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True, but probably not helpful right now. I shot him a look that said he needed to keep quiet and turned back to Val. I offered her the phone Sophie took.

“Sophie borrowed this. Don’t be too mad at her. It was a smart move to have some way to contact people. Even if running away wasn’t so smart.”

Val huffed, shaking her head as she took the phone. “More than not smart. But thank you. For coming and for calling me. I was scared…”

“I would’ve been surprised if you weren’t. I called Art after we hung up. He didn’t answer, but I left a message. If you could update him–”

Her brows drew together tightly. “Why can’t you?”

Pushing to my feet, I tucked my hands into my pockets. “I told you. If it got Art his kid back, I’d stay away. I’d do anything for those two.” There wasn’t much left to be said, so I gave Sophie a small smile. “Be good, kiddo. No more running away. I expect to see you doing something great in a few years.”

Her lip trembled and her eyes were full of tears, but I stepped away from the duo. Dad stood to follow me and I was about to leave when Art called out, his voice tearing at the now familiar pain in my chest.

“Sophie!”

Sophie spun around, wrenching herself away from her mother and taking off towards her dad. He scooped her up the second she was close enough, hugging her tightly. It was heartwarming to watch and also unbelievably painful. I couldn’t stand around here anymore. Not when the future I wanted but couldn’t have was so close. Art looked towards me and our eyes locked for a second, but I didn’t linger. I dipped my chin, forcing myself to smile, and launched into the air without a word, my dad right behind me.

For Sophie’s sake, I hoped they’d work it out. At least make the sacrifice worth it. Because I knew deep down, I’d never recover.

CHAPTER THIRTY

ARTHUR

I hadto take time off work on Friday because I was too torn apart to function. I managed to force myself into the office on Monday, but I wasn’t truly there. I barely remembered the work I did and I would need to check over it later because I probably made a lot of mistakes. I was staring off into space, not even looking at my lunch, when Henry found me. He sat down next to me, chatty and happy like usual, but the look on my face must have tipped him off that something was wrong.

“Hey… You okay?”

I couldn’t answer that. I mean, I could, the answer was no, but I couldn’t say it out loud. In less than ten minutes, my life had fallen apart spectacularly, and I still hadn’t recovered enough to even talk about it. This was my first weekend ever without Sophie. I still didn’t know why Val had shown up so late on a Thursday night, but it wasn’t like it mattered. She still took away my daughter without an ounce of remorse.

“Come with me.”

Henry urged me out of my seat, guiding me with a hand on my shoulder out of the office. I followed blindly, too heartbroken to really care where we were going. When he pushed on my shoulder to force me onto a bench, I barely blinked, folding in on myself.

“Artie, talk to me. You look like someone died. What’s wrong?”

It felt a little like someone had. Or that I had. I knew Henry was just trying to be my friend, and I didn’t want to push him away, but I didn’t want to admit out loud that I lost everything. It hurt too much.

He waited a little while, trying to give me a chance to work up the nerve to speak. That never happened and he let it go, letting out a long breath.

“I suppose this isn’t a good time to tell you that my brother loved the demo you gave me. He’s going to introduce himself at a show they have this week.”

Blinking a few times, I looked over at him. I’d forgotten about that entirely. The news was bittersweet, but I offered Henry a small smile.

“That’s great. Thank you for doing that.”

Henry’s brows drew in tighter. “I thought you’d be more excited. You were practically vibrating last week when I offered. Did something happen with you and your boyfriend?”

The question wasn’t meant to hurt me, but it did more than I could readily admit. I actually grimaced and curled in on myself, the pain in my chest burning like fire. I missed him. I missed him so damn much. My divorce wasn’t this painful, and I’d been with Val for ten years. But three days without Hendrix was buckling me. I regretted sending him away. I thought it’d make Val change her mind. Instead, I lost Sophie and Hendrix both. And I wasn’t ever going to get them back.

Henry didn’t ask about it again. He sat beside me, rubbing my back and offering me comfort, until it was time to go back to work. I made it through the rest of the day in a daze and barely remembered the drive home.

When I got the call from Hendrix, I ignored it. It hurt too much to answer him. I wanted to take back sending him away the minute I did, but I knew there wasn’t a chance that Val would give Sophie back if he was still around. It felt like I was being torn in two between my daughter and the man I loved. A notification came up that he left me a message and for at least ten minutes, I tried to ignore it. I knew it’d only hurt me if I listened to it. And yet I couldn’t stop myself. I put my phone to my ear, listening to his voice, and it hurt so much, I almost missed the message.

“Sophie ran away. I’m with her now at the park and we’re waiting for her mom to come get her. I thought maybe you’d want to be here to talk to her.”

My stomach dropped to my feet, and I stood frozen for a second before I burst into motion. Hendrix let me know in the message where Sophie was and I headed straight there, my heart thundering in my chest. She ran away. I never thought she’d do something like that. I knew this divorce was hard, and she was upset about what was happening, but I didn’t realize she’d reached that level of upset. I rolled through stop signs, barely glancing around for traffic to get to Sophie faster.

I saw them when I parked. Hendrix and another demon were standing, talking to Val, who looked uncomfortable being near them. But my focus was on Sophie. She was standing by Val’s side, her eyes on the ground and a backpack at her feet. She looked so upset and it tore at my insides.