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But the shock of finding out my mother was murdered by shifters was something I never could’ve seen coming. I’d spent the past few days thinking it through and was still coming up blank.
Tomas had said the shifter gene died out with my great-great-grandfather, but a strain of it had remained in the family, carrying through my father’s bloodline. How deep had my mom’s dealings with shifters gone? If they’d murdered her, had she known something she shouldn’t have?
The questions were endless, but the one that nagged me the most was if her murder was the reason she never came back. Since the age of ten, I’d believed she abandoned me, and perhaps she had already decided to take off for good. But maybe she’d known she was in danger and was on the run, leaving me with my aunt to keep me safe. I might never know the truth, but I’d started looking into the case myself, nevertheless.
I’d asked Jax for some of the files he’d found, and instead of studying for the semester exams that would be here before I knew it, I was spending my mornings pouring over them, trying to find some thread connecting my mother to shifters. There had to be something. I was sure this wasn’t coincidence.
The best place to start was with the murder trial itself. It didn’t take long to see something was fishy with the trial, or rather, the lack thereof.
The man who’d been arrested for my mother’s murder hadn’t been given a proper trial. From what Jax could find, including some obscure watchdog news articles that questioned how he was being charged when he’d never even given a statement to the cops, the whole situation seemed suspicious.
Another article stated that this man, Leonardo Steel, had been found with the body. The description that followed was enough to make me stop for the day.
I shook with rage at the injustice of it all. It wasn’t fair. My mother might not have been the best, or even a good person, but that didn’t mean she deserved such a brutal death. No one deserved that.
Except Tomas, a voice whispered in my mind, and the thirst for revenge coursed through me. I took a shaky breath, not sure how I felt about the thought, or whether it was even mine. My chest felt too tight again, as if my rib cage was suddenly too small.
It was enough motivation for me to push through the rest of the articles and discover that Leonardo Steel hadn’t just remained silent under arrest. As a shifter, he surely could have overpowered the human officials and made an escape, but he hadn’t put up the slightest fight.
He never made a statement, and his lawyer eventually pleaded guilty on his behalf. Something about it just didn’t sit right with me. Why had the man waited with the body, a sitting duck, ready to be arrested?
I scanned the documents to find out where he was being held since his sentencing. New York. Of course. How far away had my mother been when she was murdered? What had I been doing that day, trapped in my aunt’s home, with no idea if or when I’d ever see her again?
My hand fell to my stomach as I tried to sense the lifeforce there, the baby that Evan and I had created together. Despite our circumstances, this child was a dream I’d always wished for. More than ever, I realized just how fragile life was, and how easily the people you loved could be taken from you. I would protect this little life growing within me with everything I had.
Before I could question myself, I looked up the number for the prison and dialed. I drummed my fingers on my desk as the call rang once. Twice.
“Hello, Silverstone Correctional Facility,” a bored voice said on the other end.
“Hi,” I said quickly, nearly fumbling the phone. “I-I’m calling to inquire about visitation hours for inmates,” I managed to say, my voice much steadier than I expected.
“Visitation hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from nine a.m. to three p.m.,” the woman droned. “You'll need to bring a valid ID and fill out some paperwork when you arrive.”
“Okay, yes, thank you.”
“Anything else?” The woman clearly loved her job.
“No, I don’t think—”
The line went dead. I looked at the phone, then shook my head and set it aside, my breaths arriving rapidly as I scribbled the visitation information down on a sticky note.
I stared at my own handwriting for a long time. This was it. I had a potential lead into my past and a chance for answers. It seemed like all I got these days were more questions every time I discovered something new, but maybe this time it’d lead somewhere productive, where we could gain an advantage over Tomas and put an end to his schemes.
I rose from the desk, needing a break and some fresh air. I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, and I needed to think, to clear my head. My heart raced while I considered the possibility of coming face to face with the man who’d killed my mother. Was that something I genuinely wanted?
For so long, I’d thought my feelings about my mother had been put to rest. All of a sudden, they were all rising to the surface, clouding my judgment, and making me question everything. My mother was dead. Murdered. All these years and I’d never known… and by a dragon shifter, no less.
I swallowed, but it didn’t help the tightness in my throat. I wanted to move past all of this, finally start my life with my family, my life without Tomas. But to get the information we needed, I’d have to face my past.
It was too much on top of everything else.
On the stairs down to the second floor, I heard Sofia squealing with laugher, followed by Abi’s voice as she cooed and laughed along with her. “Aren’t you just the cutest baby ever?”
I smiled and started down the hallway toward Sofia’s elaborate nursery. Abi had gone all out, fully embracing the spoiling grandmother role, and I was sure she was perfectly fine keeping Sofia entertained the rest of the afternoon. But I hadn’t spent as much time with Sofia these last couple of days as I’d have liked with everything else going on. Maybe a baby cuddle was just what I needed to soothe my frayed nerves.
“Hey,” I said with a smile as I stood in the doorway of the nursery.
It looked like Abi had bought yet another new toy for Sofia. The little girl had more than she could possibly know what to do with, but who was I to put a damper on Abi’s enthusiasm?
