Breath of Life by Sara Marion Read Free Book Online Page B

door open further and she saw that nothing had changed in here either. It was the way Ella had it decorated when she lived here before she moved out to live with Duke. She felt the tears coming again. She chastised herself when the tears fell. She felt like all she did lately was cry.
    The memories she thought she could hide from resurfaced as she stepped into the room. She kept asking herself what she did that was so wrong, that her world was shattered and torn away from her and she was standing here in her best friend’s room all alone.  She wished Ella was there at that moment. Ella always had the answers. She thought about Duke and couldn’t hold back anything.  She made a mess of everything. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket. She dialed a number she had no right dialing.
    “Hello?” came a quiet voice at the other end of the line.
    Paxton couldn’t respond to it.
    “Is it really you?” the deep voice said again. This time a little louder. Paxton let out a small sniffle.
    “Paxton?” A sigh of frustration.
    “I’m home,” Paxton finally brought herself to say. She waited for a response.
    “On my way.” The line went dead.
    Duke was not sure what to think of the call. He stared at his phone for a moment. Paxton’s picture still on the screen. He hadn’t heard from Paxton since the day Jenny drove her to the institution. It was the last time he spoke to Jenny. He remembered arguing with her as Paxton sat in the back of her car just staring at them. He said that Jenny was not helping her daughter by locking her up, but Jenny refused to hear what he had to say. She was giving up on Paxton. He tucked the phone into his pocket and grabbed his jacket.
    Duke arrived at the cabin where Jack and Paxton used to live. It looked abandoned. He went up to the door and noticed through the window everything was still covered up. No sign of life inside. He tried the knob but it wouldn’t budge. He looked closer inside and nothing was disturbed. That meant she was probably over at her mother’s house, which means Paxton maybe be in a far worse state than he thought. Her mother may be giving her a hard time about Ella, about his relationship with Ella and how Paxton played a role on why they were not together anymore. He gritted his teeth at the thought of seeing Jenny again.
    He pulled up outside of Jenny Andrews’s house within twenty minutes. He shut the car off and prepared himself to go knock on the door. He didn’t know how Jenny would react to him being there. His ex-mother-in-law was probably not too fond of him. He didn’t want to deal with her so maybe he could sneak in without being noticed but that may not be the best idea. He pulled the key from the ignition and headed toward the house. He needed to get in there before Jenny shredded Paxton to pieces.
    He knocked and waited, bracing himself for whatever was about to happen. He turned looking at the street. He briefly wondered why he even came here. He should have just called her back to see if she wanted to meet somewhere.
    “What are you doing here?” He heard a menacing tone in Jenny’s voice. He turned to look at her.
    “I heard Paxton was home. I wanted to see her.”
    “No. It’s not a good time. She just got back and she is sleeping right now,” Jenny said trying to close the door. Duke caught it with his hand.
    “With all due respect, she called me. So I know that’s a bunch of bullshit Mrs. Andrews.”
    Duke saw the look of surprise on her face. He pushed through the door and headed down to the basement where Paxton’s room was.
    He walked in there but couldn’t find her. He checked the bathroom down the hall then noticed a light on in Ella’s room.  His chest tightened. Why was she in there? He then thought of all the times that he went through that door to see Ella. For a split second, he wished it was Ella sitting in that room waiting on him and not Paxton. He banished the thought as he slowly approached the room.
    He