I remembered our argument.
A deposit.
A room.
Nine hundred dollars.
“I said no.”
“Yes.”
“Did you go back to him because I said no?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Don’t do that to yourself. I found another way.”
She told me she sold her laptop, borrowed money from a coworker, and checked into the motel under her own name because she didn’t understand how dangerous that was.
Tyler found her the next evening.
They fought.
Rebecca ran.
She left almost everything behind.
Wallet.
Bag.
Clothes.
The bracelet Mom had given her for graduation.
She reached a twenty-four-hour truck stop and persuaded a woman driving west to let her ride along.
“What woman?”
“Her name was Simone.”
“And she died in your room?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca pressed her fingertips against her forehead.
“Simone was traveling with another woman. We drove for hours. I slept. Somewhere in West Virginia, we stopped. I panicked and got out.”
