Page 68 of I Am Salvation

She takes in a slow inhale. “I don’t know that man who was here last night. I haven’t seen my son since he was nine years old. He could be an imposter.”

“He’s not. But if you need to know for certain, I’m sure he’d agree to do a DNA test.”

She sighs. “He looks a lot like his father. Except for the eyes. His father had brown eyes, and Dragon’s are more a greenish brown.”

“Hazel,” I say softly.

“I had no idea Dragon was still alive,” she says.

“He’s young and healthy. Why wouldn’t he be alive?”

She looks down. “You hear about things happening in those group homes.”

“You could have checked.”

“No, I could never.” She puts her coffee down, reaches for a pack of cigarettes on the table next to her. “It’s been too long. I’m not interested in that life anymore. Felix and I had to remake ourselves. We had to forget we ever had children.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” She puts a cigarette in her mouth and talks around it. “Because it was just too damned painful. Our little girl was gone. And our little boy…”

“Wasn’t gone,” I say. “You could’ve rescued him from the system at any time.”

She opens her mouth wide, letting the cigarette drop onto her lap. “No, we couldn’t have. When you voluntarily give up your parental rights, the system isn’t real quick to give them back.”

“They would’ve asked Dragon what he wanted.”

She looks down. “Maybe.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Like I said, it was too painful. It would’ve all been a reminder of what happened to Griffin.”

I scoff. “So you left Dragon there. You left him there because he would’ve reminded you of his little sister.” I shake my head. “I can’t believe you. What the hell kind of mother are you?”

She stands up, leering over me. “That’s just it. I’m not a mother. It’s like I told you. Felix and I had to remake ourselves. We remade ourselves into a childless couple. We even changed our names. We’ve moved around a lot.”

I get to my feet and meet her gaze. “Why did you change names? Why did you move around a lot?”

She breaks eye contact with me and sinks back into her chair. “We had our reasons.”

“So Dragon couldn’t find you once he turned eighteen?”

She doesn’t respond.

So that’s the truth. She doesn’t want her son. She doesn’t want anything that reminds her of the daughter she lost.

And now she’s hardened. Hardened into an old woman with no heart.

Dragon will get nothing from her. Certainly not any maternal love. So I’m done interrogating her.

Time to move on.

“I need you to tell me something, then,” I say.

She squats down and grabs the cigarette that fell from her lap. “What’s that?”

“Tell me everything that happened the night your daughter disappeared.”

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