Page 219 of Always: A Legacy Novel

She was good. She promised them.

She was not those things.

Cross wasn’t sure why, but his girl was tired. Too quiet, sometimes. Cold when he wasn’t near. Restless when she sat too long. Snappy, difficult, and lonely, she sometimes told him. Alone, even in a crowded room.

Her head was a dark place.

He still couldn’t get in there.

Cross was shouting to help her.

Catherine was screaming to loud to hear him.

As soon as Catherine’s mother was gone from her side, she turned to him. “Do you think we could sneak out of here soon without them noticing?”

She was done.

Done pretending.

She still didn’t want them to know.

He couldn’t keep lying for her.

He wasn’t ever going to be the thing to fix her now.

Not anymore.

One last time …

“Yeah, Catherine, we can sneak out. Anytime.”

Saw her at the party last night, Zeke’s text read. She wasn’t drunk or anything, but she was definitely working, man.

Cross read the text again as he sat the one duffle bag in front of the elevator. The boxes—things of Catherine’s that he packed up while she was at school and thought he was working—would be waiting for someone to pick up.

This was killing him.

He was dying already.

It had to be done.

He flicked over to Catherine’s text that came in just a minute before.

Just got home, it read.

He heard the elevator coming up, but didn’t move. When it opened, her gaze widened to see him standing there, and then she saw the bag at his feet. She stepped out, and the door closed.

Cross didn’t say anything.

Not right away.

He heard the elevator drop back down, likely going to get someone else.

“Did you get a call to go to Chicago?” Catherine asked.

He heard her fear lingering in her words, though she didn’t show it in her expression. She was always wearing a mask for him now, too.

She put on such a good show.