Page 81 of The Sinner (Haven Grace Prep 1)

“No.” I take her face between my hands, forcing her to look at me. “You were a child, manipulated into doing something by someone who should have been protecting you. This is not your fault.”

I hold her as she cries, both of us fully understanding that the events that tore us apart were out of our control. I may have come back here with the intention of getting revenge, but instead I got something so much more. Her.

“I really want to stay with you, but I promised Brady I’d help him with something at the studio.” She sniffles, wiping her eyes.

I nod and place a kiss to her forehead. “It’s okay. I’ll drive you. But Sav?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

As she exhales, her face breaks into a smile that takes my breath away. “I love you, too.”

AFTER DROPPING SAVANNAH OFF at the studio, I go home to find my mom in the living room. Home videos of me as a child play on the TV screen. As I see myself run around in a batman cape, with a paper towel tube as a sword, I laugh.

“I was so weird.”

“Yeah. You were always my favorite, though.”

A small laugh bubbles out of my mouth. “Favorite out of one. Look at me accomplishing greatness.”

I walk over to the pile of movies and put a different one in. As my mom presses play, I sit down next to her.

“Savannah, let’s go,” I tell her, getting impatient.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” She walks into the frame in her white leotard. “Jeez, Gray. You can’t rush perfection.”

Tessa and Delaney stand next to us, smiling as Savi walks toward me with fake flowers.

“Okay,” Laney starts. “We are gathered here today to join Grayson and Savannah is holy mattress-mony.” She turns to me. “Do you, Grayson, take Savannah to be your wife? To love even when she’s sick and gross?”

“I do.”

She smiles and turns to Savi. “And do you, Savannah, take Grayson to be your husband? To love even if he’s a stinky butthead?”

Savannah giggles. “I do.”

“Well, then, by the power vested in me, by the piece of cardboard that Tessa and I drew this morning, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now share a juice box.”

Savi takes the first sip and hands it to me to do the same. Then, we exchange pipe-cleaner rings and wave at the camera.

“Aw.” My mom presses a hand to her chest. “You two were the cutest.”

I can’t help but smile, hoping one day that fake wedding becomes a real one. “Yeah, we were.”

A HALF HOUR LATER, I’M working on an essay when my phone rings and Brady’s name appears on the screen. For a second, I wonder if Savannah’s phone died. She had mentioned coming over after they were done.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Hey, Grayson.” Brady sounds less than thrilled to speak to me. “Can I talk to Savannah real fast? I just want to know if she’s going to be home for dinner, and she isn’t answering her phone.”

Everything goes ice cold in an instant. “Wait, what? I dropped her off at the studio almost an hour ago. She said she had to help you with something.”

“I haven’t been at the studio all day, and she and I definitely never made plans.”

It only takes a second for everything to click. Her knowing everything. How heartbroken she was about it. The determined look in her eyes when I dropped her off. No.

“Fuck!” I jump up out of my chair and grab my keys off the desk, skipping most of the steps as I leap down them. “Meet me at her dad’s house! I think she’s in trouble.”

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