No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Stay

They did not get back to the laundromat until five in the morning.

The police had taken Aisling's statement in a hallway of the Starling Hall.

A doctor had told Marianne what she already knew.

Brodie had driven his mother home with Kaitlyn's coat in the back seat, and Aisling had let him.

Jude unlocked the door and Aisling walked in ahead of him.

The room was as they had left it.

The mattress, the hot plate, and the window full of the tire shop's orange light.

She sat down on the floor with her back against the wall and did not say anything.

Jude lowered himself beside her. He did not touch her.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to feel," she said at last.

"You don't have to know."

"She held my hand. She said she kept the light on for the wrong person."

Aisling's voice cracked.

"I wanted her to pay, Jude. I wanted it for two years."

"I know."

"And I got it. And I'd give a lot to take it back."

"You can't."

"No." She pushed up her sleeve and looked at the numbers.

760.

It had not moved since the wings.

It was not counting down anymore, and 760 days was more than two years.

She would be somewhere in two years. She had not been able to say that since the interstate.

She let out a sound that was half a laugh, and then she was crying.

He pulled her into his lap without asking, and she let him.

She wept into his shoulder until his shirt was wet.

His hand moved slowly on her back.

"I'm here," he said into her hair. "I'm not going anywhere."

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