Page 131 of Ly to Me

“Alright, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”

Leaving her like that felt wrong. I gathered her purse and bag from the passenger seat and ran back inside. Holding up both, I stepped into her view, blocking the window.

“Got it.”

She blinked again, acting like she could see through me to the window she’d become transfixed by. I turned and looked through it, seeing nothing beyond the truck and the front porch.

I set the bags down on the desk then did the only thing I could think to do. Pulling out my phone, I started playing a song—one I thought I hated, but really, it just hurt to listen to. A song I’d heard Lyra humming on more than one occasion while she showered. A song my mother used to hum throughout the house.

Lyra’s swollen eyes met mine not two seconds into the melody, and that’s when she started breaking down further. Her lips quivered as she scooted back on the bed, appearing to make room for me.

I settled in beside her, accepting her small frame as it burrowed into mine. My chest cracked as I wrapped an arm around her.

“Shhhh. It’s okay. I’m right here. Let it all out, Ly. I’m here.”

Her tears marked my chest, nails digging into my arm as her cries became wails I didn’t know how to fix. The Dolly Parton song finished playing, and she started to quiet. Thinking she’d nodded off, I shifted to look down at her, only to find her red-rimmed eyes already on me.

“I want to take whatever or whoever hurt you and strangle it to death,” I said.

“I’m…I’m so sorry.”

I lifted her chin and kissed her tear-streaked cheek. “You have nothin’ to be sorry about.”

“That’s not true.”

“What’s in the past is in the past.” I pulled her closer, tucking her head beneath my chin. “I won’t let it ruin our future.”

“It won’t stay in the past, Car. I keep tryin’ and it somehow always finds me and I…I can’t. I can’t get it to stop. To make it all stop.” A choked cry left her lips.

I squeezed her tighter. “Then let me take whatever it is and make it right. I’ll make it all go away. Just tell me what I need to do to make this go away and never come back.”

“How is it that everything went so wrong so fast?” she asked low, murmuring the words almost to herself.

I nearly blanched back, thinking she was talking about us. But if she was letting me hold her like I was, I had to believe I wasn’t the cause of her pain. Whatever this was went a lot deeper than us.

“Let me help. Please, sweetheart.” I kissed the top of her head.

She pulled back, blinking up at me. “I don’t know where to begin to explain. How to tell you wh-why I left.”

My brows dipped, heart racing out of control. For years, all I wanted was to know that very thing. Spent so long fixating on it, I’d lost sight of what was important. “Start with what happened after I kissed you and told you when I’d come for you. When my parents got pictures of us together.” Our last picture together, right after we left the auditorium.

She nodded, then began.

Everything sounded light. Easy. She was packing, filling a bag with her clothes.

Until she wasn’t.

Until—

My hand curled in on instinct as red covered my vision.

She explained how Noah stopped by and threatened her, telling her about the bet, saying he’d be next in line. If that motherfucker hadn’t skipped town after he knocked up some girl and didn’t want to take responsibility, I’d go to his house and shoot him between the eyes. What he got in the past hadn’t been nearly enough, it seemed.

But Lyra wasn’t done.

I took deep breaths as she continued, stopping here and there to cover her face as if she was the one to blame for what hadhappened next. What Chet Walker did to her. Her tone turned flat, details missing as she loosely recounted being attacked.

Pain lanced through me as grief mixed with rage. Blinding fucking rage.