“Taxi!” he calls out, frustration edging his voice. “Hey!”
No one stops. No one even slows down. Emma sits on a low concrete barrier nearby, wrapped in a blanket, watching everything with wide, tired eyes.
And me—I just stand here.
Staring at nothing. Feeling everything. I found them. They’re alive. They’re safe. And it should feel like relief.
Itdoesfeel like relief.
But it’s tangled up with something else now. Something just as strong. Just as overwhelming.
Him.
My chest tightens, my eyes burning again as I press my lips together. I shouldn’t have looked back. I shouldn’t have called his name. Because now I know exactly what it feels like to lose him.
“Willow.”
My heart stops.
I don’t turn right away. I can’t. Because I know that voice. I feel it. All the way down to my bones. Hope hits me so fast it almost hurts.
Slowly—I turn. And there he is.
Garrison.
Standing a few feet behind me, his chest rising and falling like he ran to get here, his eyes locked on mine like he hasn’t looked at anything else since I walked out that door. Everything inside me shifts all at once.
“You came,” I breathe.
Of course he did. His jaw tightens slightly, like there’s a hundred things he wants to say and he’s choosing the one that matters most.
“I’m not letting you walk away like that, not this time.” he says.
My heart stumbles. Behind me, I hear my dad’s voice. Sharp.
“What the hell are you doing out here?”
I flinch slightly, but I don’t look away from Garrison. I can’t. Because something’s different. I can feel it. In the way he’s standing. In the way he’s looking at me. In the way he’s not backing down. He steps closer.
Not to me—To my dad.
“I need to talk to you,” he says.
Dad scoffs, incredulous. “I’ve heard enough from you.”
“No,” Garrison says, his voice firm. “You haven’t.”
That stops him. Just enough. Dad turns fully now, his expression dark, protective, angry.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here after what I just saw,” he says.
Garrison nods once.
“I know.”
No argument. No excuse. Just Acceptance. And then he keeps going.
“I love her.”
