and she tried hard to believe it was true. Grampy helped her out of the car, and she leaned on him as they climbed the porch steps. At the top, he stopped and faced her.
“They’ll help you here. You can get better. You can have a clean slate. Nobody here knows you, nobody knows where you came from, and all you gotta do is show them where you’re going. You can leave Star Smith right on this porch and become Jessalyn Alcott, just like you always dreamed.”
She sniffed, looking into his eyes. Was it really possible to make that kind of a change? Leave the nightmare behind and start fresh?
“Do you really think so?”
“I know so.” He handed her a folder. “If you want to make it legal, everything you need’s in here. Birth certificate, social security card, the works.”
Her eyes widened. “How’d you get hold of this stuff?”
“Your mother bowls every Monday night. And she never locks the damn trailer door.”
She swallowed hard, trying not to let her tears leak out. “Thank you, Grampy. Thanks for picking me up—for bringing me here.”
“I wish there was another way. I do. But I think this is the best way to keep you—safe.” He swiped at his eyes. “Damn. I’m gonna miss you, jellybean.”
“I’m going to miss you, too.” The conversation felt surreal, but so had the past week, really. Was he really leaving her on a stranger’s porch at the crack of dawn? Was she really letting him, not having any idea what came next?
“Will you come visit me?”
He shook his head. “If I come, then somebody else might find out where you are. And you know who that somebody is.”
“Will you write, at least? Or call?”
Grampy shook his head. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed softly. “No, honey. I’m not going to write to you.”
“Why not?” Her voice shook as her stomach roiled. “Please?”
“Because, jellybean.” He took both of her hands now, squeezed them inside his big ones. “You need to break free. No strings, no ancient grandpas tying you down. Nobody back home’s got any right to know how you’re doing. Or know where you are. Nobody. And if we have contact, somebody’s bound to find out.” He took a shaky breath. “And we both know how that could end up.”
“But Grampy—”
“Shh. I shoulda done a lot more than I ever did, and if I’d known all what was going on, I’d have opened my damn eyes wider and gotten you out of that hellhole sooner. I just didn’t know. It kills me to say so, but it’s true. I didn’t know.”
“I know.” She sniffed again. Dammit. “I was pretty good at hiding it.” Then she saw something in his eyes that scared her more than anything ever had. It was a finality—a feeling of defeat. He really meant it. He was leaving her here, and she had no idea when she’d ever see him again.
“You’re sixteen. Now’s your chance to make a new life you’re proud of. I’ll find you someday. I will. But don’t you ever go back to Smugglers’ Gully. Don’t show your face in that town. Don’t let your mother ever know where you are or what you became, because she doesn’t deserve to know.”
He took a shaky breath. “And don’t ever—I mean ever—contact that Billy again. He is bad news, and he will take you down with him.”
“God, Grampy.” Tears were streaming down her face for real now, but she had forgotten to care whether anyone was looking.
“This hurts me more than you, honey. You’ll understand that someday when you’re older. But this is how we gotta play this. You gotta go, and I gotta stay. And someday—someday I’ll find you again, okay?”
He stepped toward the door, and for the first time, she noticed he put a hand out for balance. Grampy was getting older, and here she was leaving, and here he was telling her to go—but all she wanted to do was leap up into his arms like she was still three and he was still strong enough to spin her around.
He took an envelope from his inside jacket pocket and gave it to her. “It isn’t much, but it’s what I managed to squirrel away while your grandmother wasn’t looking. You take it and use it for whatever you need—whatever, okay?”
She wrapped her arms around his midsection and buried her head in his chest, and then sobbed as his arms came around her and held her tight.
“I love