Page 109 of Protector

Now, none of it made any sense.

Because if there were a god, he would’ve let Slim live forever and sent me to hell in a pine box decades ago.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Celia: October 2016

“What do you mean you didn’t tell her, Kate? You promised me you’d tell her right after you bailed her out.”

“Look around you,” she hissed back at me. “She came home to this. At what point should I have dropped that bomb on her? She’s in bad shape.”

I took in the ransacked living room, my heart thudding dully in my chest. The cops had done a thorough job of searching the house; even going as far as taking a knife to the throw pillows on the couch in their search for contraband.

My daughter was in trouble.

I’d played by the rules my parents set and kept my distance, knowing there was no way to ensure the girls’ safety from behind bars. I should’ve realized when my letters and calls went unanswered that it was no longer about doing what was best for my kids.

They were hellbent on punishing me.

Somehow, I’d managed to stay off my parent’s radar while doing everything I could to be near my daughters. I thought they’d go off to college and live a normal life where their biggest concern was whether they’d remembered everything on their grocery list.

Once the men who hurt me were all gone, I’d planned on reaching out to them.

I’d become Jamie; living in my head, convinced that someday we’d be a family again.

Someday had come in the form of bail money.

Instead of going home after her shift at the mall, Dakota, who’d never cared about anything but her superhero comics, managed to evade the biker sent to watch over her. She’d landed herself in the middle of a drug bust and had promptly been arrested. To make matters worse, she’d caught the attention of an undercover cop.

Fate hadn’t been kind to me, but I’d always hoped things would be better for them.

Life didn’t work like that, though.

I ran a hand over my face, suddenly craving a cigarette after going years without one. “I know things are a mess right now, but Dakota deserves to know the truth about where the money came from.”

You both deserve the truth.

Kate tucked her lip between her teeth, studying me through narrowed eyes. “Why don’t we start with how you got my cell phone number? You didn’t get it from Nan, I know that for a fact.”

“College directory,” the lie rolled off my tongue.

If it hadn’t been for Jeremy’s hacking skills, I wouldn’t have been able to reach out to her over the past year. Granted, our conversations had been brief and filled with awkward pleasantries, until tonight.

When Kate found out Dakota had been arrested, she could’ve called anyone, but chose me. It left me feeling hopeful that I could somehow undo the mess my mother had caused when she took them.

“And why is it so important for her to know the truth? You chose to leave us. You can’t just change your mind and expect everything to go back to normal.”

Bile rose up in my throat, and I swallowed. “I know what you must think of me. I really should’ve been here—”

“Mama?” Dakota stood frozen in the hallway.

“Hey, baby girl,” I rasped, tears pricking the back of my eyelids. “Come here.”

As she walked toward the couch, a line of sweat trailed down over my spine, leaving me feeling faint.

“Why are you here? Why now, after all these years?” she demanded, eyes darting from me over to Kate. “You bailed me out, didn’t you?”

I sucked in a strangled breath and nodded. “I did. I couldn’t let my baby sit behind bars.”

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