They Voted Me Out After Fifteen Years Together Chapter 05

They Voted Me Out After Fifteen Years Together Chapter 05

I should’ve been dead.

But I could still hear.

The rain. The screech of brakes. The shriek of ambulance sirens. And Dax shouting my name. Over

and over.

“Sable. Don’t sleep.”

“Look at me.”

His hand pressed against my face. Burning hot.

I wanted to laugh. Couldn’t even lift my eyelids.

So he could be scared.

Just always too late.

Someone lifted me onto a stretcher.

The photo slipped from my arms. Hit the ground.

I tried to reach for it. My fingers wouldn’t move.

Then another voice started crying.

“Dax. My arm hurts.’

Willa’s voice. Soft and trembling.

Dax’s footsteps scrambled.

A second later, he was shouting at a nurse. “Take care of her wound first.”

My chest hurt.

Worse than getting hit by the car.

Even now. Even at the very end. I was still second.

When I woke up, everything was white.

The smell of antiseptic hit my nose. I flinched without thinking. The motion yanked at my ribs. Pain flashed black across my vision.

“Easy.”

Tess was beside me. Her eyes were red from crying.

“Sable. You were out for three days.”

Three days.

I opened my mouth. My throat felt like cracked concrete.

“My tin box.”

Tess paused. Then grabbed it from the nightstand.

The box had a dent in one corner. The photos inside were warped from the rain.

With my good hand, I touched my mom’s face.

My fingertip brushed the paper. And the tears just fell.

Tess choked up. “Reed handled your transfer. No one knows you’re here.”

I closed my eyes.

Good. At least this time, I didn’t wake up next to Dax.

Tess hesitated. Then handed me her phone.

“They’re still attacking you online.”

The screen lit up. The trending topic stabbed my eyes.

#Vireo Island Bride Hospitalized After Harassment From Ex#

The video showed Willa lying in a hospital bed. Arm bandaged. Voice breaking.

“I don’t blame Sable. She just loved Dax too much.”

The comments were drowning in sympathy for her.

No one knew I was the one who’d spent three days in the ICU.

I stared at the words. Something hollowed out inside my chest.

Tess got agitated. “Sable, let’s drop the evidence. We have everything.”

I shook my head.

“Not yet.”

My own voice was wrecked. Didn’t sound like me.

I handed the phone back and looked out the window.

The weather was beautiful. Sunlight pooled white on the hospital floor.

I thought about the day after my parents’ funeral. That same bright sun.

The whole world kept going.

Only I was stuck.

But this time, I wasn’t waiting for anyone to come get me.

A knock at the door.

Reed walked in. Set a document on the bed.

“The Southbay project. I held it for you until the end of the month.”

“Get better. The spot is still yours.”

I gripped that paper. My knuckles went white.

A long time passed. Then I heard myself speak.

“Mr. Calder. I need a favor.”

Dax always believed that if he turned around, I’d still be there.

Bree always believed that since I had no family, no matter how hard they shoved me

eventually fold and come crawling back.

away,

I’d

So fine.

I’d vanish from their world entirely.

I looked down at my hands wrapped in gauze.

But that place inside my chest. It finally stopped hurting.

“I want them to believe I’m dead.”

Dax found the hospital in the early hours of the next morning.

The ER lights were blinding white.

There was still my blood on his shirt. His fingers shook so hard he could barely hold the intake

form.

“Sable Holbrook. Brought in from a car accident last night. Where is she?”

The nurse checked her records for a long time. Then just said, “She’s been transferred.”

“Transferred where?”

“The family requested confidentiality.”

Family. Dax went still.

He remembered, all at once. I hadn’t had family for a long time.

Since I was fourteen, he had been my emergency contact.