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“I don’t blame

you for sending me away. You did what you

had to do. I don’t even blame you for needing me to come

here. Not for any of it. You never promised that this was for

some bigger purpose. You never said I’d be happy here. This

was never supposed to be my home and it was never supposed

to feel that way. You never once told me we would be together.

You always said we shouldn’t, and we couldn’t. You gave me

fair warning about being hurt and I wouldn’t listen. You never

tried to deceive me, and yet you still tried everything in your

power not to hurt me in the end, even though we both knew it

was inevitable. When I left, I wanted to hate you for it. I

wanted to rage against you and against what I thought was

your inability to feel anything, but I couldn’t even do that

because I knew that wasn’t true. You feel a lot, Claire. You

feel just as much as anyone else. Even if you’ve tried to block

it out. Even if you’ve tried not to. You still do. I know you

do.” Haley finally took a breath. God, she needed a breath. Her

lungs were on fire. She still had one more thing she needed to

say, but Claire broke the temporary silence first.

“I missed you, Haley. I didn’t come after you because I told

myself every minute of every day that you’ve been gone that it

was better that way. Even after Jenny told me that you didn’t

seem happy.”

“Wait. How did she know that?”

Claire ducked her head, but she smiled sheepishly. “She

asked Snake to follow you and keep his distance. He’s been

keeping an eye on you, to make sure you were okay. We didn’t

want you to just go back to your dad’s house if you weren’t

welcome once he knew the truth about how you felt.”