I started crying again. “I’m pregnant. I… I’m threeand a half months along.”
“Three and a half months…”
“The last night Sayer and I had… when he was out onbail. We… I don’t know what happened. We drank too much. We must have forgottento use protection…”
“Aren’t you on the pill?” she shrieked.
I shook my head. “We’ve always been careful. I didn’tthink…”
“Oh my God.Oh my God, Caro,what are you going to do?”
I folded my arms over my chest and stared out at thecity. Snow covered the tops of buildings, making the glittering lights glowwith a charming kind of magic that still couldn’t redeem this place.
“I’m going to leave,” I told her, the words gaining convictionas they left my mouth. “I love Sayer, but he’s not here. I have to do what’sright for this baby.”
“Think about it,” Frankie warned. “If you leave, Caro,you can never come back. You can never have Sayer again. If you leave tonight,that’s it. You’ll have to hide for the rest of your life.”
I met her terrified gaze. “I know.”
We were silent for a long stretch, both of us lost inour thoughts, freezing and shivering and too afraid to go back inside. “Take mewith you,” she pleaded, her voice breaking with emotion. “I want to go too.”
“Frankie, they will—”
“I know what they will do. Take me anyway.”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She raised one eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re up forthis? At least if we go together than we have each other, right?”
“Okay…” I chewed my bottom lip, mentally calculatingeverything we needed, everything it would take to pull this off. “If we dothis, we have to be smart about it. We can’t make a mistake. We can’t getcaught. And we cannot come back, not for any reason.”
“Hey, you’re the one with ties to this city,” sheargued. “Not me.”
We both knew that wasn’t true, but I wasn’t going tocall her on it tonight. “Are you ready to leave tonight?”
She looked away, a mental wall sliding down over hereyes. “We need to wait until the banks are open. We need cash. We need as manyassets as possible.”
“I have assets,” I promised. I had a whole collectionof assets. I had asked Sayer to keep them for me, out of the reach of my dad’ssticky fingers. But when he went away, he gave me all the keys and passwordsand whatever I would need to take care of his life while he couldn’t. “Themorning then,” I decided. “That will give me some time to get to the storageunit.”
“The morning,” Frankie agreed. She turned back to me,a faint smile playing on her lips. “Guess I better get packing.”
“I should too. Not too much though, yeah? Just theessentials.”
She nodded and then moved to the balcony door. “Oh,hey.” I looked at her. “Congratulations.”
Silent tears started falling again. “Thank you.”
She didn’t offer kind words of encouragement orshallow promises that everything was going to be all right. We both knew thatit wasn’t going to be. Nothing would ever be all right again.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity though, I set towork packing up my entire life into one small duffle bag and saying goodbye tothe life I was supposed to have. The tears stopped as I threw myself into thisescape plan.
Thebratvawould be watching me. The feds would be watching me.
That meant I would have to get creative.
I sent Frankie for the cash. She was less suspiciousand had a way of charming everyone she met. I smuggled our bags down the backstairwell of the apartment building, down into the underground garage. I knewthe security camera between the stairwell and the garage was broken and managedto get them in Frankie’s car without being seen.
Continuing out that way, I took back alleys until Ireached the subway three miles away. Then I circled around and headed to thestorage unit where Sayer kept our things.
