Page 17 of The Heart of Moonlight Falls

Sebastian woke from his nap late that afternoon to a box of familiar papers in his living room. He heated up some of the lasagna James had brought over and emptied the box’s contents on the table.

He started with Selma’s journal and paid close attention to anything to do with her sons, but as he remembered, she hadn’t recorded anything about the veins of power on their property.

She mentioned Nelson leaving and detailed her personal feelings on the abandonment but never touched on the root of her anger toward her son. He’d ruined so much, taken something from them he could never replace, and broken their family. But that was as close as Selma got to discussing the disaster with the veins.

Selma seemed more upset with Nelson than Sullivan. Perhaps she respected Sullivan for dealing with his mistake instead of running. Nelson was apparently greedy and overly ambitious. Though, years later, Selma wasn’t complaining about that ambition when she demanded shares in Nelson Power. She felt he owed her, Sullivan, and the rest of the Storms, apparently.

None of it felt helpful.

The letters from Nelson to Selma and Sullivan were even worse. They were terse and as brief as possible. One just said: No, it’s not possible. That was all. Sebastian suspected the letters to Nelson held more information, but he didn’t have those. They’d probably been thrown out decades ago by whoever dealt with Nelson’s estate after he passed away, if Nelson had even saved them.

Sebastian read and ate, moving on to pumpkin soup for his second course until he’d gotten through all the papers. He texted Eli to let him know he was done with them.

Just as Eli texted back to say he’d come pick the box up, there was a knock on Sebastian’s door. He went to answer it and found James on his doorstep.

“How was your nap?” James kissed him on the cheek as he entered.

“Good. My head hasn’t hurt since.”

James nodded in approval. He picked up Selma’s journal. “Find anything—” His question was cut off by the ringing of Sebastian’s phone.

He grabbed it off the table. “It’s my mom.”

James was at his side in an instant. “I’m right here.”

Sebastian wanted to say it was fine, but his stomach roiled. He gripped James’s hand and accepted the call, switching it to speaker so James could listen in.

“Sebastian?” his mom asked when he didn’t say anything, her voice hesitant like she didn’t believe he was there.

He cleared his throat. “It’s been a while.”

There was a long silence. “How did you get a phone to work at the house?”

Not: how are you or are you okay? She went straight for the curse, wondering how Sebastian was getting around it.

Sebastian ground his teeth. “I’m not at the house.”

The silence was even longer this time. “How?” The word came though full of fear. “Don’t lie to me. Is this even really you calling? How would I know?”

“It’s not like you’d recognize your son’s voice or anything.” Sebastian closed his eyes. It wouldn’t pay to antagonize her too much, but he couldn’t control himself. “In case you still aren’t sure, it’s me, the one you cursed to save your daughter. The one you left to get imprisoned after Stephen died. The one?—”

“All right,” she snapped. “Point made, Sebastian. Is this why you called? To shame your evil mother?”

“I need to know everything your dad told you about the curse and the veins.”

“Why?” She waited for an answer, but Sebastian didn’t give one. “How did you get away from the house without the area exploding? Something like that would have been in the news. You can’t have escaped if there was no explosion.”

“If you want to know how I got out, tell me about the curse and the veins.”

“You haven’t called your sister, have you?”

The words hit Sebastian like ice. “Why don’t you ask her?” Sebastian was overwhelmed with bitterness. His sister had never asked for their mother’s favor or been aware of what Sebastian had saved her from, but part of him hated her for being given all the affection he’d craved.

He hated his mom even more fiercely, in a way he thought he’d moved past years ago. Apparently not.

“Don’t you dare try to tell Kira about any of this. She won’t come visit you. You won’t be able to trap her.”

It hurt that his mother thought he’d do that, but it wasn’t in his interest to correct her. She needed to feel threatened, or she’d never help. “If you want to guarantee that won’t happen, talk to me.”

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