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“Couple years when Amy-Rose was hired at the boutique. She was a bit of a wild child, I think. But then maybe Ahnah was too. I feel like I didn’t truly know her at all.”
After combing through Ahnah’s possessions, Tiberius walked into the living room and perched in the rocking recliner that matched her couch.
“Now that work is out of the way, let’s talk other things, like you not telling me I have son. And make it good, Bex. Because it better be good.”
“I don’t want to discuss this where he might hear.”
“He’s not going to hear anything. Not over the music going in his room, and he’s probably wearing headphones to game online. You know it, and I’m a guy who games online so I know it too.”
“Fine.” Bexley huffed but sat on the couch and tucked her bare feet underneath her, leaning on the edge of the sofa and praying her headache away. “I don’t know if it’s good, but it’s the truth. You were kicked out and gone. I had no one, nothing. When my mom came to approve of the wedding, I stole her sedatives, and Mother Mae caught me about to take the whole bottle.”
“You were going to kill yourself?”
That night was the darkest of her soul. She nodded. “But Mother Mae told me that if I would go through with the ceremony, she’d make sure afterward I could leave. She needed time to pull it together.”
Tiberius shook his head, his mouth slack. “What did she do? I had no clue she wasn’t happy in the Family or being married to my father.”
“Neither did I. But your half sisters were minors, and she wouldn’t leave them behind. Instead, she helped me. While our families were at the chapel, she packed us each a bag but not from our own closets, and gave me a thousand dollars. Told me to get on a bus and go to Johnson City, Tennessee, and to a church where someone she’d known from her high school days—before she joined the Family—was the pastor. She gave me an address and his name. She said he would help us. But we met Renee first, and I never made it to Tennessee.”
She shuddered, remembering the wedding ceremony. Her white dress and the flowers in her hair. Rand at the bottom of the stairs as she descended. He was quite attractive, but he was old to a seventeen-year-old girl, and he was Tiberius’s father. After their nuptials, he’d bent and given her a chaste kiss, but she’d never forget his whispered words.
You’ve only been with a boy. You’ll like being with a man so much better.
She inhaled deeply and pushed through. “After the ceremony, I was to go to my bridal chamber to prepare. Mother Mae was with me with Ahnah—she knew I’d never leave without her. Ahnah didn’t protest. She was frightened and confused. Mother Mae had placed a ladder at the window, and we climbed down and ran.”
“But how does that come to dying in a boating accident?”
“I’m not sure how Mother Mae worked out all the details. She was clearly crafty, but she did say that we had to be dead. Or they’d coming looking for us both since we were minors. She said to take the boat across the lake but not to dock it. It would float downstream. Leave the life vests inside. She’d tell Rand we ran with the clothes on our backs in a rush to escape and stole the boat, and Ahnah must have fallen out—unable to swim. In our hurry, we didn’t wear life vests. I must have died trying to save her. For good measure, I tossed one of my shoes near the shore so it would appear it drifted from the water.”
“She is clever. My father would have no reason not to believe her. She was devoted—outwardly. They probably combed the lake and hospitals. The lake pours out into the river. The fish and turtles could have eaten you.”
“Ew.”
“I’m just saying. If you had run out of fear with no clothing, no bags, then it made sense to not think to put on life vests. You would have been unskilled at driving a boat and could have hit something, tossing out Ahnah. At night in the pitch black, you legit could have died from exhaustion trying to find her in the murky waters.”
Bexley had wondered about all the details, the conversations, the combing of lakes and her mother’s tears. “Renee often visited bus stations looking for transient girls before some sicko found them first. If she hadn’t found me, we’d have made it to East Tennessee.”
“Why not try to find me? You knew I was going to Atlanta.”
“At first, I was afraid and didn’t know how to contact you. Your phone would have been cut off, and I had no phone. I didn’t know what apartment you secured for us because when you returned, we were separated. Later, when I didn’t believe the Family doctrine anymore, I couldn’t be sure if you still did. If Rand found out we had a son, he might offer you forgiveness simply to secure Josiah in his clutches. I wouldn’t allow him to grow up in that nightmare. I didn’t know I was pregnant until Renee took me to the doctor and had me checked out a couple of weeks after giving us sanctuary.”
Tiberius rocked back and forth in the chair until she squirmed. What was he thinking? Did he believe her? Did it matter? Finally, he spoke. “I understand that fear, but you knew I never wanted to go back, and for the record, I don’t believe that junk anymore.”
“What do you believe these days?”
Ty’s laugh was hard and cynical. “I believe in me, myself and I. How’s that for a trinity?”
She brushed wayward curls from her eyes. She’d say it was pretty blasphemous. “You must be disappointed on the daily, then.” No person could rely or depend on themselves alone without failed expectations. She didn’t have the strength or power to fight her battles, which were many, and sometimes more than she could bear.
“Mom.” Josiah stomped down the hall. “I thought you were leaving.”
“We changed our minds.”
He folded his arms over his chest and glared. “Whatever.” He proceeded to stomp with equal force into the kitchen. “Where’s the ciabatta bread?” he called from the kitchen.
“It’s—” She paused. Palming her forehead, she groaned. “Sorry. I thought I bought it, but I forgot,” she called.
More murmurings.
