Page 5 of The Royal Flame
“Yeah, you’re right.” He briefly pauses. “Do you think she’s okay?”
“Mom?” I check, and he nods, his gaze traveling to me. “I honestly don’t know.”
He swallows hard. “What if… What if she did the same thing she did when we were ten? What if she just… took off.”
“That’s crossed my mind,” I admit aloud.
I hate that my thoughts go to that place where I’m contemplating whether my mom did this intentionally like she did when Finn and I were ten. Mom had been gone for days, but that wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary for her. Our nanny mostly took care of us, and so we didn’t notice her absence too much. But eventually, it became apparent when days turned intoweeks. Things became even weirder when my father requested a family meeting, something he’d never done.
“Sit down,” he instructed as Lily, Finn, and I entered the library.
We were all afraid of him, and we quickly obeyed, taking a seat on the sofa in the middle of the room. He didn’t sit down, instead staring out the window at the frost-kissed land surrounding the house. He was wearing a suit—he always was, even when he wasn’t going to work.
“I’ve received some unpleasant news,” he finally said, turning around and facing us. He stood with his hands behind his back, and his expression was cold. “Your mother has left us.”
“What?” Lily whispered confusedly. “Where did she go? To the store?”
My father rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dense, Lily. She’s left us. She doesn’t want to be your mother anymore.”
“What?” Lily’s eyes watered over with tears.
She was sitting between Finn and me, and I held onto her hand. Finn took her other hand.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told Lily quietly, my stomach twisting in knots.
Was it going to be okay?
My mother left us.
Left us withhim.
She was never going to win Mother of the Year, but she was better than our father.
My father laughed hollowly. “Keep telling yourself that, River. You and I both know that’s a lie. Lily needs a mother.” He pointed at Lily. “Because I sure as hell don’t want to take care of her.”
Finn, who smarted off more than me, lifted his chin. “Good thing we have Bethany then.”
Bethany was our nanny and had been for the last handful of years.
My father’s smirk was cruel and mocking. “You think Bethany cares about you? She gets paid to take care of you. Take that money away, and she’ll abandon you too.” He gave a short pause, eyeing Lily as she continued to cry. “Don’t worry. Your mother won’t be gone forever. I’ll make sure of that.” He strode toward the door but paused in the doorway to turn around and look at us. “I don’t want you to tell anyone about your mother taking off.” He exited the room, and Lily started hysterically crying.
Finn and I did our best to console her, but we were ten years old and didn’t know what we were doing. Thankfully, we had Bethany, but my dad’s words echoed in my head every time I saw her now, and I started questioning if her kindness was genuine. Lily stopped speaking for a while. Finn began getting into fights in school. I tried to take care of them both, but I felt so lost. Noah helped out when he could. But even with his help, Finn ended up getting suspended, and Lily had to see the school therapist because of her refusal to speak.
And my father? He started getting really cagey, and his mental state became questionable. I once caught him rambling to himself in the late night hours. He also began to leave the house with a cloak draped over his arm. I thought it was weird since I was reading many books about wizards at the time, and they usually wore cloaks. My imagination ran wild and worsened when my father forced Lily, Finn, and I to stay in the main house for three days straight. We weren’t even allowed to go outside. Then, when the three days were over, the madness stopped.
And my mother returned. My father was with her when she entered the house, wheeling a suitcase behind her and looking as if she wanted to be anywhere else.
“Mommy!” Lily cried as she sprinted down the hallway toward the foyer where my mother stood.
At the time, I’d thought my mother looked exhausted and assumed that was why she barely hugged Lily. Looking back, I’m fairly positive that her zombie-like state was because she was high.
“You know, when I think back, I don’t think I realized that mom tried to run away from all of us, and dad tracked her down and dragged her back,” Finn mumbles. “She was never the same after that.”
“I know,” I agree. While my mom was never a super happy and upbeat person, she became the definition of walking depression after she returned. “But if she took off this time, why would she make it look like she was taken? It’s not like she has to hide from Dad anymore.”
“I don’t know.” Finn slows to a stop at a streetlight, the red glow reflecting in his eyes. “But I just feel like if Mom was taken, Dad had something to do with it. And that’s what I told the detective.”
I straighten in the seat. “You did?”
