I clapped him on the shoulder. “Nope. Your in-laws are fucking assholes. I need to find Violet.”
I already knew it was too late, though. I knew it in my bones. She was gone. I’d looked away for a minute and she’d done a runner. I slammed my fist into a wall and swore.
“You need to get out of here. Right now.” Debbie Thomas came at me from the ballroom, her face a mask of anger. “Whatever you did to my daughter, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned into her space. “WhateverIdid to your daughter? One of us hurt her tonight. One of us got up on stage like a couple of fucking circus monkeys and pretended to only have one daughter. One of us has been crushing her fucking spirit for her entire life. If you figure out which one of us hurt your daughter, maybe you’ll figure out how to be a better mother. Now, I’m going to find your daughter and hopefully stop her from running away from people who love her desperately. Another clue? I don’t mean you or your husband.”
39.
***Ian***
Islammedmywayinto Adam’s a few hours later, a bottle of whiskey in one hand and crushed mailbox in the other. I dropped the mailbox on the ground and went straight to the kitchen cabinets to grab glasses.
Adam walked in with a smile on his face. “Someone’s... What happened?”
I put the glasses down on the countertop and let out a furious scream when one of them shattered. It was too much. I threw it into the sink and then braced myself over it, breathing hard. “I looked everywhere. I searched her house. I broke into her parents’ house and looked there. Took their fucking mailbox as a souvenir. I can’t find her.”
“What are you talking about? Ian, slow down and tell us what happened.”
I opened the whiskey and poured a hefty amount straight down my throat. Wiping my mouth on my shirt, I saw that Jayden had come in behind Adam. I could see the horror on their faces and feel it reflected in my body. “Her parents.”
I explained what had happened, or what I knew, while we shared the bottle. When I finished, I felt like crying. I didn’t know the last time I’d cried, but I could feel it bubbling up.
“I found her after she left me before. Followed her to this yurt at some artists’ commune. I didn’t know what I would find. I was so hurt, and I couldn’t figure out why she’d done it. I loved her then, and I love her now.” I swore when my nose started burning. “You want to know what I found? It wasn’t someone happy to have left her boyfriend. She was a fucking mess. I watched her cry for days. She barely ate. She sobbed. Whimpered my name in her sleep.”
They both stared out at nothing, their own eyes suspiciously misty.
“I didn’t know why she’d left me, but she’d done it, despite how badly it hurt her. I couldn’t make myself ignore her desires when she was willing to suffer for them. I couldn’t make her face her problems if she was willing to blow up her life to avoid them. So I left.” I wiped my eyes and shook my head. “They fucked her up. Made her think she’s not good enough. She thinks we’re going to wake up and realize that we’re with her and not whoever the fuck she thinks we think we’re with.”
“They were shitty when I saw them at Thanksgiving, but this is something deeper.” Jayden’s voice was quiet as he spoke. “It never seemed right, how she ended things. She loved me. Iknowshe fucking loved me. When I told her, the look of fear on her face… Itscaredher that I loved her.”
“I told her she meant everything to me. She had this haunted look on her face the rest of the day. I thought she was sick. Why does it scare her to be loved?” Adam rubbed his face and then drank another hefty chug of whiskey. “I mean, is that it? Is she scared of us loving her?”
“She doesn’t think she deserves it. I think she left us before we could leave her. Because she assumed we were going to leave her. Her parents didn’t love her right. You should’ve seen it. Her dad was proud of leaving her out. He didn’t give a shit.” I stood up to grab a paper towel and stumbled. “Did you put that mailbox in for them?”
Jayden burst into laughter, doubling over. It didn’t take long for it to turn into crying, his shoulders shaking as he kept his head down. “No. Goddamn, whiskey makes me a bitch.”
Adam grunted. “Must make us all bitches, because we’re all crying, man. I don’t even know if I’m crying for myself or Vi.”
I thumped my chest. “It’s not happening. I didn’t know what to do back then. I know now. There’s three of us. That’s a lot of hearts to break if she tries to leave again. More of us to run from, too.”
Demon whined at my ankles, and I picked him up and cradled him. He was wearing one of the stupid sweaters Violet bought for him, and he looked adorable.
“You really broke into Pat and Debbie’s house?” Jayden sighed. “You didn’t break anything in the back right corner of the house, did you? I’m contracted in to finish that, and I’d like to be done faster than fast. Don’t make it harder on me.”
I shook my head and rubbed Demon’s ears. “He’s never had a mom before.”
Adam dropped his head onto the countertop and sniffed. “Fucking hell, man. Are you trying to hurt me?”
“She means everything to him, too. She made him a little nicer.” I looked at Jayden. “Don’t you think?”
He wiped his eyes and shook his head. “No, man. He’s still mean as hell.”
I snorted and shrugged. “Well, he still needs her. John, too. He acts like he doesn’t like her, but he follows her everywhere.”
“He started following her to the bathroom.” Jayden groaned. “I heard her talking to him about privacy laws and HIPAA violations. She’s fucking crazy, but I’ve never loved another human being more.”
Adam stumbled to his feet and held his hands up. “Okay, it’s fine. She’s coming back. We’re not letting her run away. We’ve got to stop acting like she died, or I’m going to throw myself off that cliff outside.”