Chapter Five
Caleb
When I got home, the house was silent.
Completely silent.
Usually, Indi had music playing somewhere. Soft rock in her bedroom, sad indie music drifting down the hallway, or one of her playlists echoing through the kitchen while she studied.
But there was nothing.
An uneasy feeling settled low in my stomach.
“Indi?” I called out while shutting the front door behind me.
No answer.
I walked quickly down the hallway toward her room and knocked softly.
Still nothing.
I pushed the door open slowly and froze.
Her bed was perfectly made.
Every surface was spotless.
Too damn spotless.
The perfumes that normally cluttered her dresser were gone. So was her makeup, her hairbrush, the pile of hoodies she always dumped on the chair in the corner.
A cold chill rushed down my spine instantly.
“No…”
I walked inside faster, looking around wildly.
The room was empty, and panic hit me hard and fast. I yanked open her wardrobe and stared at the bare hangers swaying gently on the rail.
Her clothes were gone.
All of them.
My heartbeat exploded into overdrive.
“Indi?” I called louder, even though deep down I already knew she wasn’t there.
I searched the entire house anyway like a complete lunatic.
Bathroom.
Laundry.
Music room.
Backyard.
Nothing.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and called her straight away. The ringing echoed faintly through the speaker, but not through the house. Which meant she’d taken her phone too.
“Fuck.”
I hung up and called again instantly while pacing through the kitchen—straight to voicemail this time.
That only made the panic worse.
Where the hell had she gone?
We still had final exams. Graduation was only days away. She couldn’t seriously think she could disappear forever over one argument.
Could she?
The front door opened behind me, and Dad walked in, stopping when he saw me pacing frantically.
“Caleb?”
I turned toward him so fast I nearly knocked a chair over.
Dad’s expression changed instantly. “Whoa. Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“She’s gone,” I whispered.
Dad frowned. “Who’s gone?”
“Indi.” My voice cracked badly. “She packed everything and left. She won’t answer me.”
Dad’s face hardened as he glanced toward the hallway. “You checked her room?”
“It’s empty.” I dragged both hands through my hair. “Everything’s gone.”
“Okay.” Dad stepped closer calmly despite the tension in his face. “Let me try calling her.” He pulled out his phone and dialed while I paced like I was losing my damn mind.
No answer.
Dad exhaled quietly and lowered the phone. “What happened between you two?”
I stopped pacing instantly. And then every bit of anger I’d been holding onto disappeared, leaving only guilt behind. “It’s my fault,” I muttered.
Dad folded his arms. “Caleb.”
I swallowed hard. “We slept together last night.”
Dad blinked once, then rubbed a hand slowly over his beard. “Right.”
“And afterward I told her I loved her and wanted us to be together.” My chest tightened painfully again just saying it aloud. “Then she freaked out.” Dad’s expression softened slightly.
“She thinks relationships destroy people,” I continued bitterly. “She thinks if I become famous one day, I’ll overdose or die somehow, and she’ll end up like her mum.”
Dad went quiet after that.
Too quiet.
“You understand why she’d think that, though, don’t you?” he said carefully.
“Yeah, but she’s acting like we’re doomed before we’ve even started.”
Dad nodded slowly. “She’s terrified, son.”
“I know.” I looked away. “But leaving?”
That part hurt the most.
Dad grabbed his keys from the bench. “C’mon. We’ll find her.”
Panic surged through me all over again as we headed toward the front door.
What if she’d gone somewhere stupid?
What if she’d completely shut down?
Dad was right.
Indi was absolutely capable of self-destructing right now, and the thought made me feel physically sick.
Just as Dad reached for the door handle, my phone buzzed loudly on the kitchen bench.
Both of us froze before I lunged for it instantly. And the second I saw Indi’s name flash across the screen, my entire body locked up.
My hands were shaking so badly I almost dropped the phone as I opened the message.
Indi: I’m fine, Caleb, but I’m moving away. I found a house to rent up north, and it’s better if you move on without me. We don’t belong together, and this could never work. Thank your parents for me. They’ve been amazing, but this is goodbye. Indi xo
Every word felt like another punch straight to the chest. I read the text out loud anyway, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears.
Dad exhaled heavily beside me. “Did you know she’d found somewhere to live?”
I shook my head slowly. “I knew she was looking.” My throat tightened painfully. “I just didn’t know she’d found a place.”
Silence settled heavily between us.
My mind was racing in circles, trying to figure out where she’d gone, how long she’d been planning this, and whether she’d packed up her entire life while I sat at school thinking about how to win her back.
Part of me wanted to track her down.
I could have.
Between Dad, Colt, and the resources surrounding our family, finding Indi wouldn’t have been impossible…
But deep down, I already knew doing that would only push her further away.
Indi valued trust above all, and if I invaded her privacy now, she’d hate me for it. So somehow, despite every instinct screaming at me to go after her, I forced myself to stay still.
For now.
Graduation was coming.
Surely she’d show up for that.
Surely this wasn’t really goodbye.
Dad studied me carefully. “You okay?”
A broken laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Not really.” I rubbed hard at my eyes. “The girl I love just disappeared to get away from me, Dad. I feel like absolute crap.”
Dad blinked a few times, and without saying anything else, he pulled me into a hug.
And to be honest, that nearly broke me more than the text did.
Because suddenly I felt like a kid again instead of pretending to be some grown man who could handle heartbreak properly.
“It’s okay, mate,” Dad said quietly. “I highly doubt this is the last we’ll ever see of Indi.”
I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat.
“I’ll make sure she’s safe, okay? I’ll figure out where she is eventually. But I won’t push her before she’s ready.”
I nodded against his shoulder. “Just make sure she’s okay,” I whispered. “Even if she never wants to see me again… I just need to know she’s safe.”
Dad pulled back enough to look me directly in the eye. “I promise.”
I nodded again, blinking hard as tears burned behind my eyes. Then Dad sighed quietly and leaned back against the kitchen bench.
“You know,” he said carefully. “I understand more than you think I do.”
I frowned slightly. “When I lost your mum the first time…” He shook his head slowly. “Christ, Caleb, I completely lost myself.”
I stayed quiet while he spoke because Dad seldom talked about that period of his life.
“The pain gets ugly if you let it.” His gaze drifted somewhere distant. “It burns through you until all you can think about is hurting back. You lash out, make stupid decisions, and convince yourself that destroying everything around you will somehow make the pain easier to live with.”
Maddie flashed briefly through my mind.
Dad noticed my expression and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Caleb.”
I sighed heavily. “I kissed some girl at school today.”
Dad stared at me for a second. “Did it help?”
“No.”
“Thought so.”
I scrubbed both hands over my face. “I just don’t know what to do.”
Dad stepped closer again, his voice quieter this time. “You wait.”
I looked up at him. “If you love her the way you say you do, then you give her time.” My whole body goes tight. “She’s broken right now, mate. More than you probably even realize. Her entire world collapsed in one night, and now she’s terrified of loving someone enough to lose them too.”
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it hurt any less, though.
Dad squeezed the back of my neck gently. “It took seven years before your mum came back into my life.” He gave me a small smile. “And deep down, I think I always knew she would.”
I looked down at Indi’s message again.
Goodbye.
The word made me feel sick.
“You can’t force this,” Dad continued softly. “And you definitely can’t punish her into loving you. All you can do is let her figure herself out and hope she finds her way back.”
I nodded slowly, though my brain was fried.
Indi had found a house.
Somewhere far enough away that she thought I wouldn’t follow. And now she was out there alone while I stood in our kitchen trying not to fall apart.
It hurt.
Christ, it hurt so badly.
But somewhere underneath all that pain, I knew Dad was right. Chasing her right now would only push her further away. So for the first time since reading her text, I forced myself to breathe properly.
If I really loved her…
Then maybe the hardest thing I could do was let her go for now and trust that one day she’d come back to me.
At least, I hoped she would.