Page 95 of Three to Fall

But it didn’t break my heart any less.

There was no easy way to convince them. They had to want more than this life. If they were too scared to try, the way I had, then that was their right. All we could do was hope that whoever of them stood up in Josiah’s place would turn Ethereal Eden into a community these people could be proud of. One that shared grown food and took care of each other.

One that did away with a fake religion that had torn them apart.

That was my only hope for them.

I turned and walked away, holding tightly to my sister’s hand. At our old home, we let ourselves in, Hawk, Hayden, and Grayson right behind us. This time, I didn’t try to stop them.

My father stood across from the doorway, his arms folded across his chest and an unhappy frown pulling at his mouth. His eyes flickered to the blood still sprayed across Jacqueline’s pajamas, and then back to me. “Louisa Kara, what have you done?”

I glared at him. “What you should have a long time ago. Protected my family.”

He blanched, and I moved to push past him. “We aren’t staying. I’m taking Jacqueline…Jax…with me.”

“Like hell you are.” Dad reached for Jax, but before even one of the guys could stop him, my mother stepped in between.

Her eyes blazed. “You’ll let her go.”

Her words weren’t directed to me for once, but to my father.

He squinted. “What? You want her to leave? How many daughters do we have to lose?”

My mother shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “How do you not realize we already have? Alice died trying to escape this place. The moment we allowed Josiah to marry Kara, we lost her. And now you’ve done the same thing to Jacqueline.”

“Marrying our leader is an honor!” he yelled. “I was looking out for them!”

But my mother was having none of it. She shook her head. “I believed that with Kara. I really did. She was a grown woman with a child, and she needed someone to care for her. Provide for her.” She shook her head sadly at her husband, staring at him with barely concealed hate. “But then you made the same deal for Jacqueline. Who is neither a woman nor a mother nor in need of a man to take care of her.”

My father’s cheeks blazed red. “She’s old enough. Women got married at her age all the time in my parents’ generation.”

It was then I realized how far he’d sunk. He’d been a different man once. One who’d put us on the backs of ponies and led us around on them. One who’d taken us into town and bought us ice cream. Even as little as five years ago when Rebel had lost her mom, he’d been different.

But a lot had changed. I no longer recognized the man he’d become.

“She’s thirteen years old!” Mom shouted, startling us all. “Thirteen! And you sold her to a monster so you’d have his ear. Something he promised you when you gave him Kara, that he never delivered on. When are you going to wake up and realize that man doesn’t give you an ounce of respect and never will!”

My father’s eyes darkened, his tone threatening. “The Devil has a hold of your tongue.”

Hayden ran his tongue across his teeth. “Watch your mouth, old man. From where I’m standing, it seems a whole lot more like she’s just telling you the truth.”

I might have fallen in love with him just a little more in that moment, watching him stand up for a woman he didn’t even know.

My mom grasped my hand and pressed her fingers into my palms. “Take her. Give her a good life away from this place. Love her like she’s your own. Please. She isn’t safe here, I know that.”

I squeezed her fingers back, knowing this woman hadn’t always done right by me. But willing to forgive her anyway because that was the sort of person I wanted to be. Not someone who held on to hate and negativity.

Those things ate away at a person like cancer, and I already had enough hate for Josiah and his men.

“Come with us,” I begged her. “You don’t have to stay here. Naomi and Samantha—”

My mom shook her head. “I need to stay for them. They’ll never leave. This life is all they know, and they aren’t like you and Jacqueline. They don’t have adventure in their souls.”

I didn’t think I did either. But maybe I had once. Back when I’d first left, full of confidence about finding my place in the world.

It had beaten me down, changed me, but maybe I could get some of that back. For Jax. So she didn’t lose that spark the way I had.

I let out a breath and put my arms around my mother, drawing her in tight and fast. But I held her long enough to whisper, “If you ever change your mind, you’ll always have a place with us.”

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