We Promised to Wait for Everyone—But No One Waited for Me Chapter 07

We Promised to Wait for Everyone—But No One Waited for Me Chapter 07

Sunday morning, Lindsey came to the house.

Josie answered the door.

Stepping inside, Lindsey saw them scattered around the house.

Wesley was out on the back porch smoking. Dawson was playing a video game.

Miles sat at the dining table, looking wrecked.

His phone screen showed Delaney’s chat.

He’d called her yesterday, several times. Nobody had picked up.

“Hi, I’m Delaney’s coworker. I’m here to help pack her things.”

Lindsey stood in the entryway holding a stack of cardboard boxes.

Wesley was startled.

“Pack her things? What things?”

“Delaney’s things. She didn’t tell you?”

Lindsey walked in as she spoke, heading naturally for Delaney’s bedroom door.

“She asked me to ship the rest to Halloran City.”

“Halloran City?”

All four said it at once.

Lindsey looked back, and there was something odd in her eyes.

“You… didn’t know?”

For a moment the living room went still.

“She… she didn’t tell us.”

Wesley was the first to speak.

“Didn’t tell you?”

Lindsey stayed where she was, her expression strange.

“Or you never really paid attention to where she was going?”

“No wonder she asked me to come pack.”

“She only said business trip…”

Miles’s voice was small.

Lindsey laughed, and the laugh had no warmth in it.

“A business trip? What company sends someone on a business trip one way?”

All four of them froze.

Lindsey said nothing more. She went into the room and started packing.

The vanity was bare, not one extra thing on it. The closet was nearly empty.

In the living room, the four of them sat on the couch, and no one spoke.

When Lindsey finished, she carried two boxes out and set them

the door.

“That’s everything. Nothing left behind.”

Wesley stood up.

“Lindsey, do you know why Delaney suddenly went to Halloran City?”

Lindsey looked at him, then at the whole roomful of people.

“She volunteered for the Halloran City relocation last Saturday.”

“Why, I don’t know. It was very sudden.”

“But you’re her family. Her boyfriend. Friends she’s known all her life.”

“She left with clothes for every season, not one thing on her vanity, and not one of you noticed anything was wrong.”

“Why do you think she left?”

With that, Lindsey picked up the boxes and walked out the door.

The four of them stood in the living room, looking at one another.

“Last Saturday, we…”

Josie stopped halfway.

Miles sighed and picked it up.

“We went to see the sunrise from the ridge. We didn’t wake her.”

“Why did you post those photos on Instagram? You knew she didn’t go.”

His tone had sharpened.

“I…”

Josie stammered, her eyes turning red.

“Miles, are you blaming me?”

“Wasn’t it you who said, at Friday dinner, we wouldn’t wait for Delaney?”

Miles opened his mouth and couldn’t get out a single word.

“Enough. What’s the use of arguing about this? She’s already gone.”

Wesley finally spoke.

Dawson leaned against the window, looking off into the distance, his voice heavy.

“The design boards were probably the last straw. Not one of us was on her side.”

“Delaney’s really angry this time.”

Tears clung to Josie’s face. Nobody handed her a tissue.

The living room went completely silent.

Nobody dared speak again.

Because they suddenly realized that each of them was carrying a ledger in their heart, and none of them could balance it, and none of them was clean.

Miles’s phone buzzed.

A message from Delaney.

[Miles, let’s break up.]

He hadn’t even had time to react when a notice popped up in the group chat:

[Delaney left the group.]

Five people. Only four left.