Page 93 of Road to Redemption

There was no going back now. I tried to remind myself of every point Kiera had made.

He’s my nephew. He adores me. I adore him.

“Hey.” I gave the kid a soft smile and wrapped him into a big hug. He was just about my height now, almost passing me.

But I still put my arm around his shoulder and guided us into the frozen yogurt shop.

Inside, the lights were bright. It felt like the middle of the day there, not anywhere near closing time. Under the illuminating bulbs, Caleb looked exhausted, like all of this had been weighing on him.

“Get whatever you want, on me.” I winked, grabbing the largest cup the place had.

Following suit, Caleb stuck his under the metal spout for the cookie dough flavor. We went down the line, making absolute monstrosities in our 16 oz cups and catching up on Caleb’s life.

He’d met a girl he really liked but wasn’t sure how to talk to her. And his English teacher was worried about his latest test scores.

As we approached the register, our froyo topped with various fruit and candy, I eyed him. “Are you actually reading the books though?”

“Well…” Caleb shrugged, a cheeky grin at the corners of his lips.

Shoving my shoulder into his, I paid for our food. “You know, girls think reading is hot. So maybe if you start nailing the critical analysis, she’ll start being interested in you.”

As we settled into a table, Caleb rolled his eyes. “Is that how you managed to snag Kiera?”

“Maybe, and my charming good looks.” I slid into a chair that faced the front door, keeping an eye on the parking lot and my bike.

Valemont used to be safe. Safer than this at least. But now it was becoming a cesspool for evil men. And as I looked at my nephew across the table, I worried about him being stuck here — worried about what this place would become if we couldn’t take Zeus down.

Looking into my nephew’s eyes, I felt the weight of what we were really doing here. There was a reason Abi wasn’t with us.

I was used to doing hard shit, but this felt different — more daunting.

Clearing my throat, I started us off. “I know you’ve probably had questions for years. And I feel like I should have given you more answers sooner.”

Caleb shrugged. “Hindsight or whatever. Besides, you’re not like decades older than me.” Before I could address it, Caleb nodded. “My memory is just really spotty. I don’t remember much.”

“You were, what, twelve when it happened, when she died?” I scrubbed my mind for the details, my own recollection fuzzy. As soon as Jess passed, I made a point to write down everything I remembered in a journal. But it was like my mind had funneled all the trauma onto those pages and cleared my mind of it.

Before coming tonight, I’d made a point to read some of those entries. I knew that Caleb’s brain would have blocked out most of it, trying to protect him from the truth.

“Probably doesn’t help that we were all very vague with you kids. No one knew how to tell you the truth.” I added.

Caleb took a bit of his frozen yogurt and then looked up at the ceiling like he was trying to remember something. “I know she was sick a lot and that they fought all the time.” His brow furrowed as a memory came to the front of his mind. “I remember one night, I listened to them fighting. Dad said something about how she wasn’t fit to watch us anymore and that he was stuck doing it.”

My chest tightened. “You never should have heard him say something like that.” When I closed my eyes, I could see my sister’s face. Her gentle smile and her big laugh. Opening them, I saw her again in Caleb’s face. The way his big, doe eyes stared back at me. “Your mom was the coolest person I’d ever met. She knew how to make anyone laugh, even in a really dark moment. And she was kind. All she wanted to do was make everyone okay. But she was also really complicated.”

“When did she get sick?” Caleb asked.

“She was never sick.” I shook my head, trying to reckon the lie with the truth. “Not in a traditional way. Caleb, she overdosed.”

“What?”

“I know, I’m sorry. It’s a lot to take in.” Biting my lip, I leaned across the table toward him. “Jess and I, we didn’t grow up like most people. Our mom was… mistreated by men. She was tortured by the memories of it and did anything she could to hide from the darkness in her mind. Sometimes she coped with sex, sometimes alcohol, sometimes gambling, and almost always with drugs.”

Caleb crossed his arms as I went on. “It was all Jess and I saw. Something hard happens, and you use to make it go away. She couldn’t kick that, especially as she got older. When she started to realize what had happened to our mom and how men would treat her too. She turned to the same cure our mom did.”

“Why didn’t anyone help her?” Caleb’s words bit back, anger rushing through him.

“We tried. I tried. My mom was already dead, I was alone.”