Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 51243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
And somewhere between all the silence, whatever we were stopped existing, too.
TRACK 35. SO IT GOES… (2:49)
TAYLOR
I’m sorry for holding that secret back from you all these years.
I can’t say if I would’ve ever told you because… I don’t know, Audrey. I just don’t fucking know.
I’m getting Gayle’s for dinner. Want me to pick anything up for you?
Can we please talk about this?
Please, Audrey…
She didn’t respond for the rest of the day.
I went to her suite later that night and knocked on the door, but she never opened it.
The silence between us felt heavier than it ever had before—like every unspoken word we’d collected since high school had come back to crush the air from my lungs.
Maybe I should’ve told her sooner. Maybe I should’ve trusted her with the truth before it turned into a wound we’d both have to bleed from. But I’d spent years convincing myself that protecting her meant hiding the worst parts of me, of my family, of us.
And now it felt like it was too late.
I peeled a Post-it note from my notebook and tried to offer a handwritten apology to cover every base I’d already failed to reach.
I debated the closing line for a long time—something different, something deeper—but in the end, I decided it was best to leave things the way they’d always been.
I’m sorry, Audrey.
Take care,
Taylor
TRACK 36. THE ANTI-HERO (5:33)
AUDREY
Subject: Personal Reasons
Dear Dean Worthington,
Thank you—and your wonderful staff—so much for selecting me as one of the scholars in your amazing writing program.
Over the past several months, I’ve learned more than I ever imagined possible, and I truly believe my writing has grown at a pace I never thought it could.
That said, due to personal reasons, I must immediately withdraw from the final six weeks of the program. I know this may affect my chances of being considered for the final ranking or scholarship opportunity, and I didn’t make this decision lightly.
I am including all my completed work and my final thesis in case the professors wish to review them. I am also providing the mailing address of a family member where, if possible, my belongings can be sent under the emergency-withdrawal clause in the program’s handbook.
A scanned check is attached to cover postage, and this address may be used again in the coming weeks should any final materials need to be shipped to me.
Thank you so much for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Audrey Parker
P.S. Please thank Professors Weiss and Mills for everything. I wish I’d had the words to finish this differently.
TRACK 37. MY TEARS RICOCHET (4:47)
AUDREY
The word heartbroken wasn’t enough to describe the pain that greeted me every morning—the ache that invaded my dreams at night.
I couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t even pretend to be okay.
I missed and hated Taylor at the same time.
How could he hide that from me?
I slipped out of my car and into the rain, racing up the front steps of my Aunt Lydia’s brownstone.
“Audrey?” She answered the door in a pink cow-print bathrobe that barely concealed white lace lingerie. “What are you doing here?”
“I called you and told you I needed a place to crash for a while.”
“I thought you were joking!”
“I said it was an emergency.” I shook my head. “I only need to stay here for a few days.”
“Days?” She looked alarmed.
“Until the bank opens on Monday and I can get the keys to my parents’ rental cabin from the security box.”
“Oh…” She tapped her lip. “Well, no need to wait for the bank at all. Stay right there.”
She rushed inside and shut the door, leaving me in the rain.
Brown eyes peeked from the left window. Then hazel ones joined.
What the hell is she doing in there?
When she opened the door again, she thrust a keychain and a binder into my hands.
“It hasn’t had a renter in the past three months,” she said. “I paused it because I couldn’t get up there to clean as often, but…” She yanked two keys off and handed them to me. “It should still be really nice.”
“Thank you, Aunt Lydia.” I grabbed them. “Do you mind if I use your bathroom for a second?”
“There’s a Hilton hotel around the corner.” She stepped back. “Call me when you make it to the cabin and I’ll check on you later.”
She slammed the door before I could ask another question.
Sighing, I returned to my rental car and slid behind the wheel. My phone buzzed on the seat—another call from Taylor—but I didn’t have the heart to answer.
I doubt I ever will.
Four hours later, I drove beneath a canopy of pine trees, following a winding road bordered by a glossy green lake.
A large wooden cabin with gleaming gray windows stood at the edge of the clearing, quiet and waiting.
It’d been years since I’d been here, and as much as I wanted to forget it existed, sometimes I caught myself wondering if my parents’ so-called “inspiration” had really just been an escape.