214 Wills novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: You Didn't Drive That Car

Callie's POV

We went out through the side doors onto a stone terrace above the hotel garden.

Miles pushed my chair.

The woman walked beside us with her leather bag and did not speak until we were alone.

It was cold, and the music from inside had stopped.

Miles stood a few steps off with his hands in his pockets and his lip still bleeding.

"I told you I burned your letter," she said.

"Yes."

"I didn't tell you why. It said I'm sorry fourteen times. I counted."

I had counted too, when I wrote it.

"I thought you were bragging about being sorry," she said. "I thought it was a way to make me feel I was the one being cruel."

"I wasn't."

"I know that now." She sat down on the stone bench next to my chair. "I know a lot of things now that I'd have given my house to know a year ago."

Behind us, a siren went up the avenue and stopped at the front of the hotel.

I did not turn around.

"I need to ask you something," I said.

"Ask."

"Your father is dead because of that night. I was in that car. I was lying in the back seat while it happened, and I never woke up."

"Callie."

"I was nineteen. I was drunk. I didn't wake up when a man died ten feet from my head." My voice shook, and I let it. "I have been sorry to a stranger every day for ten years, because I thought I did it. Now I know I didn't. And I still feel sorry. I don't know where to put it."

The woman looked at me.

"Do I have to stop?" I said. "Am I allowed to stop? Or do I keep paying?"

Miles made a small sound.

I did not look at him.

The woman folded her hands on the leather bag.

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

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