The Chance: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury Page B

questioned Ellie. When he found out Caroline hadn’t come home until ten o’clock for the last three nights, he took up his position by the front door. His eyes were the first thing she saw when she crept into the house that night.
    He glared at her, his teeth clenched, and called her things that stayed with her like skin. Names she couldn’t escape. And every day since then, they’d fought and thrown accusations at each other like so many hand grenades. Tension filled the house, and Ellie stayed away more than ever. She had grown up, and now she was a beautiful reminder of all that Caroline herself had been as a teenage girl. But the closeness they shared when she was little was as gone as yesterday.
    Caroline turned her heart and hopes toward Peyton. With everything in her, she knew her actions were wrong, but she couldn’t help herself.
    He was no longer a diversion, a reason for getting up in the morning. He was her future. His calls continued, and she cared less and less whether Alan found out. For that reason she wasn’t terribly worried when her period was three weeks late. If she were pregnant, she and Peyton could simply start their life together sooner. Not until she called Peyton to tell him did her world fall apart. He was silent for half a minute before he said something she’d never forget. “You could never prove it’s mine. No one would believe you.”
    And just like that, the game between her and the famous Peyton Anders was over. She took a pregnancy test and stared at the positive results. In a blur of fear and terror and uncertainty, she couldn’t remember how to breathe because the test stood for two things. The start of a new life.
    And the end of her own.

Chapter Four
    E llie had never run so far or so fast in all her life. Anything to get away from the terrible news.
    The backpack bouncing against her shoulder blades held everything she could ever need. Maybe she would never come back. Maybe she would go to Nolan’s and say good-bye and keep on running. Until she stumbled into someone else’s life. Anyone’s life but her own.
    Lightning flashed in the distance, and the air was hotter and more humid. Ellie’s breathing came in jagged gasps, but she didn’t care. With every stride, she felt herself move farther away from the terrible truth, her new reality. Her mom really was pregnant by someone else. Her dad wouldn’t talk about the baby’s father. But five minutes ago he’d told her the worst part.
    They were moving to San Diego in the morning. Which meant she wouldn’t get to say good-bye to her mom.
    There had been no time to get her bike. As soon as Ellie understood her dad was serious and this was her last night in Savannah, Ellie grabbed her things and started running. She hadn’tslowed since. Faster, longer strides. Her lungs hurt, but she didn’t slow down. Maybe she should run across the city to Ms. Lena’s house so she could at least hug her mother one more time and tell her good-bye. She had never loved and hated someone so much in all her life. Ellie felt tears slide onto her cheeks, and she slapped them away. Her mother wouldn’t care. She had cheated on her dad. All those nights when she came home super late she’d been with . . . with the other guy.
    When she could’ve been with Ellie.
    She felt faint, like she might pass out and die on the sidewalk. So what if she did? She would go to heaven, and she could skip this nightmare, the one she couldn’t outrun.
    Finally she reached Nolan’s front yard, just when she couldn’t take another step. Half crying, half gasping for air, she went to his front door and knocked. She didn’t think about how she must’ve looked or what his family would think. She only knew that she couldn’t go another minute without him.
    Nolan answered the door, and his smile turned to shock. He—if no one else—cared about her. “Ellie . . .” He stepped onto the porch and shut the door behind him. “What is it? What