Mac met each of her sisters’ gazes, finding nothing but underlying concern even if they tried to pull it off as something different. They may’ve had a tendency to overlook her, but she never doubted they cared for her. Loved her. Okay, maybe Rory, but that was history and had been for a while.
So, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes briefly, and then said the one thing that had been plaguing her heart for as long as she could remember but she’d always been too scared to voice aloud. “I’m not needed here.”
Will’s brows drew in, her head tilting to the side. “What do you mean? Like, right now? Town hall’s gonna be crazy in about an hour. Give it time.”
Mac breathed out a laugh and shook her head, staring down at the table. “I’m not just talkin’ about town hall, but no one can deny I was the last person y’all thought about for that job.” She met each of her sisters’ gazes and watched the dawning recognition, along with underlying guilt, in their eyes.
She didn’t want them to feel guilty, but shedidwant them to understand.
With a shrug, she said, “I’m the last person y’all think about for anything. It’s always been my place in the family, and I thought I’d made peace with it. But then Hudson…” She swallowed down her words and crossed her arms over her chest, donning her only means of armor. “You know what? Never mind. It’s dumb. It’s my issue, and I’ll deal with it.” She pushed to stand. “Y’all ready to eat?”
“Um…no.” Rory yanked her back into her chair by the hem of her sweater. “I’m ready to hear what the hell you’re talkin’ about.”
God, how did she even begin to explain to her sisters all the times they’d left her behind—both figuratively and literally? All the times they looked to the others for what they needed, but not to her. Never to her.
She could chalk some of it up to being the natural course of things that evolved over the years. They were all adult women and had their own lives, their own friends, their own support systems. But both Hudson and Will had been hers, and they’d both left her at one time or another—Will doing it twice, too wrapped up in Finn to pay attention to much else. Very clearly not feeling the same need for Mac as Mac did for them.
To her horror, tears stung the backs of her eyes. As much as she tried to swallow down the lump that was suddenly in her throat, it just grew and grew until her chest felt so tight, she was sure there was no place left for her emotions to go but out.
What a perfect time to have an emotional breakdown—while in the most hopping morning location in all of Havenbrook. A place that just happened to be owned by the love-of-her-life-but-not-boyfriend’s family. A not-quite-boyfriend who was leaving in mere hours.
The thought of that only amped up her emotions, and it took all her focus to hold her shit together. Her sisters were speaking to her and someone’s phone rang, but she couldn’t pay attention to anything else but trying to hold herself together.
Unable to do it any longer, she stood again, her chair sliding back and scraping against the floor in her force to escape. “I need to—”
“What?” Rory asked, her voice high-pitched and laced with panic. She held her phone up to her ear, her eyes wide. “How long ago?”
Mac exchanged glances with Will and Nat before focusing her attention back on Rory, her urge to flee taking a back seat to the terror in Rory’s voice.
“And you’re just callin’ menow?” she yelled, paying no mind to the other customers that looked on in curiosity. “Well, get the damn sheriff down there! And the rescue team!” Her eyes went wide, her face blanching. “What do you mean, there’s no rescue team? Who’s gonna find her?”
At the first mention of a rescue team, Mac’s training kicked in. A calm washed over her, erasing every emotion she’d been bogged down with and replacing them with adrenaline.
“Rory.Rory,” she said again, shaking her sister when she didn’t respond. “What’s happening?”
“Ella. She’s—” She cut herself off, a sob breaking free.
Mac took the phone from her hands and held it to her ear while Nat and Will surrounded Rory. “Who is this?”
The person on the other end of the line cleared their throat. “Mrs. Price, the principal at Havenbrook Elementary. I was just informin’ Ms. Haven that we have a situation down at the school. Ella’s gone missin’. And we…we have reason to believe she’s somewhere in the woods.”
The wooded property near the school was across the street and nowhere near the playground. It was also thousands of acres large and did not have warning flags dispersed around to help guide her niece.
“Call Sheriff Halsey immediately and have him meet me at the school. And tell him to bring as many officers as he can find.”
“I—I don’t have the authority to demand that.”
“Ido. This is Mackenna Haven, acting mayor. And I expect every available pair of hands to meet me at the school.” Without saying goodbye, she ended the call and sprang into action.
“Rory.” She gripped her crying sister by the shoulders and gently shook her until she finally had her attention. “I need you to try to remember for me. What was Ella wearin’ today? Was she in something bright?”
“She—” Rory swallowed, her voice shaky. “She was in jeans and a light-up Christmas sweater. That one you got her. I told her it was too early to be wearin’ it, but she loves those things as much as you do.”
Mac smiled. “Good. That’s good.” She put her arm around her sister and guided her to the door. Time was wasting. “It’ll help us find her in the cover of the trees.”
Or if they couldn’t find her until after dark.
She kept that thought to herself, though, because Rory was barely holding it together as it was.
