They Left Me Behind on the Road Trip, So I Got on a Better Ride Chapter 08

They Left Me Behind on the Road Trip, So I Got on a Better Ride Chapter 08

I gave a small smile. “Don’t say that.”

“You’re defending us?”

“Not defending you. Just… there’s no point. It’s all in the past.”

Silence settled over the line.

After a beat, he asked, “Is there any way you’d come back? Can the MECCA clan still be what we planned?

We’ll do better, I promise.”

There it was again. “We’ll change later.”

As if once they started feeling remorse, I was supposed to step back into my old place.

I leaned against the window. “Liam.”

“Yeah?”

“Whether you change is your choice. Whether I stay away is mine.”

He went silent.

It took him a moment to murmur. “Damn. I never knew you could be this ruthless.”

I laughed. “I didn’t know either, until recently.”

I hung up.

Shortly after, Mason sent a message: [Don’t mind him. He didn’t word it well.]

A second line followed: [But what he said? It’s what I feel too.]

I didn’t reply.

On Monday, Ice Rose set a ledger on my desk.

“These are old family accounts, dormant for over a decade. See if any of the debts can be recovered.”

I flipped open the first page. “I can.”

“That quick?”

“Yeah.”

I once believed I could never walk away from them.

Once I stepped away, though, I realized moving to a new city and living a different life wasn’t nearly as

impossible as I’d feared.

The hardest leap was the one I’d already taken-back on that road trip.

Six months later, Ice Rose sent me out on a business trip with her crew.

Five of us in a seven-seater SUV.

Before we got in, one of Ice Rose’s men turned to me. “Where d’you wanna sit?”

My instinct drew me to the very back row. “I’m fine anywhere.”

He looked confused. “Fine anywhere? The front passenger seat’s empty. Don’t you get motion sickness?”

I froze. “How did you know?”

“On that last long haul, didn’t you say scrolling on the highway makes you nauseous” He tossed the car keys. “Get up front. I don’t want you getting sick in the car later.”

The others laughed. I laughed too.

As I settled into the passenger seat, my phone lit up.

It was Chloe. We hadn’t spoken in ages.

She sent only a graduation group photo: the four of them stood at the campus gate, an empty space in the

middle.

[We took graduation photos today.]

[It felt so obvious someone was missing.]

I stared for a while, then replied: [It looks great.]

She messaged back quickly: [How’ve you been?]

[I’m doing well.]

And this time, it was the truth.

Ethan hadn’t sent any more long messages. His last text sat there from two weeks ago.

[Ava, I finally get it. You didn’t abandon us out of nowhere.]

[We pushed you away, over and over again.]

I left it unread, but I didn’t delete it.

I just let it stay there.

After the engine turned over, someone in the car asked, “What do you feel like for dinner?”

I answered automatically. “Anything’s fine.”

A protest came straight from the backseat. “No ‘anything’s fine’ allowed. Everyone pick one. No more polite

deflections.”

“Exactly. This work trip’s exhausting enough without everyone tiptoeing around each other.”

I blinked, then said, “Barbecue, then.”

“Hell yeah.”

“The highest-rated spot nearby?”

“That’s the one.”

No one said I was being difficult.

No one told me to pick something else.

As if wanting something specific was just…. normal.

The car merged onto the highway. Leaning against the window, I thought back to that graduation road trip.

Back then I’d been chasing them nonstop.

Chasing the car, chasing their route, chasing an explanation.

Once I stopped chasing, they’d turned around to look for me. But it was too late.

Someone tapped the back of my seat. “Ava, don’t fall asleep. We’re stopping at the next rest stop for coffee. Wait for us.”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Got it.”

The car hummed with chatter and laughter.

This time, someone really was waiting for me.