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And she was making a beeline directly to him.
15
It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Lucy couldn’t drag her eyes away, nor could she get Zack out of the sheriff’s station before the collision. It was simply inevitable, and all she could do was sit there next to him and hope the impact wouldn’t be disastrous.
Lucy had never met Sarah’s mother Tracy before, although her mom Gail had on a few occasions. Lucy only knew what she’d heard from Sarah herself or through high school gossip. Not that Sarah had said all that much. Most of her anger had been directed at her stepfather Lloyd.
Tracy Daniels looked to be in her early sixties or thereabouts, with dark hair shot with gray and lines around her eyes and mouth. She was currently scowling, her brows pinched together as she stared directly at Zack, her lips turned down as well. She strode up to him, her gaze never leaving his face.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” she said, her eyes narrowed in defiance. “And I’m not going to apologize either.”
Well…alrighty then. Clearly, Tracy thought Zack was going to ask for some sort of capitulation. Lucy didn’t have a clue as to whether that was the plan, although she was sure he’d wanted to ask the woman a question or two.
“I’m not asking for one,” Zack finally replied. “But I only want to ask if it’s true. Was Sarah my half-sister?”
“What does it matter now?” she demanded. “My daughter is long gone. If you want to ask questions, go talk to my ex-husband Lloyd. He’s the one that likes to run his mouth constantly. I’m sure he’ll tell you all sorts of stories. I’ve had to tell him several times over the last month to leave me alone and get off my property. Sheriff, you’re going to get him to stop trespassing, right?”
Finn gave Zack and Lucy a look over Tracy’s head before replying.
“Yes, I’m going to talk to him about that. I’ll make sure he stays away.”
“I don’t know why he hangs around. It’s all his fault Sarah ran away. They hated each other, you know.”
“You think she ran away?” Lucy couldn’t help but ask.
I probably shouldn’t say anything.
“Of course,” Tracy replied with a careless shrug. “She threatened to do it every other week. So she finally did.”
“Why did she threaten to run away?” Zack asked. “Was she that unhappy?”
“She hated Lloyd,” Tracy said. “You know how kids are. They butted heads. He said that she was ungrateful. They fought like cats and dogs. They could barely stand to be in the same room with each other.”
“And you stayed married to him?”
Dammit, I really need to keep my mouth shut.
Tracy’s gaze swung to Lucy, pausing before she answered.
“My daughter wasn’t going to interfere in my marriage. You can’t let kids run your life. You wouldn’t know that because you don’t have any children, but if you show weakness they’ll never listen.”
Parenting according to Tracy Daniels. It looked bleak from where Lucy was standing. If she ever had kids, she didn’t want them to fear her. She wanted to help and guide them. Her own parents hadn’t parented by fear either.
“Sarah was bossy and bitchy,” Tracy went on. “And she was ungrateful. If it wasn’t for Lloyd we would have been homeless. All Sarah could talk about was her own dad who was a complete loser.”
You’re the one that slept with him.
“My dad? Joel Winslow?”
Tracy’s cheeks suffused with red, her lips pressed together in a tight line.
“No, the man she thought was her father.”
“You never told her?”
“No. She didn’t need to know.”
“Did my father give you money?”
