Page 165 of A Lie in Church

I took a glance at the check for five million dollars.

“What’s this?”

“Tristan asked me to give it to you and ask you to leave. You can take any car you want, and if you need more money—”

“What?”

“He thinks he doesn’t deserve you and is scared he might hurt you again. He is concerned about your safety.”

“I wanna speak to him.”

“You know you can’t. There is a lot going on. We don’t know his attacker’s next move. He is scared, Chloe. Anything could happen to you.”

“I’m not leaving,” I said, tearing the check into pieces.

“He is not coming back.”

“You’re lying.” I shook my head in denial.

“He needs to be away, Chloe.”

“I wanna be there for him and fight this with him,” I whimpered.

“I’m sorry,” he said, which was his way of telling me I couldn’t see Tristan. He stood up to leave. “If you change your mind, call me.”

I wouldn’t.

It’d beenthree months without Tristan in the house. Words could never explain how much I missed him. A text from him would make me the happiest right now, but all I got from Adrian and his family was that he is getting better.

I stayed in my room, keeping myself busy with schoolwork most of the day. I would have been miserable and died from the pain of his absence, but Vina had been coming around a lot and trying to keep me sane.

“Just a word, please,” I said to my phone as I waited for Tristan to reply to my hundredth text.

Did he even miss me? Was I the only one going crazy from being away from each other? I was willing to go through the whole process with him, to be there to provide some support, but here I was, alone with Morris in this big house that was starting to feel haunted.

My phone rang. I picked it up quickly, hoping it was him, but it was my dad. I answered the call with tentative fingers.

“Chloe.”

My heartbeat paused.

“Dad?”

“Can we meet?”

Meet? All of a sudden? Is Mom dead?

“Meet? Um … yes. When and where?”

“I will text you the address.”

“Okay,” I said, and he ended the call.

I tried not to panic. It’d been almost a year, and he was reaching out now. I hoped something terrible hadn’t happened.

I stood up and changed into a pair of blue denim jeans and a black halter top. I slipped on my sneakers and held my hair back with a white ribbon.

I arrivedbefore my dad at his favorite restaurant. I took a seat at the outdoor space overlooking a cinema. I relished the feeling of the sun on my skin as I waited for him to come. I had not been in a public space for a long time, and I was sure by now, everyone that knew about what had happened in the church was expecting a baby. Though it felt like it was already forgotten since I wasn’t getting the usual stare I got from a few people when the event had first happened.