Page 95 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

Because I knew now, I wouldn’t be back here again.

My phone dinged with a new email and I took it out of my purse.

From: anonymous743

Subject: You’re nothing but a cheap whore.

Anonymous743 had been emailing me all week. One per day, ever since the first. I knew now they weren’t spam. Even after I’d blocked the account, they still kept

coming. The email gods didn’t care that some unknown person was harassing me.

But like I’d done with each of the previous, I deleted it and told myself they’d stop. I’d probably just pissed off a customer traveling through Lark Cove. A couple weeks ago, there’d been a group of drunk assholes in the bar who had bitched constantly about my food, drinks and service. One of them was probably having a real laugh right now.

I looked up from my phone, staring back at the orphanage.

The joke was on Anonymous743, because if I could sit here in front of the place where I’d mostly known loneliness and not crumble, then a stupid email wasn’t going to break me.

“Okay,” I told the driver. “We can go.”

As he drove us back to Manhattan, I replayed the afternoon. In a way, seeing Ruth at Giovanni’s had been a blessing. It had pissed me off enough to go to the orphanage. And there, I’d remembered why I left New York in the first place.

To build my own life. To live by my choices. To be with the only family I’d ever known.

Logan and I had been living in a dream these past couple of weeks, but it was time to wake up and face reality. The snooze button had been pushed long enough.

When we left here on Monday, I was letting him go. I was breaking this off before we spent months or years struggling through a long-distance relationship that could only end in pain for us both.

Standing in the lobby of my favorite restaurant, I nearly fell over when Thea and Charlie came through the door.

Thea was wearing a fitted black cocktail dress with cutouts around the collar showcasing her flawless skin. Her hair was pulled up in a twist accentuating the long line of her neck. Add to that her makeup, jewelry and hot-as-hell heels, I was glad I had on a jacket to help conceal the bulge behind my slacks.

She was always beautiful whether she was in the jeans and tank tops she wore to the bar or the ratty peach sweatshirt she’d been wearing this morning. Thea always made my heart beat faster. But I loved seeing her dressed up, wearing the finest. She deserved the best there was.

“Hi,” she breathed. “Sorry we’re late.”

“It’s fine. You look beautiful.”

I bent to kiss her blushing cheek, lingering for a moment to smell her perfume. Then I forced my eyes off of Thea to greet my daughter.

“Hi, peanut.” I crouched down. “You look beautiful tonight too.”

She glared at me and plucked at the skirt of her dress. Charlie was wearing a gray lace dress with half sleeves. Her toes wiggled in her ballet flats. And somehow Thea had tamed her hair into a sleek ponytail with waves of curls running down her back.

But it wasn’t the clothes that made her look so different tonight. It was her missing smile.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, studying the floor. Then she brought her hand up and yanked at the collar of her dress as hard as she could.

“Charlie, that’s enough,” Thea scolded, swatting her hand away from the fabric. “Knock it off. Right now.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard Thea address our daughter with a firm tone. Charlie was such a good kid, she didn’t need much reprimanding. Even when you were trying to corral her into the bathtub, she didn’t require stern warnings.

Charlie turned up her chin and scowled at Thea, another thing I didn’t like. What the fuck had happened today?

Before I could ask, the hostess called us over. “Mr. Kendrick? Your table is ready, sir.”

I stood and took Thea by the elbow, escorting her through the restaurant toward my table in the back corner. David’s Table only took reservations, and at times, they were booked three or four months in advance. But whenever I walked through the door, they found a way to clear a table.