Pustaka
Cari
Beranda / Romance / THE LINE BETWEEN US / CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX

Share

CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX

Penulis: Lisa
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-12-13 07:49:03

I circled my car for the third time, though I couldn’t have explained why. Maybe I thought movement would calm me down. Maybe I just couldn’t stand still long enough to let the fear catch up to me. The gravel crunched under my shoes, each sound too loud in the suffocating quiet of the cul-de-sac.

My phone was already in my hand, familiar at this point, an extension of my panic. The screen glowed, Autumn’s name still at the top of my recent calls, a brutal reminder of every failed attempt.

I swiped away from it and opened another number. My thumb hesitated for half a second before pressing the dial.

“Come on,” I muttered under my breath, pacing behind my car now. “Come on, pick up. Please.”

It rang once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then…

“Damian?”

My mom’s voice filtered through, warm and confused. Relief hit me so hard my knees almost bent.

“Hey,” I breathed out, except it sounded more like an exhale soaked in panic. “Mom…uh, have you… have you heard from Autumn? Or her mom?”

There was a paus
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab Terkunci
Bab sebelumnya Bab selanjutnya

Bab terbaru

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER NINETY TWO

    I sighed the moment I saw him.Damian stood in my doorway like he’d materialized out of the walls, one hand still on the doorframe, shoulders tense, eyes flicking to me and then away again. For a split second, instinct flared, anger, irritation, the urge to tell him to get out before he said a single word.But the feeling burned out almost as quickly as it came.I was too tired.Too hollow.Arguing required energy I no longer had.So instead of snapping at him, instead of repeating myself for the hundredth time, I just stepped back and gestured weakly toward the room.“Do whatever you’re here to do,” I muttered. “Just… make it quick.”He hesitated, like he hadn’t expected permission, then slipped inside. The door clicked shut behind him, the sound louder than it should’ve been. My room felt smaller instantly, the air thicker, like it had when grief first settled into my lungs and refused to leave.Damian stayed by the door.Of course he did.He shifted from one foot to the other, hand

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER NINETY ONE

    Taylor held me while the storm tore through me.Not the dramatic kind of sobbing I had earlier, just the quiet, body-shaking kind that slips out between breaths, the kind that feels like it’s hollowing you from the inside. My face pressed into his chest, his arms wrapped firmly around my shoulders and back, anchoring me in place while everything else unraveled.He didn’t say much.He didn’t have to.Every so often, his hand lifted and tapped gently against my upper arm or my back, soft, rhythmic, grounding.Like he was reminding my body how to breathe. Like he was counting me back into myself.It worked.Eventually.My sobs thinned into uneven breaths. My chest still ached, my throat burned, but the sharp edge dulled enough for me to exist inside it without breaking apart completely. Taylor didn’t loosen his hold right away. He waited. Patient. Steady. As if he knew the moment he let go, I might shatter all over again.Across the room, Damian sat rigid on the armchair.I could feel him

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER NINETY

    I let Taylor guide me back inside without a word.The door closed behind us with a soft, final click that sounded far too loud in the stillness. The living room felt colder than before, stripped bare now that the early-morning light had fully crept in. Everything looked too clear. Too sharp. Like grief had turned the world’s contrast all the way up.Taylor gently shifted me to the couch, his movements careful, like I might splinter if he handled me wrong. I sat numbly, my injured hand cradled against my chest, blood drying sticky along my palm.“Don’t move,” he said quietly.He crouched and began gathering the remaining ceramic shards from the floor before I could protest.“Taylor…”“I’ve got it,” he cut in, not unkindly, but firmly. “You don’t.”He picked them up one by one, his jaw tight, movements controlled. I watched him instead of the mess, watched how his shoulders stayed tense, like he was holding something back. Anger. Fear. Both, maybe.The silence settled again.That awful,

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER EIGHTY NINE

    I didn’t sleep.I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling, watching shadows crawl and shift as cars passed outside, as the moon slid slowly across the sky. Every time I closed my eyes, my chest tightened like something was clamping down on my ribs from the inside. My body kept expecting morning to reset everything. To undo it. To give me a version of the world where my dad was still alive.But grief doesn’t work like that.I turned onto my side. Then my other side. I pulled the blanket up to my chin, kicked it down again, twisted the pillow, hugged it, shoved it away. My sheets felt wrong. My room felt wrong. My own skin felt wrong, like I didn’t fit inside myself anymore.The silence was the worst part.Not the peaceful kind. The heavy, listening kind. The kind that pressed against my ears until my thoughts sounded too loud.I didn’t know what I needed.By the time my eyes started burning and my head felt stuffed with cotton, the sky outside my window had begun to change. Black softe

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHTH

    The drive back felt endless.The road stretched on and on, a ribbon of dark asphalt cutting through fading daylight, and every mile felt heavier than the last. My mum’s cousin, Auntie Lara, kept glancing at the rearview mirror, her eyes flicking up every few seconds like she was counting breaths. Like she expected to catch one of us doing something unthinkable. Opening the door mid-drive. Screaming. Vanishing.I noticed.I didn’t blame her.My mum sat beside me, her head pressed weakly against the window, the glass fogging slightly with each shallow breath she took. Her eyes were open but unfocused, staring at nothing. Or maybe everything. She looked drained, emptied out, like grief had scooped out everything that made her her and left behind a fragile shell.The woman who used to hum while cooking.Who laughed too loudly at bad jokes.Who danced around the living room when she thought no one was watching.She was gone.And that terrified me almost as much as losing my dad.I wanted t

  • THE LINE BETWEEN US    CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN

    Words failed me as I watched the coffin descend.They weren’t stolen or misplaced. They simply didn’t exist anymore, evaporated into the thick, choking air that pressed down on my chest as the ropes slid through the men’s hands and the casket lowered inch by inch into the ground. Wood disappearing into earth. My father disappearing into forever.The sound of soil shifting echoed too loudly in my ears. A dull, final sound. Like a door being shut in a house I would never enter again.My mom’s scream cut through everything.It was raw, animal. The kind of sound that comes from a place so deep it doesn’t care who hears it. She lunged forward, her body bucking with sobs, hands clawing at the air as if she could reach him, pull him back up, rewind time with sheer force. Family members grabbed her, arms wrapping around her shoulders, her waist, holding her back as she cried his name again and again like it might summon him.“Please,” she sobbed. “Please,no…please…”I didn’t move.I stood the

Bab Lainnya

Anda juga akan menyukai

Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status