Page 72 of The Marine

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

BRIAR

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“Mom!” I call out asI walk inside the house. It’s Tuesday night, which means it’s our weekly family dinner.

Just her and I.

That’s all that’s left of our family. Dad’s parents had been killed in a car accident not long after I was born. Mom’s father died when she was only a year old.

Then my maternal grandmother had passed away five years ago. Grammy.

So now it’s just us.

Mom is a shadow of the woman she was since Dad died. I don’t understand why she isn’t relieved that the violence is over. It was as if she lost the great love of her life.

“Mom,” I yell again, not finding her in the kitchen.

The three-bedroom house isn’t that big.

I wanted her to move after Dad died, but she wanted to stay. His life insurance paid for the mortgage—and not much more—which meant she didn’t have to worry about money immediately.

She still works at the local accounting firm as a clerk, which I know she hates, because she tells me and everyone who will listen that she does.

Mom is a Taurus.

Rooted into the earth like a two-hundred-year-old tree. She’s impossible to shift. She doesn’t want to move or change. No matter how unhappy she is.

Some days that helps me to understand why she stayed with my father despite the way he abused us. We were both victims. I see that now.

Other times, I’m really angry with her.

I went through a stage of hating her after Dad died and I lost Aidan. At the same time, I lost the two men I loved.

“Love? You call that love? He killed your father!” Mom had said to me when she asked me why I was grumpy one day.

“Mom, he didn’t. The medical people said it wasn’t linked.” I sobbed.

I was sick of the same argument over and over.

“They just don’t have proof. That doesn’t mean he didn’t. The man you say you love murdered your father. I’m disgusted you can even feel that way about him.”

Tears had poured down my face.

I loved Aidan so damn much. I missed him every second of every day. Iachedfor him.

Craved him physically.

“I do love him and he’s innocent. It’s not fair that we can’t be together.” I’d snapped.

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