Page 55 of I Hear You

She’s dropped the fake pleasantries now that she knows I won’t be giving her any money.

“Why is my stuff in a storage unit?”

“My stuff is in there, too. I had to put it there when we moved out of the house,” she says with the wave of her hand like this is old news.

“When did you move out of the house?” I ask, my eyes protruding in surprise.

“A few months ago,” she says. She’s twisting her hands together in her lap and continues, “I couldn’t keep up with the payments.”

She lost the house. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. I am absolutely fuming, though.

I take her storage unit key from her and agree to pay the next month's fee. I let her know I’ll be going by today to take my things. I’m not hopeful about what she kept or what condition it’s in. Mostly, I just want photos and sentimental items. I’m sure there’s nothing of value in there. If there was, she would have sold it by now.

By the time I make it back downstairs, Henry has made friends with the little boy sitting next to him on a woman's lap. He’s playing peek-a-boo with the toddler and all three of them are laughing. I stop a few feet behind them and watch for a few moments, not ready to face Henry just yet, but also enjoying watching him interact with the kid. It’s sweet, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it makes me a little less mad at him for everything.

I suck a breath in and out through my nose and tap Henry on the shoulder. He waves bye-bye to the little boy and his mother and follows me out of the hospital. I grab my phone from my pocket and order an Uber to take us to the storage unit a few miles away.

“My mom is actually fine, she’s just a selfish bitch,” I bite out.

Henry doesn’t ask questions but can see me ordering the car from over my shoulder.

“Why are we going to a storage place?” he asks.

“Because–” I start, ready to just get the hard part over with.

I turn to face Henry and spit everything out.

“Because my mother is an addict, blew all her money on drugs and lost our house. She put everything she had left in this storage unit and she stopped paying the bill and if I don’t go pay the bill, they’re going to lock her out of it and there might be things of mine in there I want. I promise I will be as quick as I can and we can get back on the death trap some people like to call an airplane and go home.”

I’m breathing a little hard and my heart is racing. I just spilled everything I’d been avoiding telling Ender and then some all over him. Let all the dirty laundry fly, right here on the sidewalk outside the hospital. I’m waiting for him to bolt or tell me he wants nothing to do with me and my baggage and that he’s leaving and I can find my own way home. He doesn’t do either of those things.

He slowly takes the phone I’d been holding between both my hands and wraps his arms around me. Pressing my face to his chest and squeezing me firmly. Any self control I had is gone. Tears come flooding out from my eyes and big sobs escape from my throat. The anger I’m feeling toward my mom and toward Henry/Ender collides with the sorrow and shame I’ve tried to keep buried. Henry says nothing, he just holds me until the Uber arrives.

Chapter twenty-six

Henderson

Madisonisstillsnifflingand a few tears are rolling down her cheeks occasionally when we’re dropped off outside the storage unit. She makes her way down the rows of padlocked metal roll up doors. I rush to cut her off and stop her from walking, placing my hands on her shoulders. I keep looking down at her until her eyes lift to meet mine.

“Why don’t you let me rent us a couple of hotel rooms and we will stay overnight and deal with this in the morning?”

I’m worried she’s doing too much at once. Worried she’s overwhelming herself and is going to actually break down at any minute. I know she’s strong, hell she’d have to be to handle everything she just admitted to me without any help from anyone. It seems like she’s been hiding that secret for a long time. My heart is hurting so much right now; not just for her, but for us.

Her not responding to my last email is making more sense as the day goes on.

“No, I just want to get this over with Henry,” she pleads.

I nod once and move to her side to help her continue the search for unit 324.

I try, and fail miserably, to hide my reaction when we find the unit and roll up the door. It’s packed full of furniture, boxes and trash bags. None of it stacked neatly and almost all of it looks to have just been thrown in here. I look to Madison, trying to gauge her reaction.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get some rest before tackling this?”

“No,” she says defiantly and grabs for a box.

We’ve been sorting through things for over an hour and it’s getting dark outside. I’m getting a little worried we’re in over our heads. I notice Madison sat down in front of a box a little while ago and is reading little black notebooks she found in it. The box looks full of them, all the same little black notebooks with handwritten notes in them.

Suddenly, she gasps and draws my attention. I watch as she brings her hand to her mouth as she reads. Her eyes begin to well with tears and I’m only slightly worried she’ll end up with permanent tear stains on her cheeks after today. She snaps the book closed and throws it against the storage room wall.

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