Page 115 of The Moment Promised

“If I didn’t know you, I’d think you were making this shit up!” She laughs into the receiver, and for the first time in a week, I laugh too.

“I miss you.” I hold my breath to keep her from hearing me cry.

“Aw, do you really? I was starting to think you’d forgotten me.” I hear the smile in her voice.

Chloe doesn’t pity me. She doesn’t hone in on the horribleness of it all, she makes light of the situation and spreads her sunshine all the way to the Florida Keys without even trying.

I need her in my life.

I don’t think, I just speak with my heart. “I was actually thinking of moving to Authensville.”

The air suddenly weighs a thousand pounds. Finn’s expression remains stoic, but I catch the flicker of heartbreak in his features.

Chloe squeals and screams into the phone, laughing giddily and declaring to whoever is near her, “Adeline is moving back, bitches!”

She updates me on her life, telling me about the cute guy Charlie hired at the restaurant.

When I end my call with Chloe, I can’t look at Finn. I can only look down. He doesn’t speak. He stands up, walking with slumped shoulders to my bathroom and closing himself in.

Please don’t let this be the moment I’ve feared, please don’t let this destroy us.

28

I’m filled with anxiety as I wait for the bathroom door to open again, dreading what’s on the other side. I can feel the happily ever after I almost believed we’d achieved being ripped away.

A future without Finn Walker isn’t a place I ever want to be.

But I can’t live this life anymore. I can’t bethisAdeline Miller: child of abusive father. With this agonizing life I wasn’t supposed to live.

I need to start the life I was destined to live, even if I am nineteen years late.

With Charlie and Chloe.

But what about Finn? He belongs in that life as much as I do, but I can’t ask him to uproot everything for me. His life is here. I think mine is a thousand miles away.

The door slowly opens, Finn’s expressionless as he walks to my bed and sits on the edge. He’s far enough to where I could only touch him if I extended my entire arm. He’s quiet for a moment, as if he’s gathering his thoughts.

I speak first. “I’m sorry for catching you off-guard like that, but I didn’t know I wanted to move until the moment I said it?—”

“I wasn’t caught off guard, love.” He gives me a gentle smile. “I know you, Adeline.”

I know you.

Those words do something strange to my soul, lifting it up while shooting it down at once.

This isn’t fair. Anger thickens my blood. I’m not sure who to direct it toward.

My mom, since she was the one driving the car that changed my entire life. Even though it was a tragic accident.

Or Jason, for his relentless rage and the years of anguish my mom and I survived.

Or Charlie, for not fighting harder to find Evia. For joking about being too young to be a father.

Or myself, for not being able see the good through all the bad in my life. I might not have met Finn if I didn’t run away that day, ten years ago, and cried on that swing set.

I wish I could split myself in two and give one half to Finn and my mom, the other to Charlie and Chloe.

“I don’t want to leave you,” I whisper, feeling every fear and doubt I’ve had become a reality.

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