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He shrugs. “Okay.”
Suddenly, I have to leave. I walk to the front door and frantically put on my shoes. “Krew, can you tell your dad that I have to go?”
“Is everything okay?” Tyler asks as he comes down the stairs.
“Yeah, I’m just tired.”
And scared.
And confused.
And a hypocrite.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I open the front door, stepping outside before Tyler gets too close.
Tyler hesitates by the door. “I’ll call you later. We’re going to dinner at Diane’s, so it will be late.”
“Sure.” My smile is tense.
I turn and run to my car without a glance back.
CHAPTER34
MEG
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”I yell at myself.
This is what I do.
I yell in my car.
It’s much cheaper than paying for therapy.
Krew’s words play on repeat in my head.Can you be my mom? She’s dead. I want you to be my mom.
My phone buzzes inside my purse, and I wait until the next stop light to pull it out. There are seven missed calls from a combination of Matt, Tessa, and Brooke, and I can see the sibling group chat has exploded with texts.
My mind immediately goes to the worst-case scenario.
Something’s wrong with my dad.
I call Brooke on my car’s speaker.
“Meg, where have you been? We’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”
“Is dad dead?” I blurt.
“What? No! He’sengaged.”
That can’t be right.
“He proposed to Anna Mae last night. They’re getting married in a couple of weeks.”
My heart’s shattering to pieces in slow motion.
It feels like the moment the doctor said there was nothing more he could do for my mom, a blow so hard it knocks the wind right out of your chest.
