Page 62 of The Legend (Rivers Wilde 2)

I start to sob and sit back on my bed.

“Now, pack.” She points to the suitcases lined up at the door and walks out without saying another word.

The shock and humiliation of that evening have feasted on the sorrow that followed and now, I’m just numb.

She’s right, there’s nothing here for me.

So, I slide off my bed and start to pack my life up.

Again.

14

GONE

REMI

The bookstore has been abandoned.

The books are still there. They look like they’re open for business, but the lights are off and the doors are locked.

I’ve been by every day this week and have finally accepted that they’re gone. Without a trace. Without a word. Everyone is shocked. The square is ablaze with chatter about them packing up their car and leaving in the middle of the night. Lister owns the store again, according to Regan’s intel.

I haven’t been this close to crying since the night I met her.

I’ve never felt more frustration and helplessness in my life. There’s an ache in my chest that has grown more and more acute every day.

I stroke the tiny box in my hand and shove it back into my pocket. I shouldn’t have waited to give it to her. I had the locket made just last week. A W is engraved on the front. Be Legendary engraved on the back.

The morning after the party, I went to To Be Read. Her mother refused to let me in. She had cut the trellis down after the first time I climbed it and threatened to call the police when I started throwing twigs at Kal’s window in hopes that she’d come talk to me.

I left. I didn’t want to make an already fucked-up situation worse. Surely, she would calm down after a few days and talk to me.

How wrong I’d been.

I haven’t slept well or been able to eat since that night. I’m sick with regret and now, fucking scared at the prospect of not ever seeing her again.

I’m also out of time. I’m leaving for school in a few days. and I haven’t even told my family that I’m heading to Washington, DC and not Austin.

I haven’t spoken to my mother since the night of the Gala. I blame myself more than anyone. I lied to Kal. But she orchestrated it so that she found out in the most humiliating way possible. I haven’t been able to stand being in the same room with her.

But with every step I take away from the bookstore and toward my house, I start to look forward to this conversation.

“Two can play that game.”

“What game would that be?” My grandfather steps into the foyer just as I open the door and I jump out of my skin.

“Stop sneaking up on people, Pops,” I grumble.

“Well, I wouldn’t need to sneak up on you if you hadn’t spent the last three days avoiding everyone.”

His voice is gruff from years of chain smoking and drinking whiskey. Yet even as he scolds me, there’s a tenderness in his manner that softens the often stinging bite of his rebuke.

“Easy on the guilt trips, old man, they don’t work anymore.” I start walking toward the stairs.

“Remi. Come to my office.” He’s using a tone he hasn’t taken with me since I was a boy. He’s not taking no for an answer. I follow him into his office and sit on one of the chairs on the other side of his desk.

“Glad you’re finally listening to someone.”

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