AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t think she’s going to stop,” she says softly.
What the hell?
I fold my arms across my chest. “Tell me everything.”
“I was there for one of Sophia Galanos’s visits. We had just started sophomore year, and the Masters were locking you in the bathroom more and more.”
“I remember,” I say curtly. I don’t need her to paint a damn picture of my misery.
“I stopped by on my way home and arrived right when Mrs. Galanos pulled up. She’d known the Masters for years at this point, right?”
“Yeah, she refused to pull me because she’d lose the commission for the placement.”
“But this time, she arrived when they still had you locked in the bathroom,” she points out. “And it was after schoo
l so she had her kids with her. Two boys and a baby girl. She had the baby in one of those sling things.”
“I remember. The Masters were so damn cocky at that point they were convinced she would turn a blind eye to their way of punishing me for getting into fights at school. Nobody gave a shit that I didn’t start the fights. I just got beat up.”
I draw my arms closer against my chest. I feel weak just thinking about trying to defend myself against well-fed kids twice my size.
“Sophia Galanos took pictures that day,” Kayla says, the excitement building in her tone.
“I think she was pretending. They never found the images when they searched her office. The prosecutor said they only had enough evidence to shut the agency down. The records they did locate showed that she skipped most of the required follow-up visits. Not just to me, but with lots of other kids. She blamed it on the caseload, the number of kids in the system, and all that bullshit. That’s how she got off with a fucking slap on the wrist.”
“She lost her business and had to move in with relatives in Greece. It probably didn’t feel like a slap on the wrist to her family,” Kayla says.
My brow furrows. I can see where she’s going with this. “You think Alexandra is the baby. You believe she’s Sophia Galanos’s daughter.”
“Her daughter would be in her twenties now,” Kayla points out as she heads to her computer. She opens the laptop and types in a password. “I found Mrs. Galanos’s obituary in her local paper. It was written in Greek, but I did a quick translation with an online program. It reads: Mrs. Galanos is survived by her three children, including a daughter named Alexandra.”
“Why would she use her real name to blackmail me?” I demand. “That’s like admitting to extortion.”
“That’s the bad news.” Kayla straightens, leaving her computer open, and turns to me. “I think she knows that if someone digs deep enough and finds out who she is, it will support her claim and her goals.”
“She might be Alexandra Galanos, but that doesn’t connect Gavin Black to Terrance Montgomery. Hell, I can still discredit her. I can prove she’s out for money or something.”
“I don’t think she wants your money,” Kayla says. “And if reporters keep digging, they will find the connection. Until then, it will hang over your head.”
“If it was this simple, why didn’t Margaret and her PI make the connection?” I snap.
“Margaret, the PIs, none of them were there, in the Masters house that day. They didn’t see a mother struggling to get through her day job while keeping her baby calm and her boys entertained. I know you hated Sophia Galanos. And you have every right to hold a grudge for what she did. But I don’t think she meant to hurt you.”
“She left me there. Sophia Galanos left me in that house,” I whisper. I want to shout the words, but my throat’s contracting. I haven’t been that weak child for over two decades. I make plans and run companies. Fear doesn’t blanket me anymore. I don’t lie on bathroom floors shaking with terror, wishing I had the nerve to get up and raid the fridge. But as hard as I run, I can’t escape the memories.
“You once told me that she said ‘the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.’ Remember that?” Kayla asks.
“Yeah.” But it didn’t change the fact that I wanted to destroy the devil right in front of me. And I did. I became Gavin Black.
Now her daughter wants to take that away from me.
“Sophia Galanos was wrong. She should have pulled you from that house. But you sought justice and won. Most abused kids never get that chance.”
“That doesn’t make what Alexandra is doing right,” I snap.
“No, it doesn’t. But I think she wants the same thing you do.”
“The hell she does!” The dogs are on their feet at the sound of my sharp tone. Ava remains at Kayla’s side and the other pups follow her lead, gathering around their owner as if erecting a wall of fur between us.
