Page 47 of Love Me Fierce

“Her lawyer won’t listen.”

“There’s probably a reason for that.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Yep.”

The line hums with a long silence. “I mean it this time, okay?” she finally says. “I want to be in Logan’s life, if it’s not too late.”

The skin at my neck pulls tight and my face starts to tingle. “Listen carefully, Teresa. I don’t know how you’re contacting him, but it stops now. Don’t write, don’t email and for fuck’s sake, don’t you dare call him collect. He’s better off without you. You’ve hurt him too many times. If you really love him, you’d stay out of his life.”

“Ugh!” she gasps. “Just because your parents didn’t want you doesn’t mean?—”

“Don’t you dare,” I interrupt. “You stop contacting him. Understood?”

I wait through a brief pause, then the line disconnects.

Awesome. She hung up.

I toss my phone on the passenger seat and step out of my SUV. Shaking out my arms, I inhale a full breath of the dry mountain airand drink in the sunshine on my face. Teresa is just desperate. Grasping at straws. First trying to be sweet and warm, then switching to some half-cocked story that she knew would rattle me, and when those both failed, she attacked, her toxic manipulation on full display.

Bringing up my biological parents and what happened that day was a low blow, even for Teresa. I shouldn’t be surprised, but it still stings.

I don’t have fully formed memories of what happened. Only that Linden made us hide in the dark space under the house with the cobwebs and spiders and the dry, hard dirt while our parents fought. I don’t know how long we were there, but I still remember the sheriff’s flashlight beam and his kind eyes when he found us. We never saw our parents again.

I huff a breath at the pale blue sky and tuck those memories back where they belong.

Then I make a plan to make sure Teresa stops contacting Logan. Before she can do any more damage.

Chapter Fourteen

VIVIAN

When I breezeinto Finn River Pediatrics with barely five minutes to spare, Ava and Sepp are chatting in the nurse’s area.

“I heard about your place,” Ava says, concern filling her soft brown eyes. “I’m so sorry. Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” I hang up my jacket and set my purse in the empty filing cabinet drawer.

“If you need time off, you can?—”

“No,” I interrupt. “Thank you, but I want to be here.”

Ava nods. “If you change your mind, let me know.”

Sepp sets a giant to-go cup of what smells like English Breakfast next to my keyboard.

“For me? Sepp, you’re an angel.” A parting image of my loose tea leaves coating my kitchen counter like black fur flashes through my mind.

I cradle the cup, grateful. It’s too hot to drink yet but holding it feels almost as good.

“Are you going to move, or stay?” Sepp asks.

“Not sure yet.”

I need to call my landlord sometime today to find out myoptions. If I choose to relocate, can I break my lease and still get my deposit back?

But figuring out our living situation is secondary to the question that kept me up all night.

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