Page 101 of Adoration: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 2)

“What do you mean?” I retorted angrily. “Spare me from what?”

“Livy, please let it go,” she begged. “Didn’t I give you enough? I’m trying so hard.”

“You are not making any sense.”

I was hurt she would keep such a big thing from me. I couldn’t understand anything. It was as everything around us was a secret.

“What kind of mother would keep a child away from her father… pretend she didn’t have a father!”

My mom paled at my words, sharp intake of her breath was the only sound that broke the silence after my cruel words left my lips. Her lip quivered, hurt in her beautiful eyes.

I should have apologized. I should have hugged her, but I ran out the door, to my car, tears smearing my face. It was the last time I heard her voice.

“Mom,” I called out from the front porch. Lena and I came back a few weeks later to visit. The door was locked, which was odd. She only locked the door at night.

I turned my head towards Lena. “This is so unlike her.”

“Do you have a key to the house?” she asked in a whisper although I wasn’t sure why we were whispering.

I dug through my purse while Lena walked around the porch peeking through the windows.

I pushed the key into the lock and the door softly opened.

“Mom, it’s me,” I repeated in a slightly elevated voice.

The house was the same, everything in its place, dead quiet except for running water. Maybe she was taking a shower. With each stair I took, the feeling of dread increased. I couldn’t explain it. Each breath I took, an overwhelming dread spread through me. Each step brought me closer to the sound of running water. I entered my mom’s bedroom. It was clean and perfect, with fresh peonies sitting on her nightstand.

The sound of water running came from her bathroom.

“Mom,” I called out softly, my throat tight, like someone was fisting it hard.

The door creaked open, and my heart stopped as I watched my mom’s lifeless body on the bathroom floor. Pool of blood all around her, her beautiful eyes extinguished of her light, staring blankly.

A whimper tore out of my throat. I kneeled down, her blood soaking my dress. The pain was gauging my chest. I screamed. I screamed and screamed till my throat hurt but it didn’t match the pain inside me.

I didn’t hug her goodbye. I didn’t hug her goodbye. I didn’t hug her goodbye.

“Liberty,” a familiar voice reached me through haze.

“Livy,” my mother’s voice called out, pulling me back into the haze in my head. “I love you.”

The graveyard was empty, leaving Lena, Layla, and me alone with Mom’s coffin. I didn’t want to leave her here; she hated confined spaces; she wouldn’t have liked this at all.

“I really don’t like how happy those peonies look all over the coffin.” My voice was raspy, my nose stuffy. “Like it is something to celebrate. Who ordered them?”

“I don’t know,” Lena murmured gently as she squeezed my hand. “She would like them, though. We have to believe she is in a better place now.”

A better place was to be with us. God, I didn’t hug her goodbye. My mind was whispering cruel words.

“Who is that guy?” Layla pointed. Raising my eyes, I followed her finger.

A tall figure stood by the large oak tree dominating the church gravesite. An older man with hair colored with silver grey, his hair slightly ruffled by a light fall breeze, watched us. I locked my eyes with him and a gasp escaped me. They were Alexander’s eyes. But it wasn’t him. How can that be?

“I don’t know,” I answered Layla softly. “I don’t recognize him.”

I glanced at Lena to ask if she knew him. She was gone. My gaze returned to the grave and a gasp left me. There were three coffins in front of me, pink and white peonies showered all over them, tying them together. Lena was gone, and I screamed. I hurt inside, the pain inside me was unbearable. They all left me.

“Liberty,” my body shook. “Wake up!”

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