Chapter 199: The Look Of Love
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She rubbed her tired eyes. "I know Joanne kept in touch with him. She’d mention it here and there...’talked to the lawyer today’, but she kept the details close to her chest. Said it was safer that way. And then... weeks later, she was gone. Her car wrapped around a tree on a night she was supposedly just running errands in the city."
Rachel’s voice cracked again. "It was the worst news I ever got. Called me at the diner, right in the middle of my shift. I dropped a whole tray of plates. I can’t even begin to imagine how you must have felt, dear."
Adrien went completely silent next to me, his gaze fixed on the worn carpet, something dark and heavy settling over his features. I could feel the weight of it coming from him...confirming that his mother had been scared, that she’d been planning, that her death might not have been the random tragedy everyone assumed.
Without thinking too much about it, I reached over and took his hand. His fingers were cold from the walk, but they wrapped around mine instantly, tight, like I was the only steady thing in the room. I made slow, soothing circles on his knuckles with my thumb, hoping it conveyed what words couldn’t at that moment: I’m here. We’ll get through this together.
Rachel watched us with a sad, tired smile. "A few days after the funeral, I got let go from my second job at the vineyard. No warning, just a polite letter about ’restructuring.’ I never heard from Logan again after that. His number went dead, and my emails bounced back. It was like he disappeared."
She lifted a shoulder in a weary shrug. "I told myself it was a coincidence. Just bad luck on top of grief. Easier to think that way, I guess I never even liked him that much, I suppose."
The radiator clanked again, breaking the silence that followed. Outside, snow kept falling in thick, silent sheets, hiding the streetlights until the window glowed with nothing but white.
Adrien’s grip on my hand tightened for a moment, then relaxed, but he didn’t let go. And honestly, neither did I.
The silence that hung in the air after Rachel’s last words felt almost tangible, heavy with all the hopes we had and the truths we hadn’t yet uncovered. The radiator had finally quieted down, leaving just the soft sound of snow tapping against the window and the occasional creak of the old house settling in the chilly night.