Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
"You want me to help you upstairs?” I offer her, and she nods, her brow furrowing as she rises shakily to her feet. I offer her an arm, and the two of us make our way up the stairs, to the room where Cade and Wyatt seem to be waiting for the worst.
I can tell at a glance that their mother isn’t doing well. Her eyes are closed, her breathing uneven and stuttering. Cade kneels at one side of her, and Wyatt stands at the end of the bed, his shoulders tense, his eyes fixed on her. Lucy rushes to her side, dropping down to take her other hand, and I hang there in the doorway for a moment, not sure if it’s my place to get any closer.
But then, Wyatt reaches back for me, and our hands find each other once more – I cling to him tight, letting him know that I am still here, that I am not going anywhere. The room is filled with a heavy silence, broken only by the sound of his mother’s breath, and it suddenly strikes me just how delicate life is out here – just how common loss is, as common as it was for us back in 2025. All that time has passed, but the weight of grief and the loss of someone they care about still hits just as hard as it ever did.
Except they don’t have the same tools to navigate that pain and grief...
By the time she lets out her final breath, her chest rising and falling one more time before the heaviest sense of nothingness settles over the room. Finally, it’s broken by the sound of Lucy’s sobbing – she sinks her head down to her mother’s hand as though trying to force a little life back into her, but it’s no good.
I reach out to touch her shoulder, doing what I can to comfort her, as Wyatt and Cade stand there, too shocked to react.
"I must go," Wyatt mutters, as he draws me to him once more. "We have furs to sell. And-"
"Wyatt, you can’t leave, not just like that!” Lucy protests desperately as she rises to her feet, clutching at his hands. "We need you here. We need-"
"You’ve been doing just fine without me for a long while now," he retorts gruffly. "You don’t need me any more now than you did then."
"Wyatt-"
He pulls away from her, striding to the door. Lucy gazes after him with an expression of such pure and complete pain that I can’t just turn my back on it.
"We’ll be back, I promise," I tell her, before I hurry after Wyatt. I might not know if that’s a promise I can keep – but what I do know is that I’d do anything to make the pain a little less for her to bear.
Even if Wyatt seems unable to get out of here fast enough.
CHAPTER 7
Wyatt
Istalk towards the trail that will lead us back to the cabin, hardly able to so much as look back at her. Riley has to rush to keep up, her footsteps kicking up dirt with every movement.
"Wyatt, will you slow down?” she asks me, and, finally, I come to a halt at the edge of the forest.
"Did you promise my sister we would come back?” I growl at her. I know all I am doing is papering over the grief of the loss I’ve just experienced with whatever anger I can justify to myself, but I can’t help it. My head is spinning, seeing my family again after all that time, and I don’t need her making things worse for me.
"I – I just didn’t want her to-"
"You don’t get to make promises like that," I warn her. "Not when you don’t even intend on sticking around."
"What makes you think that?” she demands, as I take off into the woods once more. I keep my gaze set forward, my jaw set tight. I don’t want to have this conversation with her. Or with anyone. It doesn’t sit right with me, the pain that my sister is feeling, knowing that I can’t do much to make it right.
"You want to go back to your yoga and your iced tea," I remind her. "You said it yourself. You don’t want to be here for my sister, or for anyone-"
"You have no idea what I want!” she counters sharply, as she finally catches up with me. I can feel her glowering at me, a far cry from the sweetness she showed me when we were in town together, holding my hand, letting me know that I wasn’t alone.
I know I am being unfair but I can’t help myself. She’s the first person I’ve let close in a long time, and to know that she might just as quickly be ready to turn her back and leave...it doesn’t sit right with me.