Chapter 8

We’d sat down, and I’d told him I couldn’t do it anymore. Then I left, taking nothing with me and leaving him with a few thousand dollars in our bank account to get himself clean. I couldn’t watch another round. He’d been skin and bones, red-eyed. I was sure he was on the brink of death. I couldn’t stand by and watch him sink any lower. I’d bailed.

“What did he want?” Jimmy asked, bringing me back to the here and now.

I looked down at the table and saw the envelope. “This. He gave me this. Then he…” I couldn’t go on. I was about to start crying again. I felt Stone run his fingers over the back of my hand. Stone’s baleful look cried for my tears. “He told me he was sorry.” 4

Jimmy picked up the envelope.

“You didn’t open it?” His question broke the tension between me and Stone. “Don’t you want to know what’s in it?”