Page 49 of Twisted Trails
“There’s no such thing,” Élise replies, smoothing my hair with the same soft rhythm she used earlier, but there’s something sad in her eyes.
“What did you talk about?” I ask, dreading the answer and how much I need to hear it.
She runs her fingers lightly over the flowers on my tattoo, tracing one petal like she’s memorizing it. Mason flashes through my head like a spark, and the ache deepens.
“Did Luc tell you that his father committed suicide when he was thirteen?”
I freeze, and the room shifts from under me, tiltingeverything.
“No,” I breathe out.
Fuck.
“It was very hard for us. Of course, it was hard for Luc, but for me, it was unbearable. I was married to the love of my life. We had a good kid who was loud and wild, always getting into trouble, but I loved him so much. That was all I ever had to worry about. Whether Luc had jumped off someone’s roof again.”
Roofs?
“I had a good life,” she continues, voice smaller. “A loving husband, a sweet boy, a home that felt full, and then one morning, I woke up, and there was a letter beside me. A goodbye.” She swallows hard, her eyes turning glossy. “He was just like Luc,” she shares. “Adrenaline in his blood, always chasing the next thrill. I guess… I guess that’s how he wanted to go.”
She looks past me, like she’s somewhere far away now.
“He jumped off a bridge. I think he wanted to feel alive onelast time. I ask myself every day if that last jump gave him joy or dread.”
I can see it too easily. Luc’s dad, alone, wind rushing past him, choosing that fall, choosingfinality.Élise, finding a letter instead of a husband, and a young Luc, waking up in a house with one less heartbeat.
They didn’t deserve that pain.
This woman, who brought me into her home without hesitation and put her arms around me.
Luc, who held me while I broke, who pulled me into his chest like it was the safest place in the world.
Luc, who lost his father because he chose to leave.
And I’m planning to do the same damn thing to him.
Toallof them.
Flashes of the people I love finding me gone fill my mind.
Élise, waking up to the news. Luc, reliving the silence he already had to survive once. And Dane.
God, Dane.
I told myself it would be a relief for him. That he’d finally be free after giving up everything for me—his choices, his dreams, the years of his life he sacrificed trying to hold me together. I convinced myself I was a burden he’d finally be able to set down.
But now, seeing what that kind of lossactuallylooks like?
Leaving him wouldn’t be freedom. It would destroy him.
Just like it would break Luc. It would hollow out Piper and Mason, and Finn would never be able to live guilt-free again.
And my dad, who just said he loved me for the first time in my life.
Theidea of beingthatkind of pain in someone else’s life.
Fuck.
My insides turn to water, and my skin suddenly doesn’t fit right as my stomach churns violently, and before I can even process what’s happening, I’m on my feet and stumbling into the kitchen.
