Page 46 of Heartless

He turns onto my street and I look up, a question on my lips…only for it to die in my mouth as I see the car parked in my driveway.

“Fuck,” I murmur. “Why the hell is momhere? Umm…” I blink rapidly, putting together a plan. “Maybe drop me off and park down the block? Just for now. I want to figure out what she’s doing. She’s not…I doubt she’s staying long.” He pulls to a stop in front of my house, but before I can get out, Cass grabs my shoulder, stopping me.

“You’re forgetting something,” he tells me, his gaze meeting my puzzled expression.

“What am I—” He drags me close to him, my elbow hitting the console, and presses his lips sweetly, possessively to mine. My body tenses for a moment before I relax into him, letting him coax me into a deeper kiss.

Fuck,he’s way better at this than he has any right to be.

With one quick nip to my lower lip he lets me pull away, grinning slightly as he takes in my flushed face and panting breaths as I just stare at him. “Oh, okay,” I say dumbly. “You’re totally right. I was forgetting. What was I?—”

“Out of the car, Winnie,” he chuckles. “Go see your mom while I find somewhere else to be in order to not look suspicious.” His fingers ghost along the back of my hand, making it harder to open the door and get out…or try to.

It’s hard to get out of a car without taking your seatbelt off, after all.

When I finally manage to disentangle myself from the belt’s stranglehold with Cass’s snickers audible in my ears, I close the door and stumble toward my house, trying to get myself together before my mom can see me.

God, she’d have words for me if she saw that.

Or…well, maybe not.Loucertainly would have questions and demands and want to talk all about it. She’d probably be able to get it out of me that it’sCassian Byersin the car somehow. She’d bribe me with a milkshake, with cookies, with all the things necessary to get me to spill the details.

But mom isn’t really like that. At least, not with me. I push open the front door, head cocked as I listen for the sound of her existing. To my surprise, I hear the tv on in her bedroom, so I trudge up the stairs with the subtle hope and fear that maybe, just maybe, she’s decided to change her mind. That she’s going to stay here for longer than a few days.

That hope is dashed the moment I walk into her room and see the two suitcases laid out on her bed. Disappointment sears through me like a brand, but I push it as far from me as I can. There’s no point in being disappointed when I should’ve seen this coming. Especially now, only a few days before Halloween.

Mom can’t stand being in Hayden Fields around this time.

When my mother, who’s the spitting image of Lou, comes back into the room, but doesn’t notice me at first. She drops a pile of shirts in the bigger suitcase, brow furrowed in concentration, and it’s only when she turns to go back to her closet that she notices me with a surprised gasp.

“Winnifred!” she greets, one hand pressed to her chest. Her dark hair and eyes are so different from mine that we might as well not be related at all.

But maybe that’s part of the problem. I have all of my dad’s features. From my pale skin, to my light grey eyes, to my nearly platinum hair. I remind her too much of the man she loved, the man she turned a blind eye to when he was abusing me.

The man I killed with his own gun.

“Hey Mom,” I reply, waving one hand at her a little lamely. “I, uh, didn’t expect you home. But you don’t seem like you’re staying?”

“No, I’m uh.” Here it is. The nervousness, the avoidance, the desire to get away from me that anyone with eyes can see. “I’m sorry for being gone so much lately. There’s change with the company, and—” She keeps going, using the same excuses she’s used all of my life to justify not staying here. I’ve heard them all before, and they’ve never been that convincing. I’m sure I could list them all out before she gets a chance to. But it doesn’t change that it hurts.

It always fucking hurts to be left alone.

“Where are you going?” I ask, hiding my hurt as best as I know how. “How long will you be gone?”

“Oh, well, I’m glad you’re here, actually, because I wanted to talk to you in person about this.” Her movements become more frantic as she talks, and I realize she’s about to drop abig decisionon me that I won’t enjoy. “When Julie and I were in San Francisco, I realized I need to be there more. We’re just expanding so much, and hotels get expensive. Plus, they’re not that comfortable, you know?”

“Sure,” I say, feeling like my mouth is full of sawdust as I watch her continue packing. “I get it.” I really don’t get it, since she’s certainly never invited me on any of her trips.

“So I was thinking about buying a condo out there, you know? Somewhere that I can stay without needing exact reservations.” But something is off as she says it, and it clicks just as she turns to fiddle with something on her dresser.

“You already bought the condo, didn’t you?” I ask flatly, trying to remind myself that I am an adult and I don’t need her to be here all the time. Or at all.

Literally,at all.

“You really do know me so well, huh?” Mom laughs, beaming at me and throwing more of her clothes in the open suitcase. She closes it up and glances at her phone again. “I wish you’d been home earlier today.”

No, she doesn’t.

“A car will be here in a few minutes, so?—”

---