I grab a smaller bag and start sliding frames inside, wrapping them in spare sweaters.
From the kitchen, I hear Jesse rummaging through drawers.
“Got your tea,” he calls. “And your favorite mug. And, okay, wow, that is a lot of honey.”
“Don’t you dare judge my inventory system,” I yell back, breaking on a half-laugh, half-sob.
He appears in the doorway a second later with a crate, mugs, tea tins, and three jars of honey tucked safely inside. “I’m emotionally supporting you the only way I know how: carbs and sugar.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
His expression softens. “Anytime.”
My eyes fall on the coffee table. The letter is still there.
The anonymous one. The one that cracked open everything I thought I knew about my family and then left it all hanging.
For a heartbeat, I consider leaving it. Letting it burn with the rest of the secrets. Watching the fire do what silence never did—end it.
Then I grab it.
I shove it between the pages of my grandmother’s last journal and tuck the whole stack into a bag.
I don’t know why.
Maybe because running from one fire is enough for tonight.
Maybe because the past has chased me far enough—it’s time I chase back.
“Time’s up,” Marshall says quietly.
I look around my house, bags in hand, heart breaking in slow motion.
It still looks the same.
Same couch. Same curtains. Same crooked rug.
But it feels… hollow.
Like I’ve already left, and the walls are remembering me instead of holding me.
My throat burns.
“Hey,” Jesse says softly beside me. I didn’t even hear him move. “You can cry if you need to.”
I shake my head hard. “If I start, I won’t stop.”
He nods, not pushing.
Wyatt appears with my duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “We’ll make sure you come back. To this. Or to something better. That’s a promise.”
I nod, blinking rapidly.
We step out into the night. The air hits me as a wall, smoke and wind and heat baked into the dark.
The glow on the ridge is brighter now, smudging everything with a hellish orange. The sound of the fire is louder, too, a distant roar like the ocean, if the ocean wanted to eat everything.
Two trucks wait in my driveway, engines idling.
