Chapter 20: Platform Four

Leanne's POV

Platform four was nearly empty at ten to six.

A cleaner swept the far end, and a man in a suit slept upright on a bench.

I stood at the yellow line with a duffel bag at my feet and my ticket in my hand.

I had told Connor the truth, and it still felt like a lie.

I had told him he did not need me.

What I had not told him was the rest of it.

For five years I had made a plan the way I made everything, in careful columns.

I would stay until he could stand up on his own.

Then I would leave, because a man who learned what I had done could never look at me again without remembering the bathroom floor.

I had earned that, and I had accepted it.

He stood on his own now.

He had stood on a stage in front of three hundred people.

The plan was finished.

The train would come in four minutes, and my hands would not stop shaking.

"Leanne."

I did not turn around.

Footsteps came down the platform, uneven, a little fast.

He stopped in front of me, between me and the yellow line, and did not touch me.

He had not shaved.

He had slept in his clothes, if he had slept at all.

"You can't be here," I said. "The boy is alone with Hank."

"The boy is eating Hank's pancakes. Hank gave him the cane."

I almost laughed.

I did not.

"Connor, go home."

"No."

"I told you."

"You told me a lot." He took a breath. "You said I don't need you to hand me my pills. That's true. I don't."

My throat closed.

"Then let me go."

"I want to ask you something first."

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