Page 32 of Road to Redemption

It looks closed…?

But before my head could steady, a calm voice drifted over from the kitchen table. “I let her out already. Hope you don’t mind.”

21

KIERA

I whipped around to see a head of gray hair camped out behind blurry, white stacks of paper.

“Viv!” I shot up to my feet, trying to regain some semblance of respectability in front of my… Dom’s mom? But the standing only made the dizziness worse.

I stumbled, steadying myself against the fridge as my ears began to ring. “Sorry, I wasn’t, um, expecting to see you up so early? Did I wake you?”

“Not at all, Honey. Are you feeling okay?”

Clearly I was not being as subtle about the near-fainting as I had hoped. “I’m good, just need to grab some cereal.”

But even clinging to the fridge handle, my steps were unsteady.

Viv frowned, “Why don’t you sit down and let me get that for you?”

Before I could try to argue, she was on her feet, pulling out a seat at the table for me.

Face going red, I relented. I quite literally didn’t have a leg to stand on here, but it didn’t make accepting the help any less embarrassing. “I’m sorry, I’m usually fine to do that stuff. That dizzy spell just caught me off guard. They get worse when I don’t sleep, and⁠—”

“You don’t need to apologize to me, Honey. I’ve been through menopause, and if what you’re feeling is anything like the vertigo that shit gave me, I totally get it.”

I nodded, lowering my gaze to my lap as I picked at the hem of my shorts. Sitting down, the outfit was much more revealing than I would have chosen for Viv’s company.

It’s not like I was shy about my clothing usually, but Viv was the closest thing I’d had to a real maternal figure in my whole life. As chill as she was, I couldn’t help but worry about her approval.

And the smattering of bruises painted over my thighs from Dom’s grip weren’t the type of thing I’d flaunt in front of someone’s mother. I moved to tuck my legs under the table, hoping to obscure the marks in shadow, but as Viv approached the table with my cereal, I could feel her eyes catching on them.

“Lady,” I explained with a hasty chuckle. “Big dog doesn’t know her own strength.”

“Right,” she smirked, setting down the bowl in front of me before returning to the seat beside mine.

Heat flushed the back of my neck. She didn’t seem to buy the excuse, but she also didn’t seem bothered. Which was almost worse than her caring, honestly. If she’d seemed surprised, it would have been easier to convince myself she hadn’t heard anything.

This. Is. Mortifying.

Desperate for something to do with my hands, I reached for the spoon and took a big bite of the Cap’n Crunch she’d set out for me. Lady pouted at my feet, but I did my best to ignore her begging. “God, this stuff is so good. Thank you again.”

“Of course,” she smiled, shuffling her papers into more compact stacks.

“Did you get a grocery delivery?” I tilted my head. “I didn’t know you kept this in the house. I’ve been eating the Raisin Bran for days.”

“That’s because it’s from my hidden stash,” she smirked. “I’ve seen the way those three can clear house. Figured I should save my favorite cereal from the purge.”

“Oh, Viv,” I set down my spoon. “You didn’t need to share it with me if⁠—”

“I know that. But I also remember how much you loved it as a little girl. Do you remember the ‘Cap’n Caper’?”

I furrowed my brow, reaching for something in the depths of my fuzzy memory. “Maybe? It sounds familiar.”

“You were really little. Maybe five or so? One of the summers that you were staying over, you would ask for Cap’n Crunch for every. Single. Meal. No matter what we tried, we could hardly get a vegetable into you. You were dedicated to this meal plan. Like, going on hunger strike levels of commitment.”

I laughed, scooping up a spoonful. “I mean to be fair, it is really good.”