Page 34 of Come to Head

Her voice was a siren in my ear, painful and loud. The last time we spoke was when she was admonishing me of my role in Harry’s unfaithfulness.

“Laura,” I acknowledged said mother.

“Back on that I see. I really wish you would make more of an effort after all the time I spent on you.” She heaved a sigh as if this entire conversation was a tedious box she needed to check off.

She wasn’t alone in that feeling.

“Well, I am calling with bad news.” Her tone turned oddly passionate. “Your step-father and I are getting a divorce, and I need to see you today to discuss some matters in person.”

Red flags and loud sirens started going off in my mind. My step-father. One of the “families” in this town. Had my mother known that she slept next to a killer, ahuman trafficker?It hadn’t been hard to read between the lines when Emilio explained it.

“He left a year ago on business, and I was happy to just keep it casual, you know how it is, right? The house was a bit lonely, but I had my girlfriends at least. Now, here he is, back in town and demanding I leave. Threatening me. Telling me I need to vacate. Thescandal.”

At this point I really couldn’t discern what she was upset about, nor did I particularly care.

“Look, Laura, I need to go.” I practiced my inner bitch using as much firmness behind my words as I could muster.

“Isobella Wright.”

I stiffened as my mother called me by the name I hadn’t gone by in over a decade. When I met Yara and I found out her last name had also been changed from what she was born with, I thought maybe it was normal to just change your name when you moved.

By the time I realized that wasn’t the case, it was too late. I was buried so deep into my new life that I didn’t want to look back.

“When you find a good man, don’t let money get in the way. Maybe one day he’ll do better,” my mother sobbed the words out.

It was the first time I had heard her cry for as long as I could remember, but what she was saying didn’t make any sense.

At this point the conversation had turned my emotions into a washing machine and everything she said was smashing the cycle button.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your father, James.”

I sank back onto the bed; she hadn’t spoken his name since she told me he died. Since we crossed state lines. Since she changed my name and made me promise to never talk about him. Never look for his family.

“What about him?”

“There’s more to his death than I told you, but I need to see you in person. Show you the truth, or you won’t believe me.”

It was the only subject I would willingly meet my mother for. I rubbed my chest as the grief hammered its way into my heart.

I had never truly processed my father’s death, she hadn’t allowed nor helped me to.

Maybe this could be my goodbye.

To my mother and my father.

Because after this? My mother deserved no space in my life.

Chapter 20

Maddox

His Ellie

Maddox leaned against a concrete wall in what was most decidedly a dungeon. He didn’t particularly enjoy this part of Emilio, but he could acknowledge the necessity.

Yara was missing, and they needed to follow any leads they could. So far there had only been one they could track down and she was ten feet from Maddox, hanging from a hook.

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