Page 90 of Dandelions and Smoke

Blake opens it, and before he registers it’s me, I’m pushing him back into the house.

“Did you know?” I yell, furious and no longer able to contain myself. My chest heaves as I drag in ragged breaths.

“What the hell?” Blake attempts to charge back at me, and I’m more than ready, but Billy gets in between us.

“Answer the question,” Tris seethes, the claws coming out as she too reaches her breaking point.

Visibly shaken and confused, Blake quits attempting to get his hands on me long enough for Billy to let go so he can get a good look at all of us. With his brows furrowed, Blake runs his hand through his brown curls.

“What the hell are you guys talking about?” he asks, his gaze moving between each of us as he takes in the layers of anger and desperation written across our faces before finally settling on me.

“Did you know that Rory left because,” I start, but the words get stuck in my throat, the guilt threatening to shred me from the inside out. “My ex. She threatened Rory. She told her she’d be the reason my son grows up without a father if she stays.”

“Fuck,” Blake exhales, dragging a hand down his face as the realization of what I’m implying crashes over him. Considering the upbringing he and his sister shared, the truth is both horrifying and painfully easy to understand.

“Well?” Tris pushes, out of patience.

“No, of course not. I mean, I had a feeling there was something else but⁠—”

“You had a feeling there was more to it, and you still let her go without telling any of us?” Billy asks, taking a step back, his chin dropping and brows furrowing as he looks at his best friend like he’s been betrayed. “What the hell, man?”

“Are you kidding me?” Tris fumes.

“I didn’t know it was anything like that. I was trying to protect her. I thought she needed time away from him.” He points at me, like that explains everything.

“The only person here who hurt her was you, by letting her leave,” I argue, storming past him to check her room for any signs of whether she meant to return.

The fidget keychain I bought her, the one she told me she loved so much and was the cutest thing she’d ever seen, sits on her dresser. I pick it up and hold it tightly in my hand as the answer slams into me like getting hit with a charged hose line.

I can’t lose her.

Within seconds, everyone else floods the room. My head spins, and my legs feel weak, forcing me to take a seat on the bed, no longer able to shoulder all of this.

“I would never hurt my sister,” Blake grinds out when he finds me, defensive and angry. “You know that.”

With my expression hardening into a flat glare, my eyebrows knit tight and low over my nose.

“Not on purpose,” I finally concede, before pulling my phone out.

I do know Blake would never hurt his sister on purpose. We both love her with everything we’ve got, but it makes no difference to me knowing that if Rory doesn’t.

“What are you doing? Texting her?” he asks, running his hand through his curls.

“She’s not gonna answer. Lettie said she’s purposely been ignoring us because it’s too hard on her to keep pretending everything is fine,” Tris reminds me.

As if I need the reminder.

As if I’m not replaying every word that Lettie said over and over in my mind, torturing myself with the knowledge that my little dandelion felt she had to fly over a thousand miles away to ensure my happiness and give up her own. I try to inhale, to catch my breath, but since she’s been gone, it’s as though there’s not enough air to fill my lungs deeply enough.

“I know that. I’m booking the earliest flight tomorrow morning out of here,” I reply, pausing to look at Blake. “And you’re coming with me.”

“Why me?” His head jerks back.

“Because if you knew there was something else going on that she wasn’t saying, then she knew that too, and you let her leave anyway. You didn’t stop her, and she knows it.”

Everyone in the room grows silent. We all know Rory enough to realize what that means, and how a decision like that would affect her.

With the tension in the room growing thick enough to feel, Billy blows out a long whistle.