Page 2 of A River of Crows

Sloan choked back tears. She couldn’t cry to Noah. Not anymore. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll be in touch.”

She ended the call before Noah had a chance to say anything else. She grabbed the box of tissues. Empty. She threw it across the room and wiped her eyes across her sleeve. Then she grabbed a pen and signed the divorce papers.

Dad was getting out, Mom was getting out, and Sloan was getting out too.

As soon as Sloan passed the sunbaked Welcome to Mallowater sign, it felt like an x-ray apron had dropped on her chest. Mallowater was only half a day’s drive from Sloan’s home in Houston, but it was also a lifetime away. She’d left this backwater town the summer after graduation and hadn’t looked back.

Sloan noticed the population marker was almost too faded to see now. It read 38,375, but Sloan was certain that number decreased every day.

There was nothing much special about Mallowater, Texas. Towering pine trees, scattered crops of wheat and cotton, nearly lost in weeds, old rotting barns in forgotten fields, shredded tires and beer cans littering the road, and of course, crows. Crows on every fence post, crows dotting telephone wires, crows at Easthead River. With so many crows at Easthead River, no one even called it by its name. It was always Crow’s Nest Creek.

And Crow’s Nest Creek had swept away twelve years of happy memories.

Sloan’s phone rang from the passenger seat. She flipped it over and saw the number. Liam. Her breath caught. He deserved to be sent to voicemail, but she couldn’t bring herself to decline his call.

“Hi, Sloan. How are you?”

How was she? What kind of cliché question was that? She was terrible. “I’m okay.”

“My lawyer said you dropped off the papers. Thanks for signing them.”

Sloan sank in her seat. It was over. It was really over. “I didn’t think I had a choice.”

“Don’t start that, Lo.” Liam exhaled into the phone. “This isn’t all on me.”

Sloan gripped the wheel. “Don’t call me Lo. You have no right to call me that. And it is all on you, Liam. You and Megan, that is.”

“Leave her out of this.” Liam raised his voice. “I wasn’t perfect, but I never cheated.”

“Right. Guess it’s normal to have 3 a.m. conversations with coworkers.”

“Come on. You never trusted me, not from the start. You were always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Sloan gave a wry laugh. “And drop it did.”

“Believe whatever you want, but Megan had nothing to do with this.”

“So, you aren’t seeing her?” Sloan’s tire hit the road’s shoulder.

Silence.

Sloan yanked the car back onto the road. “Are you seeing her?”

“Yeah, I am now. She’s been a friend and—”

“Enough, Liam. I signed the papers. Tell me when the house sells. I got everything out I needed.”

“Sloan, wait.” Liam lowered his voice. “I heard you were going to Mallowater.”

“Who told you that?”

“Take my car,” Liam said, ignoring the question. “That Chevy is on its tenth life. And we can find someone to help with your mom.”

“Wow. Guess good news really does travel fast.”

“Don’t be like this, Sloan. You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”

Sloan’s eyes flooded with tears. No, she shouldn’t have to do this alone, but she was alone. Completely alone, again.

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