It’s just a fight, Selena. I keep telling myself this as I walk back into the house. My parents are in the living room with London, and Carolina is in the kitchen. I hit the floor and lose it. The thin wire holding me together loosened and let go.
This is how it’ll all fall for us.
Aria will win.
Car lights shine through the mudroom door and soon disappear, alerting me that someone is leaving. I move to my knees and peer out the window to see Lawson’s truck flying up the lane.
Cold seeps its way from my fingers all the way to my shoulders and down. Something’s not right. Law wouldn’t leave, not like this.
A simple question and he got spooked?
My mind reels with the possibilities of why Lawson is being this way.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and bring up his contact.
I press send.
“You’ve reached…” sounds through the ear piece after one ring.
He ignored my call.
I hit the contact again.
“You’ve reached…”
“Goddamn it!” I shout. I hang up the phone, then send him a text.
Me: Come back…
I wait.
One minute.
“Lena, what’s going on?” Carolina asks from somewhere in front of me.
Two minutes.
“Honey, what are you doing on the floor?” my mother asks.
“I have to go. I have to find him,” I tell the floor as I move to stand.
“Go where?”
“I need you to watch London for me, okay?” I tell my mother. I grab my spare set of keys off the hook and reach for the door.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” my dad booms from the kitchen.
I don't listen. I have to get to Lawson. I can't explain this feeling running like wildfire through my body. All I know is it’s bad.
I turn the knob and pull open the door.
“Selena!” my mother yells.
“I’ll go with her, Joan,” I barely hear Carolina say before I’m out of the house. I run to my car and climb in. Carolina races to the passenger side and gets in just as I’m putting the car in reverse.
“I have no goddamn shoes on. What the hell is going on right now?”
“Law left.”
“Yeah, babe, he sent your dad a text saying he would be back in a little bit.”
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
“So you decided to go chasing after him?”
I don’t answer her. I grip the steering wheel tighter as I press on the gas pedal. I shouldn’t be driving this reckless knowing Carolina is pregnant. I should slow down, but I can’t.
Whatever this feeling is inside me, it’s telling me to get to Lawson.
I slow my speed just enough to turn my car onto the highway.
“Lena, honey, tell me what’s going on inside that head of yours.”
“I have to get to him,” I tell her in way of explanation.
Her voice lowers when she comes back with, “We haven’t had a chance to talk about what happened to you. This woman…”
“This woman,” I start. “This woman wants my husband. She got inside my head, I thought she and Lawson were having an affair. After I got back from my trip visiting you, I found them together in Law’s shop. Nothing was going on, just Lawson drawing up her tattoo, but she was touching him. I got the wrong idea. I wouldn’t let it rest. It ate me alive to think my husband found another woman who could give him something I couldn’t.” I stop for a moment and take a deep breath. “It turns out, she had an idea in her head that she was going to steal my husband from me. It didn’t work out the way she wanted, so she took it to the next extreme. She had a man break into my home and attack me. If Law wouldn’t have shown up when he did, that man would have taken me to God only knows where. Notes have been dropped at our house, notes that say she’s going to end me. The note and flowers last night and Lawson leaving tonight is not a coincidence.”
“Jesus.” She turns her head to look out the window, then lurches forward. “Selena, that’s Law’s truck!”
My head jerks to where Carolina is pointing. It’s Lawson’s truck. “What is he doing?” I ask out loud. A question only Lawson can answer. I hit the brakes, preparing to turn into the gas station parking lot.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she yells and starts pointing to the road in front of us. “That’s Benny’s truck, isn’t it?”
I squint my eyes, trying to decipher whether it is. Then I see the decal on the back window only Benny would have.
I hit the gas.
“Are you going to try to get them to stop?”
“No, I’m going to follow them.”
“Shit.” She pauses for a moment. “Give me your phone,” she demands.
“What? Why?”
“Give me your phone, Selena.”
Taking one hand off the wheel, I pull the phone out of my pocket and hand it over to her. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to track his phone in case we lose them. I didn’t have a chance to grab my phone in my haste to get to the car,” she says with little enthusiasm in her voice.
“Good idea,” I say, ignoring her tone.
“What do you think they are doing?”
"They've been secretive the last few days. I think they have something planned with Aria."
If that’s the case, I definitely need to follow them. This woman is so unpredictable she could have figured this out and has a plan of her own ready to go.
“Who’s Aria?”
“The woman who wants to take my place.”
“Right, right.”
“I’m scared, Carolina. I’m afraid she is going to win.”
For the first time in what feels like forever, I admit my greatest fear. I know she will never get my family. That’s just not possible. But taking me out of this world is something I don’t much like the thought of either.