Page 143 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

So here I was. Ready to finally confront her about it, all in hopes of turning the page on a new chapter.

We made small talk about the weather and her job, ordered our food, and then settled into the real conversation at hand.

“You visited him in the beginning.” I looked down, trying to hide the anger burning through my gaze. “Those visits slowed, and then you just stopped going.”

Mom’s fingers trembled slightly as she brought her coffee to her lips, her eyes avoiding mine as she took a long sip. Her tone was almost a whisper as she said, “I know. I’m sorry for that.”

My hand tightened around my mug, heat rising to my cheeks.Sorry? Sorry is for when you accidentally door-ding someone.

I took a shaky breath, trying to calm the whirlwind of emotions threatening to break free.

“Why did you stop?” I pressed, desperate for some semblance of understanding.

“It was a long time ago,” she said.

“And why did you try so hard to convincemeto stop going?” Once I was out of high school, she couldn’t stop me.

She glanced away, wringing her hands. “We’ve been over this, Luna. I just…I thought you deserved a chance at a life without the false hope of someday seeing him free from behind those walls.”

I crossed my arms over my chest as I tapped my foot. I don’t know what I expected, but I’d hoped for something more than the same lines of bull she’d been feeding me for years. You don’t give up on the love of your life—you just don’t. If Hunter had gone to prison, I would have visited him…every. Single. Day. And he wasguilty, for God’s sake!

After experiencing that kind of love, I couldn’t imagine abandoning him.

But Mom did, and she did so after she’d had a child with Dad.

“He needed us,” I said. “We were all he had, and he needed our love. It was the only thing he had left.”

“Luna—”

“Be honest, Mom. Tell me the truth; otherwise, I don’t know how…”To move forward. To look at you without resentment.

Mom stared into her coffee for several long seconds and took a deep breath while she shook her head.

“Luna, he asked me…” She hesitated, tears brimming in her eyes. “He asked me to stop visiting him.”

A cold shock raced down my back.

“He what?”

“About a year into his sentence, he even asked me to move to another state and bring you with me. And never let you see him again.”

Bile rose up my esophagus, and my lungs pumped oxygen so fast, I was growing lightheaded.

“Why?” I whispered.

“He wanted to minimize the damage of the tragedy. He suffered the weight of it, and he didn’t want it to spread into our lives.”

My throat tried to close up with a ball of despair lodged inside.

“And he thought we would what?” I said, the backs of my eyes pricking. “We’d just forget about him?”

Mom’s gaze faltered, retreating from mine. “I think he was hoping we would move on with our lives instead of letting his circumstances hold us back.”

His circumstances?

My ribs started to fold in on themselves at the sacrifice my father had made to save us from further heartbreak.

“He did it for you,” Mom said.

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