Page 109 of From the Wreckage

When I finally step out, I wrap a towel around myself and stand in front of the mirror.

The red-eyed girl with dark circles is staring back at me, her lips swollen from biting them. Her skin is pale with scarlet blotches from tears and heat. I don’t recognize her.

All I see is a shadow of my former self. She looks like me, but she isn’t. She’s hollowed out. A ghost wearing my skin.

My breath catches in my lungs. I don’t recognize the broken version staring back at me.

Twilight seeps through the curtains,painting my ceiling in shades of gray and blue. I lie flat on my bed, staring up at it, my body as heavy as stone.

The door creaks, and Dad steps inside, his broad frame filling the doorway. “You’ve been in here a while.” His voice is quiet. Careful. He lingers a moment before crossing the room, lowering himself onto the edge of the bed.

He rubs the back of his neck. “You heading back to campus?”

I shake my head, my eyes fixed on the ceiling. “I can’t. I need to take a sick day.”

He studies me for a beat, then nods. “Then I’ll stay home with you. Take care of my little girl.” His hand is gentle as he pushes a strand of hair off my forehead, like he used to when I was sick as a kid.

Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them back. “You don’t have to. Stay home, I mean.”

“Nothing more important than my kiddo.” His voice is steady, but there’s an ache beneath it that nearly undoes me. He cups the side of my face, his thumb brushing once beneath my eye. “You’ll always have me, Bri. No matter what. You’ll always have me.”

The words sink deep, wrapping around me like armor. I want to believe him. I need to believe him. So I close my eyes and hold onto his words, clutching them tight like a blanket, fearing the day he isn’t here.

I squeeze my eyes shut, willing the thought away.

Right now, he’s here, and that’s all that matters. This small moment where his love is the only thing keeping me upright.

CHAPTER 80

Everett

My skin pricklesevery time I step outside, like the air itself knows she’s near. I can’t stop myself from taking frequent runs around the lake, always veering toward the stretch of shoreline across from Grayson’s cabin. I stay in the shadows of the tall pines, where I belong. My eyes frantically searching, a knot of unease curled in my gut.

But I never see her.

Her blue SUV sits in the driveway like a cruel reminder. She’s close enough that if I called her name, the echo might carry across the water. Close enough that if I broke every promise I made to myself, I could cross the trail and knock on that door.

But I don’t.

Instead, I let the sight of that vehicle twist a knife in my chest. It’s proof she’s here, but also proof of how far away she really is.

Something gnaws at me, the sensation deeper than the usual loneliness. It isn’t just missing her. It’s worry. A sick, hollow dread that I can’t shake.

Grayson’s truck hasn’t moved in two days. I haven’t seen him step outside once—not for firewood, not for the mail, or even for a smoke on the porch. He’s always been a man who kept moving,tinkering, and fixing things. Staying busy. But now… there’s nothing.

It’s like he’s holed up in there, glued to Bri’s side.

The thought should comfort me. He’s protecting her. He’s keeping her safe.

But it doesn’t.

It feels like something is deeply wrong.

But I don’t have the right to find out what it is.

CHAPTER 81

Brielle