I watch her, dumbfounded. “That’s not true.” My argument is weak, my doubt peeking through my words.
My whole life is crumbling apart around me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
“It is. I’ve lived the façade for long enough. It was time to leave. You should know by now that Derrick is dangerous. I’ve taken out an order of protection for us both.”
I scratch my head, confusion settling in my bones.
“That’s crap. He’s never hit you. Never threatened your safety. You hit him. You threaten him.”
She says nothing. She doesn’t have to.
“You’re evil.” I swallow the acid in my throat, my panic sliding down like poison, killing my hope that this nightmare will come to an end second-by-second.
“I am a mother who loves my child,” she spits. “A woman who would do anything to protect and love that child.”
She’s crazy. It’s the only reasonable explanation.
“That’s not love,” I tell her quietly. “As always, you’re thinking about yourself. Not me. You don’t actually give a flying fuck about what’s right for me, about what’s good for me.”
“Watch your tone.”
“I’ll scream kidnap at the airport,” I tell her, the vehemence in my tone enough to cause a frown line to appear on her forehead. “I’ll tell anyone who will listen that you’ve taken me against my will.”
She sighs, feigning nonchalance. “So dramatic. You’re a minor, Henley. You have no choice.”
I hate that she’s right.
“I’ll just call Dad when I get there. I’ll jump on a bus, a plane, anything.”
“You’d choose him over me?”
I wish I had the balls to slap her in the way she looks like I’ve done. My palm twitches with the incessant need to feel her flesh and cause her physical pain.
I almost don’t answer. She’ll never get it, but I can’t help myself. “I’d choose me.”
“Selfish.”
“I learned it from the best.”
She rolls her eyes. “That man has no right to you. You’re my child, and the recent paternity test confirms that.”
“What?” I don’t know this woman. This vile, vindictive, unstable woman. “I don’t believe you. You despised him. You would never have stayed if you didn’t have to.”
She ignores me. “Should you cause a scene, I’ll make certain your little boyfriend becomes a distant memory. I’ll sever all contact.”
“He’s my best friend, not my boyfriend, and you wouldn’t.”
“Watch me try, daughter. I need this. We need this,” she corrects.
“Careful, Jacinta,” I mock. “Your real motive is showing.”
Tucking her phone into her handbag, she looks me up and down.
“If you’re stupid enough to think that boy only wants to be your friend, maybe I should force you to cut contact. Of course, he wants in your pants. Are you stupid? I’m lucky I pulled you away when I did. You’d likely end up pregnant at sixteen with the two of you hanging off one another like you do.”
I ignore her. She couldn’t possibly understand. She couldn’t possibly fathom the importance of a friendship like the one I have with Brooks. She’s destined to be alone forever and content in her own misery.
My mind works a million miles an hour. I need to get out of this car—away from her and her wicked plan.
Dad will come and get me. She’s lying. It’s a poor attempt at asserting power. Her protective order or whatever the hell it is won’t work. It can’t. I’ll be home before I know it. Back in Lake Geneva. A break. That’s all this is. A small break from reality.
“Can I please just call Brooks?”
She doesn’t even have the courtesy to answer me. Her focus remains on the window, staring at nothing as we move farther and farther away from home.
8
BROOKS
Brooks.
She up and fucking moved me. No warning. No nothing. She waited until Dad had left for work and threw us into a Town Car.
We're in London. Almost four thousand miles away. I may as well be on another planet. It feels that way. I wanted to travel the world, but not like this.
My whole world is falling apart, Brooks. She says Dad isn’t my dad. She said she had a bunch of affairs, and she doesn’t know who my dad is. It has to be a lie, right? Derrick is my dad. He has to be.
She’s placed an order of protection against him, Brooks. Can you believe that? Her telling the world he’s the dangerous one. I’ve managed to call him, but his hands are tied. If he breaches the protection order, he’s screwed. He’s working to fix it, legally, but I don’t know how much longer it will take. Or if it will even work.
He told me she was telling the truth, Brooks. He says he’s not my dad.
Why? How?
I can’t believe this is my life. She left my phone at home. Otherwise, I would’ve called or texted you. I’m working to get Dad (Derrick) to send me one. She’s basically keeping me hostage. I’ll find a way to call you. I promise. I miss you. What will I do without you? I’m all alone. Make sure our names stayed carved into our rock.
I love you. I’ll call you soon.
I promise I’m okay.
Henley x
I stare at the email, spots dancing in my vision, my mouth dry. I feel panicked and relieved all at once. I can hear her voice in her words, but as close as that makes me feel to her, she somehow seems farther away.
Four thousand miles, to be exact.
I can’t reach her. I can’t speak to her.
Her email is dated a week ago. Seven fucking days she’s been waiting for me to contact her. I’ve all but abandoned her at a time when she needs me the most.
I need to hear her voice, to hear that she's okay and that her typed-out words aren’t the very empty promises I despise.
Her mother is fucking crazy, and Derrick wasn’t man enough to tell me the whole story.
He’s a part of the reason this happened. He and Jacinta were so poisonous
