Page 97

Where is he?
I squint to look for any signs of light. Maybe he just went to the bathroom or something. Exhaling a long breath, I calm myself down.
Yeah, he’ll be back any second now.
As I convince myself of the thought, a pang strikes my gut, which makes me fling the sheets off and curl off the bed. It’s my father’s abduction all over again. I’m disbelieving anything could go wrong. But I’m wiser now, right?
“Silver?” I call to the other room while putting on the lamp.
Touching his side of the bed… it’s cold. He’s been gone for longer than I thought. No way he’s just going to the bathroom.
Panic fills my lungs. I rush down the stairs to my father. Leaving him locked all day and night was screwed up of me, but I’m furious with him for discarding the man who saved us.
“Oh no. Oh no...” I rush down the first flight of stairs, then scramble through the hall, the kitchen, all the way toward the back entrance where the basement door is.
I nearly crumple over with weakness when I see the door unlocked and the seam open.
“Dad?” I rip open the door and shout down the stairs. “Dad!”
It’s clear as day—he’s gone too. No cars outside. No nothing.
“Oh my God.” I’m ripping at my hair, at a loss.
He said he’d delay… hepromisedme.
The tears come all over again. Last night was beautiful. Our date was fun and light, the sex was tantalizing, and he told me he loved me after kissing me on the forehead before bed.
I shake my head, reliving the traumatic flood of thoughts telling me I’ll never see someone I love again.
Screw off. I won’t have it.
Scrambling through the house, I search for one of the burner phones. The drawers are empty. No duffle bag or anything. How in God’s name did he clean out the house of everything but food without waking me?
After ten minutes of pure panic, I run back up the steps so I can ransack the bedrooms. There has to be a phone around here somewhere. And when I flick on the lights to our room, I see it. An envelope standing against the lamp on his side of the bed dresser. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this hurt. My heart is in the pit of my belly, and it won’t come back up. My fingers shake as they reach for the envelope. It reads, “Kid.”
Tearing it open, I can barely focus enough to comprehend the handwriting:
Quinn,
The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were someone special. The way you looked at me with the fire of a thousand suns and shouted down the entire block until I’d hear you… I knew I needed you in my life.
At first, I thought it was lust. No one gets to have an ass like that along with the breasts of a goddess, the face ofan angel, and the personality of the devil. It was too much to ignore. I mean, what the hell was I going to do when the honeymoon was over? We’re twenty years apart. A whole fucking lifetime, but I was wrong.
You showed me I was wrong.
I wondered every day why I was smiling, and it wasn’t because of how sexy you are. It was because we’re oil and vinegar, and somehow it still works. I laugh at your insane personality, and want to protect you from this dark cloud that’s following you. And when I took you on the set ofChilling Desires, I realized for sure, I can have fun with you anywhere. And that’s something I’ve been missing in my life forever.
I know I said I never wanted a family again, and it’s true there’s a void in my heart that will never be filled, but what I didn’t know is that my heart isn’t completely dead. You revived it. If circumstances were different, I would’ve loved you for many years to come. But it turns out my time is up, and I’ve given you all I had to give.
My last thoughts will be of you.
Thank you for an amazing last night.
I love you.
-Silver
My tears wet the page. I already lost it by the second paragraph. The mereideathat he might’ve already been executed tightens my chest into a strangling knot. I’m gasping, being choked by an invisible reaper. How could he do this to me?