She knew. Oscar hadn’t been doing a great job of hiding it.
He looked up again, heart clenching as he saw the sympathetic look on May’s face.
“I was scared, too,” Oscar admitted. “I was scared I was about to lose him and I let that fear… cause me to lose him. I’m so stupid.”
“You know, when I talked to him yesterday, he said almost exactly the same thing. He’s hurting, too.”
“But he’s stillleaving,” Oscar said, scratching at the same chip in the table he always scratched at. “Leaving all of us, right when we need him most. WhenIneed him most. I know this place is on the verge of collapse and I don’t think I can go through that, but maybe he could save it, or maybe… maybe if he was staying then we could pick up the pieces, or… something. I don’t know. But if he leaves, we’re screwed.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
The rustling of a piece of paper made Oscar look over at May again. She held it out to him, folded into eighths.
After a moment’s hesitation, hope rising in his chest, Oscar took the paper and unfolded it.
“That’s an anonymous donation for pretty much exactly a year’s operating expenses,” May said. “Came through this morning.”
“Freddie?” Oscar asked, frowning. Maybe a guilty conscience had spurred him into action?
May shook her head. “Read the note.”
Oscar scanned the page, looking for the comment section.
His jaw dropped when he found it.
I love you, too. Sorry.
Ryan. It had to be.
It also had to be most of his divorce settlement. That was… Freddie could have afforded to give this ten times over, but it was almost everything Ryan had. That meant a whole lot more.
Oscar’s stomach swooped, dizzy joy washing over him, and then cold dread sinking in a moment later.
Ryan was leaving. He’d been leaving this morning, and Oscar had no idea how far he’d gotten with that.
He was leaving because Oscartold him to. Not because he wanted to go.
Panic rose in Oscar’s throat, the knowledge that he was about to lose the best thing that had ever happened to him sticking there. This couldn’t be how it ended. Itcouldn’t.
“Where’s Ryan?” he asked desperately, folding the paper back up.
“Last I saw he was packing his car,” May responded.
Oscar was up and through the kitchen door before she added, “you might catch him if you’re quick.”
