Page 61 of The Other Side of Apart

Tears well in my throat, clogging it, but his voice pulls pain and sadness out with one word. “Dad?”

CHAPTER 34

Istand in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the airport tarmac, watching planes take off, land, and roll to their gates. One of them is mine, ready to take me far away when all I want to do is run back to Marcus.

I look down at the two wrinkled boarding passes Chaz handed me when I agreed to do this. He told me he would have my flight records wiped along with his so Nick couldn’t track us down. The plan is for him to text Nick and tell him where I’ll meet him with the diamonds but get me on a plane to Taiwan with them instead. Chaz will also be on a plane to somewhere no one will ever find him.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I stare at the dark screen. I turned it off when I left the hospital, but…

I press the power button, and the screen comes to life. I choke on my own air as stacks of missed texts and calls from Marcus appear on my screen, one by one. My fingers flex. I shouldn’t read them. I should delete them so I stay strong, but I’m not and don’t want to be.

Marcus: Where are you?

Marcus: Nurse says I can go home.

Marcus: Mei? I’m sorry about what I said earlier. Let’s figure out where we’re going. Come back to my room.

Marcus: Your phone shows you’re home??? I really hope it’s wrong because it’s not safe there.

Marcus: MEI??????

Marcus: Where are you? Call me.

Marcus: Did you really leave? All your stuff’s gone. Don’t do this. We can talk about this.

Marcus: What do you mean by fixing? How are you going to fix anything by leaving? That fixes nothing and busts everything into thousands of pieces.

Marcus: Where are you? I’ll come to you, just answer your phone and we can talk about it.

Marcus: Please don’t do this.

I squeeze my eyes shut, clenching my phone in my fist. I don’t want to do this. I should call him. Just once, to explain. He knows I’d never leave him, but if I call and tell him my plan, he’ll try to stop me. He’ll call his dad or the police, and Nick will go free again. That, and if the cops get involved, my time apartfrom Marcus could be much longer than the five days I’m giving it now.

I stare at his picture on my phone: a close-up of him lying on his side of the bed at The Palazzo, his blue eyes talking to me. If his eyes could see mine now, they’d tell him everything I can’t.

But until this is all worked out, I have to go to Taiwan alone, and Marcus can’t know.

CHAPTER 35

Dad’s not singing to the Led Zeppelin song blasting from the car speakers like he usually would. He’s just staring out the windshield while I lie in the backseat, gazing at the roof of the rental car he picked up after he landed in Indianapolis late last night. Or this morning, or…whenever. Don’t know what day or time it is, just that everything is lost. Mei. Our life together. My third chance at Stanford. The meeting was supposed to be this morning. And here I am, taking up the entire backseat while Dad drives me back to San Francisco, Mei-less. Broken in so many ways. And I can’t bring myself to care. I have too many questions and no answers. No motivation to call Stanford and beg for a fourth shot. I want everything to stop. The pain, my thoughts, this car that’s taking me in the direction I wanted to go a few days ago, but now none of it even matters. Not even Stanford. Yeah, the car’s speeding forward, but I’m going backwards off a cliff. And that’s fine—I prefer not to see my final moments. Though honestly, Nick pretty much killed me.

Dad heard about Nick being in Indianapolis before I called him. Guess he had a few of his guys keeping track of Mei and me since we left Stanford. Apparently, he knew I wasn’t going toshow up with Mei when he told me to. And he never turned us in. Just kept an eye on us from a distance. I should be mad, but I’m too relieved I don’t have to tell him everything that led to this point and relive it. He knew stuff about Nick and knew Nick would be after Mei. His informant called him after Nick shot me, then the department secretary handed him an anonymous message, detailing where I was, and Dad was on a plane two hours later. There’s only one person who knew where I was. She didn’t wanna deal with me, so she called my dad.

By the time I worked up the courage to call him, he was on his layover, pacing the airport. He sobbed when he heard my voice. I sobbed when I heard his, and when he finally made it to me, he’d hugged me for ten minutes. I’d cried for all ten. All the awful things we’d said to each other—and all the things I hadn’t said before I left San Francisco—got flattened in that hug.

Dad had helped me pack whatever was left and carried everything to the car while I’d picked up Charlie in his carrier. He hasn’t been himself since Mei left, and I totally get him.

When the apartment door closed behind me, I’d locked the old anger toward Dad inside. Tried leaving every Mei feeling and memory behind too, but they clung to me.

We won’t get home until tomorrow. Lots of cross-country driving time for Dad to ask questions, but he still hasn’t, so I lie in the back, waiting. I don’t even have a clue where to start the conversation.

Dad clears his throat. I tense, focusing on the pain in my leg that no Ibuprofen is touching. He changes lanes, speeding through whatever state we’re in. Thankfully, not Indiana anymore. If only all my hurt and memories had stayed there.

“What’s going through your head right now, son?” He turns down Zeppelin, and I want to laugh for the first time in days. Nothing’s going through it. Everything’s jammed inside it,wrestling for room, but there’s no place to go. All I can say is, “Not sure.”

He nods, stretching in his seat. He’s been driving for nine straight hours, only stopping for bathroom breaks for all three of us and to load up on caffeine.

“Embarrassed you had to keep me balanced while I used the urinal,” I add.

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