“Mum!” I call again, and that’s when I see the sliding glassdoor wide open. It’s the middle of the night, and I know she religiously makes sure the house is locked up tight before she goes to bed.
I slowly move towards it as a sick feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. The patio lights are off, but the pool glows faintly in the moonlight, the surface rippling with the breeze.
I take a tentative step outside, the concrete cold under my bare feet. And then I see it. At first, I think the shape floating in the pool is a trick of the light, but it’s not.
“Mum?”
My feet move before I can think. My first step into the water shocks me, the cold biting hard enough to steal my breath. I push further in, descending the stairs one at a time. My hands are shaking, and my chest is heaving like I can’t drag in enough air.
As I get closer, I see the water lapping softly at her shoulders, her hair fanning out around her like dark silk, and my breath catches in my throat.
When I reach her, I grab the fabric of her white nightgown. “Mum,” I whisper, my voice cracking.
I pull her towards me and somehow manage to turn her over, and the moment I do, the world stops.
Her eyes are open, wide and terrified.
The cut on her lip is still there, the same one that never fades in my dreams, but in a blink, it all changes.
The hair that should be dark is now pale and gold, floating like ribbons across the water. The eyes that should be brown are now blue, too bright, too wrong. The face staring up at me isn’t Mum’s, it’s Emily’s.
The weight on my chest intensifies, and the water feels heavier now, like it’s dragging me down with her.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t look away.
I failed again.
I wasn’t able to save her either.
“Emily!” I scream. “Emmm!”
Chapter 11
Dominic
One year ago …
Icome to a stop just outside La Riviera, giving myself a moment before I enter. Even though today is supposed to be a celebration, I’m already pissed the fuck off. I don’t want to be here.
I don’t want to see her.
After that dream six months ago, seeing my mother’s face morphing into my Emily’s, I couldn’t shake the need to save her from whatever fate was waiting. The thought of seeing another mark marring her beautiful skin fucked me up inside, and I didn’t want her to become another statistic.
If she needed me, she had my number, or maybe she didn’t. For all I know, she tossed it in the bin the second I left. It didn’t stop me from waiting or wishing I’d get a call. But when days slipped into weeks of nothing, I fell back into old habits. Watching her from a distance. Only this time, I took it a step further.
At first, it was just my usual modus operandi—sitting in my car down the street from the restaurant while sheworked—but one day I crossed the line and followed her home.
It was creepy as fuck, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself, no matter how hard I tried.
Not only did I get to see a different side of her away from work—like the way she lovingly tended the row of potted plants on the porch of the shithole she lived in—but I also had to watch her with him. That sweet smile she’d given me in the past, directed towards that fucker, was the catalyst that eventually made me stop.
Maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe he wasn’t the monster I’d built him up to be in my head. She obviously wanted to be there, so I eventually forced myself to stay away.
I slide my hand into my pocket and run my fingers over the Chapstick before I push through the door and enter.
I’m so fucking headstrong in this moment, I don’t even look to find out if she’s working today. I keep my eyes trained on the floor as I cross the restaurant and head for the table in the back where some of the guys are already seated.
