Page 104 of What I Should Have Known

“No, he really hasn’t. But he did know about Wyatt from the get-go, so that part is on him.” I giggled in response.

“And that’s why you are so willing to go find him, because he never gave up on you.”

“Duh. And because I’m sick of the stereotype that it’s always the guy that has to run after the girl when she disappears. I’m not some princess who’s incapable of taking care of things on her own.” I scrolled through my contacts and found Ford’s number.

“Yeah, but Bernie treats you like one, doesn’t he?”

I rolled my eyes as she threw the car into drive and began slowly rolling us down the road. “He literally got upset at me when I debated not eating food at the little cookout they hosted.”

Emma’s grin widened as I tapped his number and placed the phone up to my ear. It rang twice and then the line connected.

“Kat?” Ford’s deep voice slipped through the speakers along with background chatter.

“Where are you?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

“The airport, why?” he replied with a soft chuckle.

“Is Bernie with you?”

“No. I’m waiting at a layover headed home. My mawmaw called me after almost fifteen years of no contact, so I caught the first flight out of there. Which was a shitty flight that’s taking me twice as long as normal because the plane got—” He suddenly stopped talking as Emma continued down the road, headed in a random direction since I’d yet to give her an idea of where to go.

“Wait, isn’t Bernie with you? I assumed he was, which was why he hadn’t answered any of my messages,” Ford asked.

“No,” I replied with a heavy sigh and leaned back against the headrest. “He left a note for his mom. He’s gone.”

“Gone? As in gone gone? Gone as in what?” Ford’s panicked response slipped through the speaker on the phone.

“Disappeared. Took off somewhere.”

“Fuck. All right, I’ll find a flight back and—”

“Go. Clearly if your mawmaw called after fifteen years, you’re needed home. I’ll find Bernie. Any idea where he might have gone? He said he leftbecause it would protect me, his mom. Hell, also Raiden, so that rules out anywhere they know,” I asked.

Emma raised a brow but said nothing.

I heard Ford inhale deeply as the seconds stretched between us. “I’d probably try Griffin’s house first? Then Mikey’s? You could call them, see if he’s shown up recently.”

“No, I’m going there. In person,” I replied. “Send me the addresses, please. I know he mentioned they’re close, but that’s it.”

“I’ll send them your way. If he’s not with them, he may have decided to drive cross country to Dom’s. But Dom lives all the way out in Georgia, so I doubt that would be his first stop simply because of distance.”

“Thank you, Ford. And whatever reason you had for leaving your family all those years ago, I hope you’re able to gain some closure by going home,” I said and heard him release a snort of indignation.

“Keep me updated about Bernie, please,” he replied, ignoring my final sentence.

“Will do.” And I tapped the end button.

Within a few seconds, a text message came through from Ford with two addresses attached. Clicking on the first one with Griffin’s name attached, my GPS on my phone pulled up, and we were off.

Emma picked up speed, finally having some sort of direction in mind as I drafted another message to both of my parents. One explaining where I was going and why. One that wasn’t going to allow for argument but was still full of love. Hope roared through the anger and twine of fear twisting within me. My parents had to understand. I needed them to understand.

Yes, I assumed they’d both be a little angry as well as concerned. Which was their right as I was their daughter. But I was also a grown-ass woman who could make her own choices. And someone I cared about more than I’d cared about another person in my lifetime was hurting and needed me.

They could chew me out once I returned home, but all I thought about was Bernie and finding him. Reaching him. And I pressed send on my message.

My knuckles hovered in front of the door of a house that was both grand and inconspicuous. Whoever this Griffin guy was, had money, but he certainly wasn’t one interested in flaunting it. A two-story brick house with pristinely trimmed hedges and an immaculate lawn housed a Cadillac Escalade in the driveway. It all gave hints to the fact that this man and my family were certainly not in the same tax bracket.

Inhaling deeply, I finally knocked on the ornate front door.

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