Page 57 of Just Like That

“Ma’am.” I tipped my head in her direction.

“Mr. King.” Her thin lips pressed into a demure smile.

Mr. King.

I had noticed that, around town, more and more people had stopped calling me JP. It was an unofficial recognition that I was now the head of King Equities. My stomach roiled and bile scorched the back of my throat.

“Please. Call me JP.” I attempted a smile, but it felt more like a grimace.

Her lip curled. “I’ll call you whatever I like.”

She brushed past me and I stifled a snort. At least one thing hadn’t changed, Ms. Tiny was still mean as a snake. “Tough old bird,” I muttered at her back.

As I waited at the corner for the light to change, I sat back on my heels and looked up at my corner office building. The building itself was one of the original structures constructed when the town was established, and it was starting to look its age.

Veda and I were cramped in the tiny upstairs office. When I’d set up the temporary office space, I was tempted by the circular bay window that provided a panoramic view of Outtatowner—from the lighthouse at the end of the pier to the stretch of Main Street that welcomed tourists downtown.

Once it was fixed up, it could make a stellar office with high ceilings and functional meeting spaces. Veda had made comments about how perfect the afternoon lighting was, and she didn’t know it yet, but I’d just purchased the entire thing and planned to renovate it. If we really were going to take over the world, she could have the corner office to enjoy the view she loved so much.

It felt like the least I could do for her role in helping put my father behind bars.

The crosswalk light turned, but my phone rang, so I stepped to the side. Abel’s name flashed across the screen and my heart sank.

Tourists flowed around me as I pressed a finger into my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey.” Abel’s voice was grim—more than usual, and that was saying something. “You need to come out here.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face. All day I’d tried to ignore the fact that a crew was dredging Wabash Lake and divers were looking for evidence to use against our father.

I steeled my voice. “They found something?”

He blew out a sad stream of breath. “Not just something.” The hairs prickled on the back of my neck as his pause stretched over the line. “They found Mom.”

Leaveit to Dad to finally unite the King siblings in the most horrible way possible.

He did this. It washisfault.

The six of us were standing in a line along the far side of Lake Wabash’s south shore. Abel looked as though he was about to plow his fist into something. Whip’s arms were crossed as he slowly shook his head. Royal’s jaw flexed as he fought back emotion. He slung an arm across Sylvie’s shoulder. She and MJ locked arms and silently wiped away tears as quickly as they fell.

The Sullivans were off to the side, offering their silent support. It seemed they understood we needed this moment.

I watched in restrained horror as the coroner confirmed that the remains they found were, in fact, human.

It struck me as funny how quickly I could recall being five years old. We had woken up one morning and Mom was just gone. No note. No tearful goodbye. No promises of coming back to get us.

Nothing.

It was the exact same confusion and emptiness I felt when we all realized what the divers had found. For the twenty-seven years she’d been gone, I did everything I could to not miss her. I set my emotions aside in a little box and refused to open it—I had to in order to survive. Even as a child, it was drilled into me that the only thing I should do was step up and fix whatever problems arose in her absence.

This was no different.

Only now it wasn’t anger and betrayal I felt at her absence. It was the unshed grief of a five-year-old boy.

“She was here the whole time,” MJ whispered, her voice wobbling at the edges and giving voice to what we’d all been thinking. “She was so close.”

Sylvie swallowed and rubbed MJ’s arm. “She got to see a lot of life here. Kids laughing. Picnics. Surrounded by nature. There are worse places, I guess.”

I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want to feel the bone-deep loss of the mother I had loved more than anyone.

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