Mona’s stomach flipped. Deep down, she knew she’d avoided calling for so long, in spite of her bad feelings and The Shadow People at the periphery of her mind because the police had been the first trigger for Gabriel. If she could just run and run and run, none of it would matter. She could start over again. Mona drew her feet to her stomach. “I...want to move. I just want to leave. f**k psychology. f**k this school. I can’t stay here.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. You’ve already been run out of one home. You’re not leaving this one.”
“My bug-infested home? Yeah, what a thing to hold on to.” Mona’s mind cascaded with all the terrible things that had happened since moving to Peterborough. Had she ever really had a break? She was never escaping him; she was only displacing him. The thought that she
