“You saw me that day, that moment?” I clarify.
“I stood and watched you for five minutes until my mother forced me to continue walking. I could hardly hold myself up from the weak state my body was in, but I felt it was the repercussion I needed before I went in and took your wife’s heart.”
“Did Ellie know she was going to die?” I need to know and I will continue to beg her for information until I no longer have the opportunity to do so.
“Hunter, would you want me to tell you something that she told me in confidence?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My fist isgrowing weak as I continue knocking on Charlotte’s door. I know she’s home. I’m also aware it’s close to midnight. I pull out my phone and send another text, pleading for her to answer.
I’m not giving up until she does. I need to talk to her. I’ve been trying to avoid calling her in case her volume is up since I don’t want to wake Lana this late at night, but she’s leaving me no choice.
My finger hovers over the call button just as I see the hall light illuminate through the foggy glass. I hear footsteps.Please don’t be Lana. The door opens sluggishly and Charlotte is standing in front of me in a ratty white robe, her hair tousled everywhere and her eyes half-lidded and also full of confusion. She hasn’t yet given me the opportunity to see her without make-up and now I don’t understand why. Every one of her features is lighter, more natural, flushed—beautiful.
“Hunter, it’s midnight,” she yawns.
“I know, but I need to talk to you,” I state the obvious.
“Can’t it wait until morning? I was asleep,” she says, slowly coming to the realization of what she looks like. Her fingers press through the roots of her hair, smoothing out the snarls as she pulls her robe closed a little tighter across her chest.
I step forward, forcing her to step back, allowing me in. “She knew Ellie. Ellie promised her the heart. The woman from the letters was the woman I ran into at the gardens. That’s crazy, right?”
“What?” Charlotte says through a hazy groan. “I don’t follow.” Annoyance sets in, as I need her to keep up right now. I need her to help me figure this all out.
“She knew her, Charlotte. I didn’t know her, but Ellie knew her. Ellie told her she would give this woman her heart if it survived her brain. What sense does that make?” My voice is growing in volume and Charlotte’s attention locks on the stairwell.
“Please keep your voice down so Lana doesn’t wake up.” Her words come out in soft caws.I shouldn’t have woken her. I need to get a grip.
“I’m sorry,” is all I can offer. With my voice lowered, I calmly explain everything again—Ari being the heart recipient and also the woman in the gardens. As I’m explaining, I keep wondering if Ellie wanted Ari and me to meet. None of this can be coincidental. I don’t believe in that crap, especially since Ellie can’t send me any of those soul-gripping whimsical messages through the wind and shit. There has to be more than what Ari admitted to me. I need to know the rest.
Charlotte’s hand reaches for my arm and she pulls me toward the couch as we both sit down. “You have to calm down.” Her hand rests on my back as she traces her fingertips in small circles below my shoulder.
I take a deep breath, one I’ve needed to take for hours. “I know this all sounds ridiculous,” I explain.
“It’s not ridiculous. I would want to know who she is if I were in your shoes, too,” she says.
“You would?” I look up at her, needing the validation in her eyes, telling me I’m not completely insane.
“Of course,” she says, but there is no validation in her eyes. Instead, there’s a distant look. “Hunter…”
“I shouldn’t have woken you. I just—you’re the one I wanted to talk to.”
“You’re making this so damn hard,” she says, sinking farther into the couch. “Hunt, this really isn’t the best time to have this conversation but since you’re here…”
“What?” I ask, my voice sounding as worn out as I feel. What is she about to say?
“I don’t know if I can follow you on this path you're heading down. I do want to be here for you, understand you, and support you, but this is incredibly difficult with your fluctuating moods and behavior. I mean, you couldn’t even tell me you were going to meet this woman tonight. I feel hurt by that, I guess.” It completely slipped my mind between all of my racing thoughts of Ari that I didn’t tell Charlotte I was meeting her tonight.Nice move, Hunter.“Whether this is innocent or not with her, I just wish you had been honest with me today—tonight.” She drops her head into her hands, releasing a heavy sigh, a non-forgiving sigh. Ifucked up tonight.I deserve this. “I just—I’m not sure what you need from me right now, but I don’t know if I can handle it. I’ve been through my fair share of crap—nothing compared to you—but I don’t want things to be like this. So confusing, hard.”
“I didn’t mean to make things hard on you,” I tell her. She is the last person I would want to make things hard for.
“I know.” Her elbows fall to her knees and she hunches over, clearly exhausted. I watch, waiting for her thoughts to subside. “Hunt, I just don’t think your heart and/or mind are in the right place for us right now,” she says with tears filling her eyes.
She’s breaking up with me and I can’t think of anything to say. I do want this—her. Things have hardly had a chance to begin with us and now they’re ending and it’s my fault. “So that’s it. You’re done with me?”
“Things have been really fun. I love being with you, and Olive of course, but something feels like it’s missing. There’s a void—and it’s starting to hurt me. I can only imagine it will get harder—worse over time—as I fall for you more than I already have. So this is me protecting myself.” She places her hand over my bouncing knee and squeezes gently. “I don’t want it to be like this, but you need to figure some things out.”
“Charlotte, I want to be with you. I need to be with you.” The words come out far easier now than they did a month or two ago. I’ve really grown attached to her, to the point where she feels like a crucial part of my life, a part that feels normal with her in it. I didn’t even know I could find anything remotely close to normal before I met her, and I don’t want to lose that. “I should have been honest with you today. I was wrong and I messed up,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. “Please don’t do this.”
