Betrayed by My Childhood Love novel · Chapter 24 of 32

Chapter 24: Annika in the Desert

Nobody went after her.

My mother stood with her hand at her pearls under the Thornbury visor.

My father took one step and stopped.

The Thornbury kids watched her get smaller against the white sand.

I looked at Gran.

Gran was already holding out her truck keys.

"Take water," she said. "Take a lot of it."

Waylon grabbed two gallon jugs from our cooler and put them in the truck bed.

"I'm coming."

"No," I said. "If she sees two of us, she'll keep running."

He didn't like it.

He let me go anyway.

The truck bounced off the access road onto the hardpan.

I drove slow with the windows down, following the scuffs of her white sneakers in the crust.

The heat came in.

She'd gotten almost a mile.

I found her in a dry wash below a ridge of red rock, sitting on the ground with her knees pulled up.

Her visor was gone.

Her face was burned pink, and her lips were cracked white at the corners.

I stopped the truck at the edge of the wash and got out with a jug.

She saw me and looked away.

← Chapter 23 · All chapters · Chapter 25 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend