had the clarity to see that.
I had been an emotional fool, hoping for a happy-family moment on his graduation night.
The only family we had was each other.
“Did the sight of Dad affect you this much?” I asked, trembling as I looked at the shards of broken glass.
The look Henry gave me was eerie.
“No,” he said. “But when he told me something you’d been keeping from me, that was when I lost it.”
Our gazes locked, and I knew instantly what Henry was talking about.
He knew.
“When I heard it, I got so mad. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was holding this glass in my hand, and I flung it at the wall.”
My fingers touched his bloody wound.
“And a shard ricocheted off the wall and hit you,” I finished for him.
“Why did you lie, Chloe?” he asked, his voice sounding strangled.
“Why didn’t you tell me that the reason Dad left was because of me? Not your stupid college tuition.”
My lower lip trembled.
“Because I didn’t think you could take it,” I said finally as Henry’s gaze bored into mine.
“On top of everything else you were going through, I couldn’t trust that?—”
“I could handle the truth?” he demanded angrily.
I nodded, finding it impossible to speak for a second.
All those emotions were flooding back through me.
“You were thirteen, Henry. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“But what happened when I turned eighteen? Or twenty-one? Heck, I’m twenty-three now, and you still haven’t told me the truth. It was him—that man who is biologically our father—who gave me the truth.”
I nodded, breaking down in tears.
“I’m sorry, Henry. You deserved to know the truth. Just like you deserved to know that I went to visit Dad recently to ask him to show up for your graduation. I made mistakes, over and over again. Not just this, but also for the day you got hit by the car. I hate myself for it, for not being able to protect you from that, and I don’t think I can even forgive myself. I’m sorry, Henry. I really, truly am.”
He wheeled over to me, and I leaned against him, sobbing on his shoulder while he hugged me tight.
“Hey, hey,” he said, wiping my tears off my face.
“I don’t blame you for the accident. If anything, it was that stupid car that hit me. That driver who was driving high. You have no reason to feel bad about that, Chloe. Do you hear me?”
I raised my head and looked at him through my tear-filled eyes.
“It isn’t as easy as that to wipe off my guilt, Henry. Believe me, I’ve been trying.”
He laughed a small laugh.
“Try harder,” he said, resting his head against mine.
“I didn’t know my sister to be weak enough to give up. The Chloe I knew was strong. She wouldn’t let some stupid guilt take control of her life. Who are you, and when can you give me my sister back?”
I laughed, lifting my head and wiping the tears off my cheeks.
“I think I last saw that girl ten years ago. She’s been missing in spirit ever since.”
Henry held my gaze for a long time.
“I’m not going anywhere, Henry. I told you that. You’ll always have me, Henry.”
I hugged him tight, tears streaming down my face as I saw the scar was three inches long.
I needed to get him to a doctor.
He looked at the broken pieces of glass on the floor while I tried to stand up.
When he looked up, his expression was filled with regret.
“I don’t know what came over me, Chloe. I did not know what was going on with me?—”
“You were terrified, Henry. I promise you, it’ll never happen again, Henry. I’m not leaving you again. Now, can we please get to the doctor?”
The silence in the room was thick and heavy while he debated what to say.
Finally, he nodded. “Let’s go.”