Forgotten Rules (Rules 4)

Filling up a suitcase he threw on the table. Countless black garbage bags cover the kitchen tiles.

“Dad? What’s going on?”

Sobs cut through the air.

I’d recognize her cries amongst millions.

They’re my mom’s.

“Where’s Mom?” I glance around the room nervously.

Exasperated, my dad points to the bathroom.

“Mom!” I run to the closed door, knocking repeatedly. “Mom, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Kass, baby, please…” Sniffle. “Please just go…” Sniffle. “Go to Morgan’s for the night.”

“What? Why? Let me in!” I wrestle with the locked knob.

“Kassidy, do as I say. I’ll come and get you, I promise. I love you, baby, but you have to go, okay?” She can barely finish her sentence from crying too hard.

I blink back my own tears.

Nothing, nothing, is worse than seeing or hearing your mother suffer.

“Mom, stop. You’re scaring me.” I pound against the door

I hear the water running. She’s shutting me up. She can’t deal with me right now. Confused, I run back to the kitchen where my dad is standing in his thousand-dollar suit, prowling around the room and gathering all of his belongings.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Kassidy, I really can’t do this right now. I’m sorry.” He zips up the suitcase, picks it up along with the last trash bags on the floor, and passes me by without so much as a look.

“What? Dad, please. Why are you leaving?” Panic consumes me. I follow closely behind him, helpless as he dumps the last of the trash bags into his trunk and slams it shut. He reaches for his car door. Desperate, I run to him, grasping at his suit and yanking him back.

“Dad! Please,” I cry out.

He sighs, finally acknowledging my existence and staring m

e dead in the eyes to say, “Your mom and I are getting a divorce, Kassidy.”

I blink back tears.

“What? No. You… You can’t leave.” I feel so helpless, desperately looking for the right thing to say—if it even exists. “You guys are strong. You’ll figure it out. Don’t do this.” Just like that, I revert back into the five-year-old girl begging her father not to leave her at school.

“I have to. Your mom doesn’t want me here. Plus, I have a job offer in another town.”

I’m not going to pretend I didn’t see it coming, because the truth is, my parents haven’t been fine for a while, always arguing and yelling when they think we can’t hear them. Blame it on the stupid business trips my dad always takes. Still, it’s not like my dad to give up. He worked so hard to get this job as a college dean. Why give it up now?

“What happened? What could be so bad that you have to move out of the house and quit your job?” I shout. I need them to give me something. He turns his back on me, sliding inside his car. The opened window allows for one last false promise.

“I need time to figure things out. I’ll come back when I can be a better father to you and your brother.”

He drives until his car is nothing but a distant memory.

Now

Zoey: Girl, I’m sorry but I have to tell you. Callie just texted me. Will’s blowing up her phone. He wants to see her today.