Chapter 27
Over the Atlantic
“Is he out?”
I watch Elizabeth kiss Ryder’s forehead and cover him with a blanket.
She gently pushes a lock of his hair aside with her thumb.
He’s currently reclined back in one of the jet’s cream-colored leather seats that turns into a make-shift bed with a footrest. The plane has a small back bedroom with a full-sized bed, but now that Ryder has conked out an hour into our nine-hour flight, we don’t want to wake him.
Elizabeth walks over and sits down in the seat next to me. I can see the worry that has been traced across her face ever since Hailey called.
“Having to cross the Atlantic twice in less than thirty-six hours will do that to a person. I’m surprised he lasted this long. I hate that he didn’t get to enjoy anything before being forced back onto a plane.”
She looks over at Ryder’s sleeping form and her eyes go all soft. It’s just another subtle reminder of how much she loves him and that he is the one she chose.
“Fallon, can I ask you something?” she asks, her gaze lingering on Ryder a minute longer before she gives me her attention
“Since you seem to ask me that same question a lot, sure.”
Elizabeth rolls her eyes and kicks my leg with her socked foot. I grab it, placing it on top of my bent legs and motion for her to put the other foot up. For once, she complies without argument.
She sighs heavily, her own mental tiredness showing. “I don’t know how to feel about Hailey.”
“That’s not a question, kitten.”
Elizabeth makes one of her cute, inelegant snorts. “Alright. How about, how should I feel about Hailey being back? Because I’m feeling a little conflicted, going back and forth between elated relief and pure pissed off.”
Her sister had some nerve calling Elizabeth in hysterics and demanding she come home.
Just popping up out of the blue slinging demands left and right.
No, “Hey, sis, I’m back,” or “I’m so sorry for running away and making you worry,” or “I missed you.” Nothing.
I get that Hailey has issues and things must be pretty messed up for her right now, coming home and finding out that her parents are dead, and her sister is off at some faraway locale across the globe.
But Hailey has no right demanding anything from Elizabeth.
Where the hell was she when Elizabeth needed her?
Elizabeth’s conversation with Daniel wasn’t that much better than the one she had with Hailey.
Elizabeth put the phone on speaker so Ry and I could hear what he said.
None of it was good. Apparently, Hailey broke into their old house and passed out when an officer confronted her, thinking she was a burglar.
An ambulance was called, and she was taken to the county hospital.
The police contacted Daniel once they linked Hailey to her missing person’s report.
Once Hailey was discharged from the hospital and brought home, Daniel told her about the car accidents and what happened to Ann and John and Elizabeth. Hailey lost it. She became hysterical, demanding to see Elizabeth. Hence the panicked phone call Elizabeth received.
We could hear Hailey wailing in the background the entire phone conversation with Daniel. That was when Elizabeth broke down and I wanted to reach my hand through the phone line and strangle her sister.
Elizabeth is finally in a good place. She’s already been through enough trauma to last a lifetime, and I was not going let her runaway sister ruin that progress.
Call me cold-hearted—which I totally can be—but Hailey chose to run away.
She chose to stay away. Elizabeth didn’t choose to be in a car accident.
She didn’t choose to be in a coma and lose her memories.
She didn’t choose to lose both of her parents the same night.
Hailey should have been there for Elizabeth.
She has no right to make demands of her older sister now.
Trying not to allow my personal feelings about Hailey show, I ask Elizabeth, “In what way?”
“On the one hand,” she explains, holding her right hand up, “I’m incredibly relieved that she’s home and safe and okay.
On the other,” she says, lifting her left hand, “I’m angry at her for running away.
Our parents were out driving that night because they were looking for her.
And then I feel awful for feeling that way.
Because if Hailey knew that, it would devastate her.
I may be livid with what she did, but I love her so much. I just want my sister back.”
I wiggle Elizabeth’s pinky toe. “Have you stopped to think what demons your sister may have lurking inside her? What made her run off in the first place?”
Elizabeth looks over at Ryder again. “From everything I remember now, she left with a guy, the one who gave her the bruises. She chose a guy who abused her over the family and friends who loved her. She didn’t even try to call or to reach out to me or Brea.
It was like we didn’t matter to her anymore.
She wasn’t there when Mom and Dad were buried and I was in the hospital.
She wasn’t there,” Elizabeth repeats, trailing off.
Slouching back into a more comfortable position, I reposition her feet. No matter how luxurious a plane is, the manufacturers still manage to make the seats unbearable for long flights.
Playing devil’s advocate, I reply, “Kitten, since I don’t know Hailey well, all I can infer is that she sounds a bit mixed up.
Broken, like you were. To me—the outsider here—Hailey needs help, just like you did.
Weren’t you the same way? Didn’t you run away when things got to be too much for you to handle?
You never tried to call Jay or Jules either. ”
Elizabeth gives me the stink-eye. “I recall having my phone confiscated and then I further recall having another phone snatched from my hand when I tried to call Ryder,” she whisper-shouts at me, keeping her voice low as not to wake Ryder up.
“Eh,” I wave a hand at her in casual dismissal, but she takes it and links our fingers together.
She presses her cheek to our linked hands. “Thank you for listening.”
I swallow thickly, trying hard to steel my emotions. “Isn’t that what friends do?”
Her exhausted smile strengthens a little. “I’m really glad we’re friends now, Fallon. And you’re right with your comparison about me and Hailey. What’s the saying? Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?”
Still hating the use of the word ‘friends’ when it relates to Elizabeth, I lean my head back and close my eyes. “Get some sleep, kitten.”
She removes her legs from atop my thighs and curls them underneath her in the seat. I wrap my arm around her shoulder when I feel her head rest against my arm.
“Thank you for kidnaping me,” she whispers.
“You seem to be doling out a lot of thank yous to me today. I’m sorry I didn’t get to take you to Venice or Sydney.”
“How about we plan on me taking you one day?”
“I’ll hold you to that. Now get some rest. Before you know it, we’ll be landing and back home.”
And my time with Elizabeth will be at an end.