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“Why don’t you go talk to Lorie, if you’re so lonely? She’s barely said a peep since she got into her prissy design school.”

We are the epitome of dysfunction and it always meant the world to me how my sisters cared. Genuinely. Even if we fall out of touch with each other for a period of time, we’re still a unit.

The core three. We’ve never needed anyone else.

“Trust me, I’ve been badgering her just as much. She’s taken a page out of your book and she’s stopped answering her phone. Why do you guys like to torture me this way?”

I grin. “It’s a gift.”

The traffic is moving along decently but my paranoiakeeps checking the rearview mirror like I’m going to find some car jetting out of nowhere to tail me.

Keeping things from Suz feels awful. Taking off on my boss at the clinic feels even worse.

My poor old piece-of-shit car is hopefully going to make it to the cabin on the lake in Jersey. My shoulders might be tight enough to be earrings but I’m on the way.

This might be temporary or it might be a fresh start. I’ll decide when I get there.

“Everything is gonna be fine. I just don’t want you freaking out when you haven’t heard from me,” I finish lamely.

“Why would I not hear from you?” She sucks in a breath. “You reallyarein trouble! Gillian…”

“I’ll be fine,” I insist again. “But I’ve got to go. The traffic is getting heavy and requires my full attention.”

“Where are you going?” she presses.

“I can’t tell you.”

She groans, and then, “You are taking years off of my life.Please.”

“You just focus on the B&B and getting those customers in. Stop worrying so much about everyone else and start taking care of you.”

Suzanne sighs loudly to bookend her point. It’s the long-suffering sound of the put-upon. “I shouldn't have to hear it from Bill,” she repeats.

“I know you shouldn’t. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.” I pause, swallowing. “I love you.”

She waits a beat before parroting the words back to me and then I hang up. The call ends with three beeps and I glance down at the now black screen before turning my attention where it belongs. The traffic.

Leave no trace.

I can’t take the chance that whoever is out there will go to my sisters and look for me. The less they know, the better. I shouldn’t have answered Suz’s call.

What if they figure out where I’m going by trackingmy cell phone?Fuck!

In a move I may regret later, I take the cell and roll down the window, throwing it into the median.

My heart lurches into the back of my throat and swells, choking off my air supply. I just have to make it to New Jersey. If I get there then I’ll be okay. I’ll find someone who will listen, who will pay attention and know what to do to fight this weird enemy.

I drum my fingers against the steering wheel in an erratic beat. I’ve never had an enemy before.

I’m the type to accidentally rub people the wrong way but never to the point where they want to hurt me.

All this because I refused to do something vile? Something that would maim me for the rest of my life?

What the hell is wrong with people?

Too much to dissect.

The last few hours slip by easily enough. I stop once to use cash and buy myself a coffee and a map at a roadside joint just over the state line. The stale bitter liquid tastes like worn rubber and leaves me shaky.