The Four Dolls Who Replaced My Family Chapter 09

The Four Dolls Who Replaced My Family Chapter 09

Two weeks later, Julian found me in Southridge.

I’d just walked out of the library when I saw him at the foot of the steps.

He’d lost weight. The shadows under his eyes were dark and heavy.

When he saw me, something in his face broke—relief, raw and obvious.

“Eleanor.”

He hurried toward me, his voice rough.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

I stopped walking. I didn’t run to him the way I used to.

I just looked at him.

“What are you doing here?”

Julian faltered.

He hadn’t expected me to be like this.

The old me would’ve caved by now. No matter how angry I was, I always softened the second he showed up.

His hand tightened around something he was holding.

“Eleanor, I was wrong. You should’ve had the choice to go to North Crest.”

He held out the postcard. He had taped it back together.

The creases were deep, permanent.

A strip of clear tape ran across the center of Crestwood Lake, like a scar that refused to close.

“Eleanor, I shouldn’t have said what I said that day.”

“Bella was fragile. I was scared she’d break down again.”

“I thought you were strong enough to be fine anywhere.”

“I’m sorry. I’m the one who broke our promise.”

I looked at the postcard and let out a short, hollow laugh.

There it was again.

I was smart, so I was supposed to handle being forgotten. Being left behind.

Bella was weaker, slower, so she deserved everything that should’ve been mine.

I didn’t take the postcard.

“Julian, do you remember my first night in that apartment?”

His face went white.

I kept going.

“A drunk neighbor hammered on my door by mistake. I hid under the covers and called you seventeen times. You never picked up.”

“When the power went out, I texted you. I told you I was scared.”

“You told me to stop bothering you. You were tutoring Bella.”

“Bella shoved me, and I hit my head so hard my vision went white. You were standing right there.”

“And you told her, ‘It’s okay. No one’s mad at you.'”

With every word, more color drained from his face.

He opened his mouth as if he wanted to explain, but nothing came.

Because every word I’d said was true.

Every moment he’d brushed off as nothing was a night I’d survived alone.

His eyes reddened. “I really didn’t know how bad it was.”

I looked at him. My voice didn’t waver.

“You knew.”

“You just thought I could handle it.”

Julian went rigid.

Neither of us spoke for a long time after that.

Somewhere in the distance, someone walked past us in the drizzle.

The streetlights came on one by one.

The Southridge night air drifted over us, damp and salty. It smelled like somewhere new. It smelled like freedom.

Julian’s voice cracked when he finally spoke.

“Can I start over? Can I be the one waiting for you again?”

“With your grades, you could get into North Crest for grad school. In a heartbeat.”

I looked down at the postcard in his hands.

Once, I’d wanted North Crest more than anything.

Not just because it was the best school.

Because he was there.

But I’d learned something since then.

Someone who’s really waiting for you doesn’t disappear every time you need them.

I took the postcard from him.

Something flickered in his eyes. Hope, maybe.

I ripped the postcard right down the taped seam.

“Julian, I’m not going to North Crest. And you don’t have to wait for me anymore.”

The pieces fluttered into the trash can beside us.

He didn’t move. His face went ashen.

I didn’t look back.

My path didn’t lead back to him anymore.

It was right here, under my feet.