Page 88 of Just Between Us

Red stood and I felt panic set in. We were so close, and he needed to keep talking.

He sighed and walked toward the kitchen. “Juney always worried that something happened to Maryann, and she was somewhere in that lake.”

A throb started at the base of my skull. “Did you go to the police? Get someone to drag the lake?”

Red nodded. “A few times, but there wasn’t any proof. No one would come forward to say they ever saw or heard anything untoward. Russell simply said his wife left him, and that was the end of it.” Red patted his knee. “June’s worries only increased when Rusty tried his damnedest to buy it. June was determinedto not let him have it. She called the DNR and orchestrated the whole thing just to stop him.”

My head throbbed as the information sank in. If he was accurate in his retelling, everything was so much worse than I’d imagined.

My eyes locked with Veda’s as worry creased her forehead. I squeezed her hand in reassurance—for her or myself, I wasn’t sure.

“Wow.” MJ sighed and stood, unshed tears clinging to her lashes. “That is some ghost story.”

“Ah.” Red smiled. “Just tall tales, I’m sure. It’s like I told my oldest Duke—he keeps finding tracks on our land—it’s probably just kids. But, knowing my son, he’s going to have to do something about it.”

I looked at Veda and my sister to find each looking shell-shocked. I stood and extended my hand. “Thank you for the visit, sir.”

“Anytime.” He gripped my hand. “You have her kind eyes, you know.”

My throat expanded as I nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

Without looking back, I exited his house and climbed into the back seat of the car. The door slammed, and JP looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“So what happened?” he asked.

My molars ground together. “We’re taking Dad down ... but we need the Sullivans’ help to do it.”

JP sighed and watched MJ and Veda exit Red’s front door. “Fucking fantastic.”

That night,curled around Veda, I couldn’t let go of what Red Sullivan had said. He was convinced, even after all the years that had passed, that my mother would not have left us. My mind was scattered, and my chest ached.

For so long I’d come to accept the fact that some mothers just left. Some mothers chose a different life. Some mothers found something better.

But not my mother.

“Hey,” Veda’s soft voice dragged me back to the present. She faced me in the bed, her fingers brushing across my forehead. “Where’d you go?”

“Sorry.” I swallowed and exhaled. “I’m right here.”

Her eyes were forest green in the dim lighting. I wanted to dive into their depths and get lost in a place that was safe and where I didn’t have to dredge up old, painful memories.

“We’ll figure out what happened,” she promised with a tiny, determined nod.

My hand slid up her back. “I know what happened. I know what I saw all those years ago, and Red confirmed what I didn’t want to believe. My mother didn’t leave on her own. She’s dead. My father was responsible.”

Unshed tears wet her dark lashes. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head and swiped away a tear. “Don’t be. You pulled the threads, and it all unraveled. We would never have known had it not been for you.”

Veda pulled in a deep breath. “I keep thinking about little Dwayne.” She chuckled through the tears. “I’m so sad for him.”

I smiled and pulled her closer. “Me too.”

I breathed deeply and accepted the silence that filled the room. I couldn’t change the fact that my mother was gone. I couldn’t change the type of man my father was. The control I loved so much was slipping through my fingers, and the only thing I had to hold on to was lying right in front of me.

“I wasn’t the same after she left. There’s a sadness in me that never really goes away.” Veda looked up at me, but I held her close and was determined to continue. “Sometimes I cover it up with tattoos or humor or being the life of the party but, even then, I still always feel just a little broken. When you lose someone like that, I don’t know ... you never really get over it. Once I realized it wasn’t going to get better, I embraced it—tucked it away and learned to live with that secret part of myself.” Emotion swelled in my throat, and I didn’t bother hiding the thick gravel in my voice. “Now I don’t want to forget her. I tried for so long to forget, but she doesn’t deserve that.”

My voice cracked and I finally broke down. My shoulders shook as guilt and sadness racked me. Veda held space for me. She didn’t tell me it was okay or that I was wrong. She simply allowed me to pour out my emotions.

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