Chapter 28 #2
That night, her father called me. I hadn’t heard from him since I’d left, though since then, I’d been sending him most of my paychecks—one thousand dollars a month—to help get the house paid off that Kat and I bought together.
He had moved Kat home to Crestview; she was living in her parents’ rental house next door to them, but the mortgage still had to be paid until it would sell.
In a small town, that could be awhile. It was costing me nearly everything I made to do it, but it was only fair.
The divorce had granted it to her, but I still felt responsible.
It wasn’t her fault she’d struggled to keep a job, nor her parents’ fault.
They weren’t rich, and they’d always struggled to make ends meet, so taking on our mortgage wasn’t exactly ideal for them.
We all just shouldered the responsibility the best way we knew how.
When he called that night, he was furious. And I had no idea why. He asked what I was thinking seeing Kat again, that she’d been working to get better, but that seeing me caused her to spiral.
I felt like shit, okay? I mean, how was I supposed to know she’d been lying all that time.
I’d gone back to following her blog, and she really did seem to be her old self again.
I had no idea how far the lie had gone. Apparently she’d been telling everyone in Crestview that we were still married, that I was away for work, and her most recent lie—the reason her dad was calling me then…
she was claiming we were planning to adopt a baby.
At hearing that, I should’ve never gone back.
I should’ve protected my child above all else, but Kat was my first best friend.
She was the person I watched grow from a mud-covered four-year-old to a beautiful bride on our wedding day.
She’s the one I cried with when my sister died.
The one whose hand I held when my parents announced their divorce.
Growing up, we spent every waking minute together.
I’d abandoned her once, I just…I couldn’t do it again.
We made a plan. I was going to see her again, to try and smooth things over, explain what was happening and make sure everything was okay.
I thought things went okay. With me, she was totally normal.
She said she understood that we weren’t together, that she was only lying to save face, but she knew she had to tell the truth.
When she texted me and told me Palmer was in Crestview, I panicked.
I didn’t know if it was even true. I didn’t know what she was doing there or what Kat would do.
What Kat would tell her. I lied about the break-in, pretended to be panicked to get Palmer home, get her away from my ex-wife at all costs.
I used a fork to break off a bit of the trim.
It was stupid, I know, but we’ll just chalk it up to yet another dumb decision I made on the long list I’m sharing with you. It’s far from the worst.
When her dad called again, he said they were going to move her back in with them.
They said it wasn’t safe to have her living alone anymore.
She’d been erratic, missing all hours of the day and night, blowing through money, sleeping outside on the patio.
They were terrified she was going to spiral further, and they wanted to act quickly.
I was just supposed to keep her busy while they hired movers to empty her house and get her things set up in theirs.
It was only one day. He asked me to take her out to dinner one more time, to keep her busy because she had no one else, and then to never speak to her again.
I thought it was the least I could do, honestly.
I felt I owed it to them. To her. We went to eat somewhere crowded and public, like before, but she was agitated.
Angry. She complained about her fight with her father.
Complained about her food blogging. Complained about everything.
She kept wanting to go home, but it was too early.
Her father had asked me to keep her gone until mid-afternoon.
When she insisted, I went with her. If I could go back and change that, I would. If I could redo anything in my life, it would be that moment. That stupid, foolish, blind moment when I thought there was no way she could ever hurt me.
She was sick.
She was sad.
She was a lot of things.
But she wasn’t evil.
We went back to her house, and I insisted we go outside. With just a bit of a heads up, her dad had the movers take a lunch break. Luckily, he’d only had the bedrooms cleared out thus far, so I ushered her through the living room and kitchen before she could notice anything.
When I came outside and saw her trying to nurse my son, I nearly lost it. I knew then how far gone she was. If she hadn’t had Gray in her arms, I would’ve bolted. I would’ve thrown a fit. But how could I do that when I didn’t know what she was capable of? I didn’t know how far she’d fallen.
After I’d given her the bottle to feed him, I told her we had to go.
Told her we had somewhere to be. Instead, I drove around the block, then parked next door at her parents’ house and told them what had happened.
I told them how sorry I was, but I couldn’t help them anymore.
They were on their own. I told them I’d continue to pay on the Red River mortgage, but that was it.
I couldn’t put my wife and my son in danger.
I saw it in their eyes then, it was just one more thing I was disappointing them on, but I couldn’t help it.
When I left their house, I buckled Gray in and walked around to my side of the car.
As soon as I sat down, the back door opened and shut, and I met her eyes in the rearview.
“What the—”
Something heavy smacked into my head with force.
Then it all went black.