“I asked him to make a speech. He declined.”
What? How could Matt say nothing at all? He was my fiancé. Our forever had been cut short. How could he have no words? The doubt was definitely strangling me now. I could barely breathe.
“He said he’d said everything he needed to when he last saw you.”
My father’s words stabbed me in the chest like a knife and twisted. I gasped for air.
“I need to go,” he said. “I’ll visit you as soon as I can. I love you, angel.” He hung up before I could even respond.
My plan had been to try to sneak in a call to Matt. But…I couldn’t breathe. I dropped the phone on the bed and turned away from the nurse.
She said something, but I ignored her.
I lay back down and curled into a ball. My whole body shook as I cried. Matt had nothing to say because he’d said all he needed to already? I’d never forget his last words to me. He’d called me a liar. I sobbed harder. He’d called me a liar and walked away. He left me. He left me and now I was one kidney short and locked up. And he had nothing else to fucking say?
I’d given Matt my whole heart. He’d promised not to break it. But I guess ripping it out and throwing it into oncoming traffic wasn’t technically breaking it. It was just stealing it and getting it run over.
Fuck you, Matthew Caldwell.
Chapter 13
Thursday
“Stop looking at me like that,” Miller said as he stared out the windshield.
We were driving down I-95 at exactly the speed limit. Apparently the last thing my dad wanted was for us to be pulled over and recognized by a cop. That would ruin his plans of keeping me dead.
But I wasn’t staring at Miller because I wanted him to put his foot down a little harder on the gas. And how did he even know I was staring at him? The big sunglasses I was wearing for a disguise made it a little hard to tell where my eyes were trained. “Looking at you how?”
He glanced at me for a second and then put his eyes on the road again.
“I’m not looking at you in any way.”
“Sure.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know that look,” he said. “You want me to turn around and go back to New York.”
Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted. My head was as confused as my heart. The things my dad had told me about Matt… They could easily be lies. My father was manipulative. But…what if he was telling the truth? Matt had been mad at me. Furious, really. What if he was just relieved that I was gone? I was glad I was wearing sunglasses, because I knew my eyes were puffy from crying.
I didn’t want to think about any of that right now though. I was happy to be out of my windowless room. I had no idea where we were going, but anything would be better than that. Especially because it would be just me and Miller. I’d had quite enough of Evil Nurse. “That’s not what I was thinking.”
“Then what are you thinking?” he asked.
His baseball cap was pulled down low. But nothing could hide the bruises all over his face, his black eye, the stitches, or the big bandage on his cheek. I still wanted to see the rest of him. I needed to know what damage I’d caused. Miller’s hoodie and jeans were covering the rest of him though. He usually wore freshly pressed suits. I hadn’t seen him in casual clothes since I used to creep down to his room at night. He would always greet me in sweatpants and no shirt. It was a look I’d grown quite fond of. “I was thinking that I like your outfit.”
“You mean my disguise?”
“It’s hardly a disguise. I feel like this outfit is a lot more you than the suits my dad requires you to wear.”
He didn’t respond.
“I was also thinking that your face looks painful.”
He laughed. “I’m fine.”
I never believed anyone when they said that. Because I said it a lot. And I was never telling the truth. I was happy that he was laughing though. “And maybe I was also thinking a little bit about the fact that this would be the perfect opportunity to get as far away from my father as possible. Maybe we should head west? I’ve never seen the Pacific Ocean. We could be runaways together.”
“As fun as it would be to go all Bonnie and Clyde with you…there’s a tracker on the car. And on my phone. If we don’t show up at the destination within two hours he’ll have everyone looking for us. You’ll need a better plan than to just turn right instead of left.”
“Then let’s stop at the next rest stop and hotwire a car. Toss your cell phone into the back of someone’s truck or something. Let it be a wild goose chase for them tracking your phone. Meanwhile we’ll be long gone.”
“Not a bad plan. Do you know how to hotwire a car?”
“No. Don’t you?”
He laughed. “Why would I know how to do that?”
“Because you’re all…you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have that bad boy air of danger vibe about you. Certainly you’ve stolen a car before.”
He just shook his head and kept driving.
“But can we stop at the next rest stop anyway? I need to pee.”
“Well that just makes it sound like you’re going to run away from me.”
“I would never do that.” It was one thing I could definitely promise. He had to keep me safe…or else. Which meant I couldn’t just ditch him. Besides, I didn’t want to. What would I do out here in the middle of nowhere with no money and no phone? It would be like when Isabella stranded me all over again. Sure, this time I would have clothes on. But I wouldn’t have James’ hotel room to run to. I had no one to run to. Everyone hated me.
I continued to stare at Miller. “But seriously…I need to go. Like now.”
“The next rest stop isn’t for another 15 miles. Can you hold it until then?”
Really, that far? “No, I don’t think so. Can’t we just take this exit?” Surely there was a gas station near the exit.
Miller hit his turn signal and merged over to the exit lane. “Hopefully we can find a fast-food place or something.” He took the exit and there was…nothing but farmland. Mile after mile after mile of nothingness. No fast-food places, or restaurants, or gas stations.
I started drumming my fingers on my thigh. “Can we turn around? There’s nothing out here. We can backtrack to that other rest stop.” But I wasn’t actually sure I could hold it until then.
Miller did a quick U-turn to retrace our path…but it quickly became apparent that we’d made a wrong turn somewhere.
God, I was going to literally pee my pants.
“Let’s play a game,” he said.
If he was trying to distract me, this was not going to work. I just groaned.
“I spy with my little eye…something brown.”
“The millions of dead corn stalks in the middle of nowhere?”
“Bingo,” he said with a laugh. “Your turn.”
“I spy with my little eye no toilets anywhere.”
“Wow, that’s not how you play. I’ll go again. I spy with my little eye…um…something else brown.”
“Your eyes?”