Chapter 6

Officer Miller arranged for a local volunteer to drive me to the city. We scheduled the departure for a morning when Jules wouldn't know.

Grandpa Thomas, wanting to spare the boy the heartbreak, took Jules out to the far pastures early that morning.

Grandpa, Jules, and the local townspeople had been nothing but kind to me.

So why was I so determined to leave?

Because even after all this time, the memory of my father's finger being severed still haunted my dreams.

I didn't know how far I had run, but I felt like staying here was a ticking time bomb.

If those loan sharks ever looked for me, a small town like this would be the easiest place to corner me and kill me.

Moreover, though I had lived like a gutter rat recently, I remembered my old life.

I used to go to a high-end private school. My old home was luxurious.

I didn't want to grow up on a dusty ranch, turning into a farm girl.

Even though I had lost my biological father and my home, if I had a chance to be adopted, I wanted to be rich again.

Perhaps living with a desperate, single father had made me cynical, but even at seven, my mind was entirely focused on survival and status.

And I didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

Sitting in the back of the pickup truck, I watched the ranch fade into the distance.

The valleys, the pastures, the big oak tree where I first met Jules, and Grandpa's flock of sheep...

And then, I saw him.

Jules was running behind the sheep, his eyes red with tears, silently watching the truck drive away until he became a tiny speck on the horizon.

The bumping of the truck made my throat tight.

But I didn't cry. I shouldn't cry. I was finally leaving the dirt behind to start a new, better life.

Did I feel bad for leaving Jules?

A little. But he was just a ranch boy.

If things went as expected, he would probably spend his entire life in that dusty valley. We belonged to different worlds now.