My dad squeezed me to him then said with forced cheeriness, “I hope you come and visit us occasionally. I know Dudley Grove isn’t as exciting as Manhattan, but we always love it when you’re here.”
“I’ll come visit. I’ll come visit more,” I promised, feeling my throat close up.
“You’re growing up, Lexi,” my dad said kindly. “This is how things go. You meet your Prince Charming, fall head over heels in love, and then he whisks you off to his castle even if that castle is in Manhattan.”
I hugged my dad, suddenly feeling horribly homesick even though I wasright here.
“I’m thinking we’ll do fishing after this,” Dad said, giving me another hug. “Grayson seems like he’s up for anything.”
“It’s a recent development,” I admitted, looking across the market to him, only to see a woman hurrying up to my mother.
“You need to keep that monster away from Lexi,” the woman said loudly. “Don’t you know who he is?”
50
GRAYSON
This was how it was going to be, wasn’t it? I would never be able to escape it—escape my father, escape the cellar, escape my past.
“Now that is just plain rude, Mary Louise,” Cindy scolded the other woman.
“You can’t allow poor little Lexi around him,” Mary Louise argued. “Look at him. He’s a brute. She’s your only daughter.”
“This is none of your business.”
“I just borrowed Emily Ragner’s book from the library,” Mary Louise pressed. “I was listening to that new podcast about unsolved mysteries, and they mentioned the case.” She flipped open the library book. There on the cover was my brother Aaron’s mother. I could still see the hatred in her eyes when she screamed at me, holding his bruised and broken body.
I tried to steady my breathing.Don’t make a scene.
Then Lexi was there, grabbing my hand.
“You know what?” Lexi said to her parents. “I think we’re just going to go.”
“No, you were going to stay another night here,” my mother protested. “Your dad had a big fishing afternoon planned.”
That’s where my father had said he was taking me when—
“I actually do need to get some work done,” I said to Cindy.
“Do you have a girl trapped in your house?” Mary Louise demanded.
Lexi’s mom turned around, opened up the top of her large water thermos she was carrying, and dumped it all over Mary Louise.
The other woman screeched and sputtered.
“How dare you?” She wagged her finger in Cindy’s face.
“How dareyou?” Cindy slapped her hand away. “Grayson is our guest. Grayson, I am so sorry.”
I was already texting the pilot to ask him to get the plane ready.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” I choked out, “but I don’t want to cause any more of a scene. You can stay, Lexi,” I added. “I’ll send the plane back for you.”
I couldn’t be here any longer.
“I’ll come with you,” she told me, though the sad look she gave her mother wasn’t lost on me.
Lexi still seemedsad in the plane. The cloud cover was low as we flew into the city. The plane jostled us as the pilot navigated into Manhattan’s airspace.
