Page 8 of Destiny

Mom rubs her temples. “I know we have. But even if you won’t accept any monetary help, can you have Luke or Maya open up for you sometimes? Why do you always have to be the one to get up early and get everything started?”

“Because it’s my business, Mom. It’s my bakery. I’m the baker. I have to make all the bread.”

“You could teach them—”

I shake my head. “I can’t. My baking is a source of pride for me. When people walk into that bakery, they’re looking for Ava Steel’s bread. Not Maya’s bread. Not Luke’s bread.Mybread, Mom. It’s important.”

“I know.” She sighs. “It’s just that you’ve been through so much.”

Mom doesn’t know I had a panic attack of my own after Dad had his. I’m not about to tell her. I’m not sure how I let myself go there. I usually have more control over my body than that. I won’t have another attack. No matter what happens. I just won’t.

Still…there are times when I wish I could stay at home. Let my mother take care of me. But I chose my own business. I chose to put my whole self into my baking, and I don’t regret that choice.

I let out a yawn.

“See?” Mom pounces. “If you insist on being the one to open the bakery at the asscrack of dawn every day, you need your sleep. You should get home.”

She’s right. I am completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. It’s better to get home now and get a good night’s sleep in my own bed at my own place. Before I go, though—

“Dad mentioned a ring,” I say. “A ring that the future lawmakers wore.”

“Yes. Both your grandfathers had one.”

“Who has them?”

She pauses a moment. Then, “Actually…Ihave one of them—Brad Steel’s.”

“You?” I lift my brow. “How do you have it? And why wouldn’t you have your own father’s ring?”

“I don’t know what happened to my father’s. He stopped wearing it at the end of his life, and we never found it. Brad Steel’s ring was left for me once, as a clue. Your father found it in my couch in my old apartment before we were married. We never found out who planted it there, but it led him and Uncle Talon to me.”

“Wait…” I blink, trying to make sense of what my mother just said. “What?”

“Ava, there’s so much more to the story. About how your father and Uncle Talon took down the trafficking ring, or so they thought. About how we found out Brad Steel was alive—the first time. And about how Dale and Donny came to our family.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me more.”

She sighs and looks at her watch. Why is she so concerned about the time? “All right. You may as well know. My father had me drugged and abducted.”

I drop my jaw open.

“It was horrible, but no one hurt me. My father wouldn’t let them hurt me. Which was odd in itself because he’s the one who tried to hurt me in the first place, which resulted in my running away and living on the streets.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You see, when we found Dale and Donny, they were on an island in the Caribbean. A private island.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“Your grandfather, Brad Steel, owned a couple of islands in the Caribbean. He sold one to a corporation. And it was used… Well, you can guess what it was used for.”

“Yes.” I swallow.

“Anyway, somehow, your grandfather’s future lawmakers ring ended up at my apartment, beneath the cushion of my couch. When I disappeared, your father came to my apartment to search for clues, and he found his own father’s ring. Engraved inside the ring were GPS coordinates for the island.”

“So someone left the ring for Dad to find? So he could findyou?”

“Yes. I never found out who. It had to be either my father or your dad’s. And the more I thought about it…the more I believed it wasmyfather.”

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