SEPARATED: CONCLUSION TO UN-RELATED by Kimberly Schwartzmiller Page A

mean, I woke up this morning and found a note…but no Abby. She’s gone.”
    “Where did she go? Dammit! I’m almost there. I’ve been flying all night. I just got to Sea-Tac, and now you’re telling me that she left?”
    “I’m sorry. I had no idea she was going to run, again. I thought I had her talked into telling you everything…but I guess I was wrong.”
    “What’s everything, Tyler?”
    “I can’t tell you, I’m sorry.”
    “That’s exactly what I heard from her. I want to know…NOW!”
    “Look, it’s not my place to tell you. You can threaten me again, but I’m not going to betray Abby’s confidence…”
    “Even if it means it might help to find her?”
    “What I know won’t help you find her. You have to trust me.”
    “That’s what she said, and now she’s gone again! Where the hell is she?” Kellan was beside himself with worry. She was all alone in a huge, strange city…and she had no one. “What did the letter say, Tyler?”
    Tyler read him the letter. 
    “She can’t run from what?” Kellan shouted and slammed his fist down on the side of the baggage claim terminal.
    “She said she had to face it. Do you think she went home?”
    “I don’t know. I’m going to call Nancy and find out.”
     
    I found a seat on the row at the back of the bus, next to the bathroom, where I spent a lot of time throwing up. I still had a lot of money, so I tried buying healthy food wherever we stopped, but not much was staying down. I knew I was almost three months pregnant and wondered when the nausea and vomiting would stop. I assumed a lot of it was nerves and stress, and I was hoping I’d feel better after talking to Kellan. I had three days to decide exactly what I was going to tell him, and although I knew I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, I decided I wasn’t going to lie to him, either. I was going to tell him what I could and he’d have to decide if he could live without knowing the rest, at least for now. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was the only one I could think of.
    I also knew there was someone there who could help us, and as the bus dropped me off, I knew right where I was headed…to a renovated historical house in the center of town…

MARGOT
     
    I knocked on the door and a beautiful woman answered the door.
    “May I help you?” she asked.
    “Um, I hope so. Are you…Margot?” I asked, praying that she wasn’t. She was tall and thin with long blond hair and the thought of Kellan with her brought back the nausea that had subsided for a couple of hours.
    “No,” she smiled. “I’m Landry, Margot’s daughter. May I ask who you are?”
    “Oh,” I said, trying to keep the bile down. I grabbed on to the doorframe for support and continued, “I was looking for Margot. Um, my name is Abby.”
    “Abby?”
    I was about to pass out and she obviously noticed because the next thing I remember was waking up on a couch with a cold cloth on my head.
    I looked around, not sure where I was and started to get up.
    “No, you sit still. You’re fine,” an older lady said while sitting down next to me. She was very pretty as well. She looked like an older version of the lady that answered the door…
    “Oh, you must be Margot?” I tried to sit up again.
    She pushed me back gently and adjusted the cloth on my forehead. “Yes, I’m Margot. And, I’m assuming that you’re Kellan’s, Abby?” she smiled.
    I nodded. “I’m sorry to barge in on you, but he described your house to me, and I don’t know exactly where he lives. And,” I swallowed hard, “I was hoping you could help me…”
    “You look like you need to see a doctor.”
    “I need Kellan…first.”
    “Honey, why didn’t you call him and tell him you were coming?”
    “Because I needed a few days to think, and I knew he would come get me right then. I wasn’t ready to face him. I made him promise to give me until today…”
    “Well, maybe you should call him, now.”
    “I can’t. I um, I