by Staci Hart
-Jon
———— Olympus ————
Hera smiled. It had all fallen into place, and Jon had fumbled with the knowledge even more clumsily than she’d imagined. Tori’s pregnancy was her own doing, the simplest way to keep Jon and Tori together. The decision to move thousands of miles away was a welcome development, and now, she had a final play to make, handed directly to her by Jon.
If she were silly, she would have bounced and clapped. But silly was the last thing Hera was. She left that witlessness to Aphrodite.
But she couldn’t stop herself from laughing, the sound laced with resentment and glee as she waved her hand, and the letter disappeared.
Josie’s palms were a sweaty mess as she walked toward Jon’s building. It had been three days since she’d seen him, and her apprehension had spun into full-blown panic. He’d stopped answering his phone and texts. Something was wrong.
She climbed the stairs and pulled open the door to the building before nearly running up the stairs with her stomach in her throat. She reached his door and raised her hand to knock, steeling herself before bringing knuckle to wood in three strong raps. Waiting was agony, and she strained to hear any movement behind the door, but everything was quiet. She knocked again.
Nothing.
Josie was reaching into her pocket with shaky hands for her lock picks when a woman spoke from behind her.
“Excuse me, are you looking for the couple that lived in that apartment?”
Lived? She turned to face the short, older woman who made her way up the stairs. “Uh, yes. Do you know where they’ve gone?”
Her face lit up. “Oh, they’re having a baby! They left for New Orleans yesterday morning, paid an extra month’s rent. Sad to see them go, but how exciting for them, starting a family.”
Josie couldn’t breathe, just stood there, blinking. Baby. New Orleans. Family. The words pummeled her like freezing cold hail.
“Thank you,” she croaked when she found her voice again. She blew past the woman and down the stairs as black spots burst in her vision.
He was gone, and he’d left without a word. Not a single word. No phone call or text. She didn’t even matter enough to him to say goodbye or break up with her. She never would have believed that he could be so cruel. But then, maybe she never knew him at all. It was always too good to be true. Deep down, she’d always known it was fool’s gold.
At least now I know.
But there was no comfort to be found. He’d left her. He’d hurt her. He’d chosen someone else. And she’d never be the same.
Epilogue
THE NEXT FEW YEARS WERE a blur for Jon, marked by a series of events that changed his life, one milestone at a time. The day he held Tori’s hand behind a curtain in an operating room as she had their daughter, looking into her fearful eyes as he tried to hide his own worry. The first moment he held that tiny baby in his arms and found a sense of purpose he hadn’t known before. The first time Lola smiled at him, or the first teetering steps she took that made him feel more accomplished than anything he’d ever done for himself.
And then Tori received her diploma as Lola waved at her from his hip, and they had the final conversation: the one where she insisted they go back to New York.
He had no real argument to stay.
Josie never called, never forgave him. Her silence was his answer, and he’d lived the years in regret, pouring himself into his work and his daughter, telling himself over and again that he’d done the right thing. He did it all for Lola, after all. He and Tori checked off all the boxes on their list, the final being her acceptance at an accounting firm in Manhattan. He couldn’t stay in New Orleans without sacrificing Lola, and that was something he just wouldn’t do, no matter how much he didn’t want to face his past.
Because he knew he would have to face it. There was no more hiding once he was back in Hell’s Kitchen. It was the only place Tori would live, near her parents, though he suspected she had plans to force him into dealing with Josie.
The day that they left New Orleans, Jon stood at the back of the U-Haul with his hands on his hips, feeling very macho as he admired the Tetris operation he had going on in the back. He pulled the metal door down with a clank and slipped the long ramp back into the back of the truck.
“Daddy!”
Lola ran across the patio grinning, with big, blue eyes twinkling and dark, curly hair flying. She skidded to a stop when she reached the steps, hanging onto the rail and taking each one deliberately until she reached the last. She jumped off and bolted across the yard and into his arms.
“Hey, baby.”
She squished his cheeks together. “We go now?”
“Yeah, we go now. Did you say goodbye to Nana and PawPaw?”
Lola turned and waved. “Bye, Nana. Bye, PawPaw.” She turned back to Jon. “We go now?”
He laughed. “I think you should go give them a hug. We’re not gonna see them for a long while.”
Her little brow quirked. “Oh. Okay.”
He put her down, and she ran back to his mother, who bent down and hugged her with tears in her eyes. “I’ll miss you. You be a good girl, honey. Nana will miss you.”
Lola nodded. “Ima good girl. Love you, Nana.”
She closed her eyes and hugged the little girl again. “Oh, I love you too, baby. So much.”
Tori came out with the diaper bag slung over her shoulder. “I think that’s everything,” she said as she walked down the stairs.
Jon’s mother gave Tori a hug. “You take care of yourself, you hear? Keep him in line, and please, take care of that baby. Promise we’ll video chat soon?”
Tori smiled with shining eyes. “I promise, Diane. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” Jon’s father said. “We’re just glad we could help.”
“Thanks, Pop.” Jon gave his dad a hug, and they clapped each other on the shoulders. He turned to his mom. “Thanks, Mama.”
“We’ll see you at Christmas, right?” Her eyes were brimming, her voice cracking.
Jon kissed her on the temple. “You couldn’t keep us away.”
She nodded, unable to speak as she leaned into her husband, pulling her cardigan tight. Jon’s father wrapped an arm around her as they stood on the porch and watched him load his family into the Jeep. He leaned in and threaded Lola’s arms through the carseat straps, snapping them together as Tori climbed into the driver’s seat.
“You got what you need?” he asked as she set her purse in the passenger seat.
“Yeah.” Her voice was tight.
“You okay?”
She bobbed her head, though her brow was furrowed. “Yeah. I didn’t think leaving would be so hard.”
“Me neither.” He backed out, closed the door, and hung in the window. “Don’t lose me. Let’s try to make it Memphis tonight.”
“Okay,” she said with her chin quivering. She smiled, though it was tight with emotion, and waved at his parents again.
As he climbed into the moving van and pulled away, he looked in his mirrors at his parents waving, then up ahead at his Jeep with his baby in it, wondering what the next chapter of his life would hold, just as eager as he was terrified of what he’d find.
Josie walked through Central Park under the grey winter sky, not feeling the chill. She was too empty to feel much of anything anymore, though it was one of those rare days where there seemed to be nothing to do other than recount her losses.
The months since Anne died had passed achingly slow, the emptiness and loneliness almost tangible. She filled her days with research and work, hiding from her truth, from her past. Keeping her hands and mind busy to help her forget.
She’d lost everything.
The vision of Anne lying in the bathtub ripped through her, and the physical pain almost doubled her over. She took a breath and kept walking, kept going. She’d find a way to prove who killed Anne, Ha
nnah, and all of the other girls who climbed into the wrong car on the night they died. It consumed every thought, every minute of every day, a constant stream of dark hurt, like a razor’s edge pressed against cold skin.
Most days she was numb to the pain, but that morning she’d woken up feeling lost and took to wandering around the park to collect herself. She approached Bethesda Fountain and heard a street performer under the Terrace Bridge. She turned to the sound, and her eyes found a couple who stood at the edge of the crowd. The man was tall and lean in a leather jacket and combat boots, with long, dark hair that fell into his face and a strong jaw covered in stubble. Nestled into his side was a chocolate-haired girl with a sketchbook under her arm, who stared at the performer like he was speaking to her, even though the song was in some strange language Josie hadn’t heard before.
She wasn’t sure what it was about them that caught her eye. Maybe it was the intimacy of their touch, the way his arm wrapped around her shoulder like it was meant to be there. It was something she once thought she had, something she’d lost. It had been three years, but she hadn’t forgotten Jon. The times when she thought of him stretched farther apart and hurt less with every day that passed. But it still gutted her.
Josie turned away as jealousy and frustration stirred in her chest at the unfairness of it all. How sad it was that she could have had it all, have found her forever and lose it through no fault of her own, with no explanation. How cruel the universe was to steal her life, steal the people she loved away from her in the dead of night, leaving her alone. No one could understand. No one could reach her.
She lifted her eyes to the angel on top of the fountain, listened to the song of the performer over the soft rush of the water, wondering what her life could have been, if only.
Table of Contents
Title Page
copyright
TOC
More Books
Title Page
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Title Page
Prologue
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Title Page
Owner of a Lonely Heart - 1984
Pleasant Surprises
Just Dinner
I Already Am
Good Luck
The Masks We Wear
Take What You Can Get
Snakes and Venom
The Means to End
Down the Barrel
What's Been Done
Well-Placed Promises
Epilogue
Title Page
Prologue
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 21
Epilogue
Title
Prologue
Sinking Ship
Honey Pot
Breakup Boots
Galvanized
Truly
Baptism By Fire
A Single Moment
Without A Word
Epilogue