Page 125 of Wicked Sins

Her door stays shut.

“Joah.” She slams her palm into the window. “Joah!”

This can’t be happening. We’re right outside a goddamn police station. My heart leaps into my throat as I move to her door and try yanking it open from the outside.

It opens, and I almost lose my balance.

“Are you done throwing a tantrum?”

My eyes peer through the interior, settling on my father as he takes his seat behind the wheel.

“Then get in,” he says.

Candy slides over for me, and I climb in with numb legs.

“You forget there’s a child lock on that door?” Dad sneers at me through the question.

My face is hot, but my hands are ice cold. Candy’s on the other side of the seat with more than a foot of space between us. I wish she’d move closer. Wish she’d let me touch her—but she’d made it abundantly clear that I’m not welcome.

I don’t understand this.Anyof this. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear my mind was fucking out again.

Yesterday, I’d have sworn I was in love with Candy.

Today? Today, it’s as if that had been nothing but a sick fantasy. One of so many, and one of the better ones.

Did yesterday even happen?

There’s pressure behind my eyes, like a headache’s coming on.

How am I supposed to know what’s real when everything keeps changing?

Chapter Fifty-Two

Candy

It takes me a few minutes before I’ve built up enough courage to push the question past my tight throat.

“Why did the police want to question you?”

Joah sits up a little straighter.

I stare at Wayne’s reflection in the car’s rear-view mirror. His dark eyes stay fixed on the road when he responds. In fact, nothing in his face changes.

“Emma’s time of death was off.”

“Off?” Joah asks, sitting forward in a rush. “Off how?”

“Off as in different to the one I gave them.” Wayne’s gaze shifts, but it’s to study Joah, not me.

Why won’t he look at me? Is it because he feels guilty for what he’s done to me? To…Mom? Dread hollows out my stomach, and that hole keeps growing the closer we get to Bale Manor.

I wish I’d been brave enough to turn around and walk back into the police station. I could have found Detective Reed and given him my statement. I could have told them all about the horrible man Wayne Bale is…but then I might never have seen my mother again.

I know we’ve never been that close. I’d like to think there was a time we were, maybe when I was really young…but that doesn’t matter. She’s my mother. She’s family.

For all I know, Wayne killed her just like he killed Emma. If that’s the case, then it doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do—she won’t be coming back to life. In that case, there’ll be nothing stopping me from going back to the station and laying a case against Wayne.

But what if she’s still alive?

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