Page 91 of Bittersweet & Strange

My father is still calling my name.

I answer every time.

“Boone!”

“I’m here!”

The horses carry him farther away.

“Boone!”

“I’m here, Dad!”

His voice becomes fainter.

“I’m here!”

The wagon turns at the end of the road, and I see my father reaching toward me one last time.

Then he’s gone.

My knees give out.

The men holding me are the only reason I don’t hit the floor. I hang uselessly between them, staring through the open doorway at the place where the wagon disappeared.

The yard is empty.

Bramble stands beside the fence.

My father’s rocking chair is still beside the window, and his breakfast plate is still sitting on the table behind me.

Everything was normal ten minutes ago.

A broken sound escapes me as I finally stop fighting.

Lucien crouches in front of me until his face is level with mine. “You can end this whenever you choose.”

I slowly lift my head.

My cheeks are wet. My throat burns from screaming, and both arms throb where the men are still gripping me, but none of that matters because my father is gone.

Lucien smiles.

All I can think about is another man everyone in this village calls a monster. A man who frightened me, hurt me, and imprisoned me for months because he couldn’t bear the thought of letting me leave. A man who confessed that he loved me.

A man who eventually opened the door anyway.

If you need me, you know where to find me.

My eyes move past Lucien and through the open doorway toward the mountain rising above the village in the distance.

Since Rhys left me here, I’ve questioned whether going back would mean I’d lost my mind.

I don’t question it now.

I wonder how quickly I can reach him.

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