Page 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

RHYS

The moment I step through the front door, I know something’s off.

It’s too quiet.

Not the good kind, either—not the soft, sleepy silence that usually wraps around me when Ally’s curled up on the couch, legs tangled in a blanket, some dumb reality show playing in the background while she scrolls on her phone and pretends she’s not watching.

This silence feels hollow.

Like something’s missing.

Like someone is.

“Ally?” I call, my voice cutting through the stillness.

No response.

She’s supposed to be here. She forced me to go to school today with the promise that she’d be resting at home when I got back.

I move deeper into the house. The air feels wrong—like it’s holding its breath. No lights are on. The cushions are still fluffed. There’s no half-drunk cup of tea, no shoes kicked off haphazardly at the door.

Just absence.

And then I hear it. A door creaking open behind me.

I turn to find Arden standing in the hallway. Arms crossed, expression unreadable—but his eyes... His eyes give it away.

They’re heavy.

“She left,” he says. Quiet. Certain.

The words don’t hit me all at once. They land in pieces.

“She’s what?”

“She left,” he repeats like saying it again will make it softer.

But nothing about this is soft.

Every syllable feels like a blow to the chest. I take a step forward, fists clenched. “Where?”

Arden hesitates. It’s barely a pause, but it’s long enough. Long enough for the panic to break through my ribs like a dam.

He knows.

He fucking knows , and he’s not telling me.

“Arden.” My voice is sharper now, laced with heat. “Where is she?”

“She needed space.”

“Bullshit,” I snap. “You let her leave? You helped her?”

“She was going no matter what,” he says, voice level. “At least this way, I knew she’d be safe.”

Safe.

The word tastes like ash in my mouth.

Because if she needed space, it means she didn’t feel safe here processing everything.

With me.

“When?” I ask, my voice barely there.

“This morning. Right after she was discharged.”

The ground tilts under me. My stomach drops. She’s been gone all day , and no one thought to tell me.

My phone is in my hand before I can think. Fingers moving on instinct. I find her name and text her with shaking hands.

Rhys

Where are you?

I pace the living room, the silence pressing in on all sides, suffocating. My chest feels like it’s been carved open and left gaping.

Then—

A vibration in my hand.

Ally

I’m okay. I just need time.

Time.

Time, like it’s something we have an endless supply of. Like I’m not losing her by the second.

Rhys

You didn’t even say goodbye.

Her reply comes too fast.

Ally

I couldn’t.

I close my eyes, jaw tight. That word shreds through every part of me.

Couldn’t . Not wouldn’t.

Couldn’t face me. Couldn’t let me stop her.

Rhys

Come home, Ally.

The typing dots appear.

Disappear.

Reappear.

My heart stalls.

Ally

I can’t.

That one cuts deeper. Final.

Rhys

Why are you doing this? Why are you shutting me out?

I can feel her silence. Like she’s holding the phone, reading my words with tears in her eyes, doubting everything, but still not letting me in.

Then the reply comes.

Ally

Because I don’t want to be the reason you get stuck. You deserve more than this, Rhys. You deserve someone who isn’t… broken.

Broken.

The word guts me.

Rhys

Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.

But she doesn’t reply.

The stillness returns. Heavier now.

I drop onto the couch, phone still in my hand, heart racing with a cocktail of fear, rage, and helplessness. This isn’t just her pulling away. This is her running. Full tilt. Away from me, from us, from everything we could be.

I can't follow her; I have no idea where she's gone.

Footsteps echo down the hall. I look up as Ashley walks in, arms crossed, her face grim.

“You need to go after her.”

I laugh, bitter and breathless. “She won’t even tell me where she is.”

Ashley narrows her eyes. “Then find her.”

I stand, anger bubbling up from my chest. “You think I haven’t tried to think of where she is ? That I wouldn’t already be halfway there if I had even the slightest clue?”

“She left because she’s scared,” Ashley says, her voice hard. “And if you let her go without a fight, she’ll stay gone.”

I grit my teeth. “She told me not to come after her.”

Ashley steps closer, refusing to back down. “No. She told you what she thinks you deserve. What she thinks is best for you. But she’s wrong.”

I look away. Jaw clenched so tight it aches.

“You love her?”

The question isn’t fair. It doesn’t even need asking. But I answer anyway.

“Yes.”

“Then prove it,” she says. “Or you’re going to lose her for good.”

I glance at Arden. He hasn’t moved from the doorway.

“She tell you where she was going?” I ask him, low and tired.

“I promised I wouldn’t say.”

“Of course you did,” I mutter, turning away.

“But,” he adds, “I told her she could trust the people she left behind to still be here when she’s ready.”

It’s not enough.

It’s not even close to enough.

But it’s something.

I stare at my phone again, rereading her message like maybe, if I stare hard enough, it’ll change.

You deserve someone who isn’t broken.

She doesn’t get to decide that for me.

She doesn’t get to walk away and act like I wouldn’t choose her again and again and again.

I head for the door. My plans are still uncertain. However, I do know this: I’m not sitting here, letting her believe that leaving was the right choice.

If I have to tear the whole damn town apart to find her—I will.

Because I love her.

And love doesn’t walk away.

Love fights .