Filed to story: Sedona Preston and Logan Hayes Book PDF Free
I rattled off Logan’s address, my voice surprisingly steady now that the initial breakdown had passed, I was starting to feel better, just the fact that Cameron was coming to find me, made me feel better than I was, moments ago.
” Got it. I’m getting on a plane tonight,” Cameron said. “Don’t make any decisions, don’t do anything until I get there. Do you understand?”
“Cam, I left. I ran away from the wedding. I humiliated the family. I – “
“I don’t care.” His voice was fierce. “Do you hear me? I don’t care about any of that. You’re my sister. That’s all that matters.”
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks, but they were different now – not born of despair but of relief. For relief that I wouldn’t be alone anymore.
“You should blame me,” I whispered. “I’ve been so stupid, Cam. I thought I was choosing love, but I was just – “
“Stop.” His tone softened as he spoke to me in that soothing voice.
“Sedona, I watched you at those family dinners before the wedding. I saw how miserable you were, how trapped you felt. You wanted a choice, wanted to live your own life. No one should blame you for that. I never did.”
“But Enzo – “
“Enzo survived. Actually, he married Rachel about six months after you left.”
I blinked in shock. “Rachel? My best friend Rachel?”
“The very same. They have a daughter now. Molly. She’s adorable. Looks just like Rachel.” Cameron paused. “Rachel was devastated when you disappeared, you know. She thought something terrible had happened to you. We all did.”
The guilt threatened to overwhelm me again. Rachel had been my closest friend since childhood, and I’d vanished without a word to her too. I didn’t want to tell her anything because I knew my family would ask her questions and she was never good at lying and my location would be discovered.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, the words feeling inadequate but it was the only thing that I was capable of saying. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
“Save your apologies. Right now, I need you to tell me what’s going on. You said you’re married?”
“Was married. I sent him divorce papers. Well, a text. I sent him a divorce text.” A hysterical laugh bubbled up forcing itself out of my throat as I shook my head in disbelief. “God, that sounds pathetic.”
“Who is he? What did he do?”
The whole sorry story came tumbling out, as I gave him a summary of how I met Logan after the accident, the sudden romance that soon got to the point of me being proposed to and then married and then giving birth to NIck, prematurely, I also told him about my dedication in being a good mum and wife, then the return of Katherine and everything else that fell apart the moment she had Nick and Logan wrapped around her fingers.
Cameron listened without interrupting, but I could hear his breathing getting harder, could imagine his jaw clenching the way it did when he was trying to control his anger.
“So let me get this straight,” he said when I finally finished. “You’ve been dying alone in Chicago while your husband takes your son on vacation with his ex-girlfriend?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds – “
“Insane? Cruel? Absolutely unforgivable?” Cameron’s voice was ice.
“Where is he now? Still at Disneyland?”
“Yes. He told me to stop being selfish because Katherine’s injured and needs time to recover.”
The silence that followed was somehow more frightening than anger would have been.
“I’m going to kill him,” Cameron said finally, very calmly. “I’m going to fly to Chicago, pick you up, and then I’m going to find this Logan person and kill him with my bare hands.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled. “You can’t kill him, Cam. He’s Nick’s father.”
“Nick is your son. Your son, who told you you were annoying and accused you of faking illness for attention while you were actually dying.” His voice cracked slightly.
“How did this happen, Sedona? How did you end up here?”
“I wanted to be loved,” I said simply. “I wanted someone to choose me for me, not for the family name or the business connections. I thought Logan did. I thought I’d found something real.”
“And instead you found a man who married you because you looked like someone else.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Instead I found that. For someone who was so desperate about true love ended up being scammed of it, probably the universe giving me karma I deserved for hurting Enzo who had done nothing wrong to me, and yet I disgraced him, ironic isn’t it?”
“I’m getting you out of there,” Cameron said firmly. “Tonight if I can manage it, tomorrow morning at the latest. We’ll bring you home to Seattle, get you the best doctors, the best treatment. You’re not dying alone in that house, do you understand? You’re not dying at all if I have anything to say about it.”
“Cam, the cancer is stage three. It’s already spread – “
“I don’t care if it’s stage ten. We’re fighting this. You’re a Preston, Sedona. We don’t give up.” He paused. “And you’re my little sister. I’m not losing you. Not after just getting you back.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth, trying to muffle the sob that escaped.
But I was tired of pretending to be Sedona Hayes, instead of Sedona Preston. I was also very tired of being small and invisible by my own family.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Okay, Cam. Come get me. Take me home.”
“I will get on our family private jet. Pack whatever matters to you. Leave everything else.”
After we hung up, I sat on the bed holding my phone, feeling something I hadn’t felt in years: hope.
My phone buzzed with a notification. Another photo from Katherine’s i********: – this time of Logan and Nick on Space Mountain, both of them laughing.
The caption read: “Making memories with my favorite people.”
I looked at the photo one last time, at my husband and son looking happier without me and felt peace blossoming in my heart. Let them have their perfect little family. I was going home.
Cameron’s POV
I stared at my phone for a full minute after Sedona’s call ended, my hand shaking slightly as I lowered it gently to my desk as I exhaled taking a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to process the bomb that I just received this night.
It had been five years. Five years of searching, of hiring private investigators, of lying awake at night wondering if my little sister was alive or dead. And not getting anything, whatever happened to Sedona, I hadn’t been able to discover it and now, just like that, she’d called.
She was sick. Dying.
The words kept repeating in my mind even after the call, I wanted to ask Sedona if this was a cruel joke, but I knew she would never lie about something serious such as cancer.
