A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(170)

Carter bent to grab his sweater. “No, you need to speak to her, Kat.”

Hurt gripped Kat’s heart. She folded her arms, holding herself together. “Why? Why do you want me to talk to her?”

“Because it’s time you did.”

She watched him sit and pull on his socks. “You … can’t leave,” she whispered. Her voice broke. “I need you here.”

“Kat.”

“Please, Carter. Don’t listen to her. Everything she says—it’s not true. It’s not. Please.”

Her breathing started to accelerate, as the thought of him walking out of the door grew more vivid in her mind. Unable to move from her spot for fear that she would shatter, she gasped, “Please. I’ll talk to her if you promise you’ll stay.”

They remained silent for an age, staring at each other, neither of them seemingly wanting to speak. The atmosphere around them was charged but uncomfortably different from how it normally was.

“Peaches, I can’t—”

“You can.”

“I’m no good for yo—”

“Don’t you f*cking dare say that!” Sadness gave way to anger. “You are good enough! Christ, you have to know that!”

Carter didn’t answer and continued to look down at the floor. Kat’s heart fractured painfully. Jesus, they were back at square one.

Kat took a tentative step toward him. “Promise me you’ll stay. Promise me you won’t leave.”

He scrunched his eyes shut and bit his bottom lip, but she didn’t care. She needed to hear the words. At that moment, it was the most important thing. Nothing else mattered.

“Carter.”

“Okay,” he answered in a lifeless voice. “I promise.”

“Promise that you won’t leave. Say it.”

He lifted his head and looked at her, but something deep in Kat’s heart told her he was seeing straight through her, and it hurt. It hurt so much.

“I promise I won’t leave.”

He was so crushed, so broken, and Kat hated that she was helpless in putting him back together. “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”

[page]Silently, she moved around the room, pulling on a pair of jeans and sneakers. She tied his T-shirt at her right hip and pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail.

“I’ll be right back.” She stood at the doorway with the crumpled brown envelope in her fist. “And then we’re out of here.”

“Kat, I—” She waited for him to continue but, instead, he cracked the knuckles of his right hand and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

With a lead weight in her stomach and a splintering heart, Kat opened the bedroom door. “I’ll be right back.”

*

She walked with purpose and dignity into the sitting room, unable to make out any of the words of the obviously heated conversation taking place between Harrison and her mother by a large bay window. The snow had fallen hard overnight, covering the gardens in a winter blanket.

Nana Boo was absent, which pleased Kat. Nana Boo didn’t deserve to see or hear what was about to happen. The fact that her mother had come into Nana Boo’s the way she had, and on Thanksgiving, made Kat’s teeth grind. Seriously, who was the parent here?

Kat stopped with a straight back, arms folded, when Eva caught her eye. “I thought you were at Harrison’s parents’? What are you doing here?”

Eva stared back. “Do not speak to me that way, Katherine.”