Page 155 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

Her mouth opens and closes a few times without anything coming out, as if she can’t form words or bring herself to speak them.

“Willow, tell me what’s happening?”

“I-I remember the reason…the reason that what you said that day sent me running.”

I narrow my eyes on her, my brain struggling to follow her thought process. “I don’t understand.”

We’re up here being shot at.

And we already know the reason she left—because of how hurtful what I said was…

Tears continue to stream down her face, dripping over my bloodstained hand. “I had to leave because that morning I was going to go into town and buy a pregnancy test.” She sobs again, the sound far too loud in the silence of the forest. “I thought I was pregnant.”

My heart stops, my entire body stilling. “You thought you were pregnant?”

She nods as the sobs and tears come faster now. Her hitched breaths shorten each time she tries to speak. “I didn’t…want to tell you…until I knew for sure. And then?—”

Oh, God…

What she’s trying to explain finally clicks in my head.

She thought she was pregnant.

She was going to find out and tell me later that day.

But then I said those horrible words to her…

Bile climbs my throat, my head spinning wildly.

Willow shakes violently, the motion smearing more blood across her cheek. “I panicked, Killian. I didn’t know what to do if you didn’t want the baby. And I left.” Another sob wracks her body, the full-blown force of her anguish overtaking her. “B-but I turned around. I came back. And the truck overheated.”

I nod. Completely unable to speak. Barely even able to draw in a breath as she sorts through the memories jumbling her head.

Her bottom lip trembles. “I remember who took me.”

Liam kneels beside me, pulling her hand into his. “Who was it, Willow?”

She gulps in heavy draws of air, her gaze flicking from me to him. “It was Earl. Earl Byers.”

“What?” Connor approaches cautiously. “Byers?”

The name rattles around my head, along with the information she just dropped on me.

She thought she was pregnant.

Earl Byers.

Pregnant.

Earl?

The eccentric older man had always seemed relatively harmless. Quiet. A bit reclusive, living with his sister on the far side of the mountain, so it would sometimes be months before he would come into town.

Connor snarls. “You’re sure?”

Willow nods, the movement shifting my hold on her cheek, smearing the blood. “I recognized him. It’s why…Oh, God.” She flattens her hand over her mouth to stop another sob. “It’s why I wasn’t worried when he stopped to help. He was on an ATV and he…he called me Bobby, remember?”

I finally start to process everything she’s saying and nod. “Yeah…”