“No.” I shook my head and cradled my stomach. “I can’t go back there. I can’t…I need to leave.”
“Leave?” he asked. “Leave to where?”
“I don’t know. I just…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I can’t be here. I can’t be at college. I need to go somewhere new. Somewhere no one knows me.”
The silence stretched between us, and when I opened my eyes, Curtis said, “I know a place we can go for a while.” He pulled up to a stoplight and reached across to place his hand over mine. “What happened?”
I stared at him, trying to deny it to myself, but I couldn’t. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I never would have believed it.
“He’s gone,” I croaked out. “Ford is dead.”