Mama blew a huff of air from her nose. “Oh, I’d say it does.”
“He left me. That’s that.”
She stretched out her hand for me, palm up, like she could reach me from there. “Oh, Violeta…there is a very fine line between love and hate. Between condemnation and forgiveness. Between cherishing the memory of a beauty that has faded and hating that it existed in the first place.”
I huffed like a petulant child. “I do kind of hate that it existed in the first place.”
“But would you take it back?” she pressed. “What does your heart say?”
Mama had always taught me to listen with my heart.
I bit down on my bottom lip, wavered, memories rushing too fast.
His face and those hands and the songs he’d left written on me.
“I don’t know.” That was about as honest as I could be.
Desperate to change the subject, I pointed at her tray. “You should eat before your food gets cold.”
She picked up her fork and pushed her food around, not taking a bite.
“Mama,” I begged.
This time, her smile was sad, the look in her tranquil eyes telling.
Knees weak, I moved her way and knelt at the edge of her bed, unable to remain standing. “Mama,” I said again, gathering up her hand in a fist and pressing her knuckles to my lips.
“It’s okay.” She shifted to set that frail hand on my cheek, taking my fingers with her.
I pressed her hand closer.
Desperate to keep her near.
She stared at me, her scratchy voice barely breaking the surface, “It’s a good life, Violet. A good, good life. Miss me, but do not despair.”
Her thumb stroked my cheekbone, my mama shaking as she murmured, “I am missing only one thing. There is only one thing that I would change.”
Grief lashed through her expression, and I saw it for what it was.
She glanced at the empty doorway, at the sound of Daisy bounding back upstairs.
She looked back at me, the truth of her loss flooding out. “Find her, Violet. If there is any way, find her. Bring her home to me. I want to see her one last time.”
Anguish squeezed my heart in a fist, completely crushing it when Daisy appeared at the door and came racing in with the tape dispenser lifted over her head. “Got it!”
She ran around me and grabbed the picture, oblivious to the torture that raged inside me.
The fear.
The worry.
I pushed to my feet and pressed a soft kiss to my mama’s temple. “I’ll try, Mama. I will try.”
Knowing her last request might very well be my end.
* * *
Peals of laughter floated through my open bedroom window, a soft breeze blowing through and billowing the sheer drapes.
Fall descending on the hot air.
I glanced out at my father who pushed Daisy on the swing, the child squealing and begging him to push her higher.
Little daredevil.
Affection pulsed through my veins at the same second as my heart trembled in a quiver of dread. Fear glided over my flesh in a sticky flash.
My mouth went dry as I turned back to my laptop that was set on the small white desk under the window. I set my fingers over the keys, and a rush of dizziness canted through my mind.
I was unable to type. Unable to focus. Unable to see.
God, I was terrified.
Terrified of the unknown.
Of what was to come.
Of what I could possibly find.
Of what this might cost.
When she’d first gone, I’d searched for what had felt like forever, desperate to find someone who didn’t want to be found. Unable to process the selfishness while I’d reeled with the grief.
I glanced back out the window. Daisy pumped her legs, her sweet face stretched in a brilliant smile as she tipped her head back toward the sky. “Look at me, Papa! Look at me! I’m flyin’.”
Emotion clogged my throat, and I squeezed my eyes closed as I forced myself to type the name into the search.
Liliana Marin.
Nausea swept through me when I peeled my eyes back open and I read what the screen had populated. As the same results from all those years ago showed.
Mentions from college where she’d attended in Charlotte.
The restaurant she’d worked at here in town.
The last was a missing person’s report that had been written in the paper.
Then nothing. Her Facebook account inactive. Her phone disconnected.
My older sister gone without a trace.
Daisy’s precious voice flooded my room. “Higher, Papa. Higher! I flies so high in the sky. Just like a bird. I’m not even scared. Not even a little bit.”
I swallowed hard as I turned back to the computer, typed in a search for a local private investigator, and then inputted the number on my cell.
I clutched it in my hand.
Warring.
Wavering.
Then I pressed send.
And I realized I’d never been so scared in all my life.
Six
Richard
I kissed her like mad in the hallway at the back of the swanky restaurant where we’d just eaten in Hollywood.
I didn’t care we were basically right out in the open.
I had my hands on that face as I devoured her mouth. “I love you, Violet.”
She grinned beneath that kiss, those lips slipping into one of those smiles I wanted to be responsible for every day of my life. “I think I’m plenty aware of that.”
I pressed her farther against the wall, my jean-covered cock rubbing at the floral dress that had been driving me nuts all night. “I think you might need a reminder.”
She rumbled a seductive laugh. “We’ll have plenty of time for that later.”
I groaned. “Don’t make me go.”
Violet giggled. “This is the whole reason we’re here. Go. Enjoy. They want to take you out. Show you what this life is goin’ to be like.” She leaned up and whispered in my ear, “Superstar. Just wait…everyone in the world is gonna know your name.”
I edged back and stared down at her.
Violets and grace and the good.
“Every dream I have is one I want to give to you.”
She smiled in sheer
