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I stare back at Roxanne and shake my head. “Why didn’t anyone call me? I get it. I fucked up. I fucked up big time and I can’t take it back. But why didn’t you call me to tell me my mother was sick? She got married and I didn’t even know.”
Roxanne stands and walks over to me. “We did call. Sure, it was maybe three months or so after you left before we called, but we called. I called, and so did your mother, but Nate…he wouldn’t let us talk to you. He told us you wanted nothing to do with us. We asked him to tell you that we called but we never heard back from you.”
The air catches in my lungs and burns. It feels like it turns everything inside me to ashes.
“My God.” That man did so much worse to me than I even knew. It was around the three-month mark that Nate took my phone and gave me another. But then I was just doing anything to keep the peace. “He never told me you called. Not once.”
“I thought so.”
“That fucking bastard.”
“Aren’t you with him anymore?”
It’s funny, when disaster strikes and your world feels like it’s ending you think everyone knows. But they don’t. Roxanne looks none the wiser.
“No. The guy I gave up everything for turned out to be the devil, and now he’s in prison for murder.”
Roxanne goes completely pale. “Murder? What? Oh, Chloe.”
“He was a monster. Mom… was right.”
“Oh God. Your mom hired a PI to look for you when we didn’t hear back. We never had an address. They saw that you were happy and you were dancing in some grand production in Russia, so your mother left you alone.”
I shake my head again. “No. That was my last show. That was just before Nate broke my legs.” The tears come harder now.
Roxanne glances down at my legs and brings a hand to her heart. “He broke your legs?”
“I can’t dance the way I used to anymore.”
“This can’t be true.”
“It’s true.”
“Oh no. No.” She cups my face and dries my tears. “I’m so sorry, Chloe. I truly am.”
“Thank you. I would have come back before now but I needed to sort myself out. I wasn’t in the best head space.”
“Of course.”
“I guess I’m still not myself yet, but I’m here. I got my phone back when Nate went to prison. I should have known something was up when I saw the whole call history had been deleted and all my messages were gone. I just happened to have it on me when the hospital called about Mom.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“You’re home now. I guess for however long this is home.”
“I need to do something to get that money.”
“It’s a lot, Chloe. I remortgaged my place already to pay for your mom’s medical treatment, so I’m tapped out.”
“You had to do that?” I feel even worse.
“Your mother’s insurance wouldn’t cover the cost. Harlan got her to change her policy when they first met, so now they’ll only cover her outpatient care and one week’s stay in the hospital.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“He’s a real douchebag.”
