“Sam and Sadie are miserable.”
“What? Why?” I ask. Anxiety swoops low in my belly. Did something else happen I don’t know about?
“Because they miss you. They keep looking into your class to see if you’re there.”
“I hate this.” I bury my face in my hands, trying to stop the emotion that’s overcoming me.
Anger. Heartbreak. Tension.
Rina grabs my uninjured wrist and pulls my attention back on her. “Why haven’t you called him?”
I worry my bottom lip between my teeth. “I’m scared.”
“Why? This is Marcus.”
Grabbing the white bag, marked with grease stains from the chips, I open it and stuff one into my mouth.
“I’m scared, okay? His mom kept yelling that I left and that she didn’t want me anywhere near her grandchildren. Those girls are his life. Why would he choose me over them?”
“Marcus loves you,” Rina points out. “There’s no choosing. He wants youandthe girls. It’s not even an option.”
My lip quivers and I bite down harder, trying not to let my emotions get the best of me. “But his mom?—”
“Honey. Let Marcus deal with his mother. I don’t know what’s going on there, but based on everything you said, I don’t think that’s the end of it.”
I huff out a laugh. “I wish, but I don’t want him to lose any more of his family.”
That’s what it boils down to.
His sister and brother-in-law.
His father.
Sam and Sadie have known too much loss in their short lives. They adore their grandma. I don’t want to be the reason they don’t see each other.
Except I don’t know how I can live without Marcus. Ever since he came back into my life, I remembered what it was like to love him. To be so swept up in him, that he was the most important thing and I felt like I could take on the world.
“When did love become so hard?” I rest my head on Rina’s shoulder.
“It’s always been this way. You just have to decide if what you and Marcus have is worth fighting for.”
I busy myself with getting plates down to start dishing up our dinner and think about what Rina said. Am I readyto fight for Marcus, or am I willing to lose the person that means more to me than anyone else in the world?
I lost Marcus once.
I don’t think I could survive losing him again.
Chapter Thirty-Two
MARCUS
Noah
Are the girls okay?
Marcus
They’re okay
