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“God, Mom, this is…” I blink, swallowing hard. How can she say all this, when her own life has been such a mess? Mom squeezes my shoulders.
“Do you want to tell me why it feels so hard for you to write yours?”
“How did you do it?” I ask.
“I thought of what this means to Anna and Mike, and I wrote about that,” Mom says.
“No, how did you let yourself open up to Jeremy? After…” I can’t get the rest out.
“After your step-father and I divorced?” Her words make my head roar. She can’t say it out loud either. Why can’t we talk about this?
“He terrorized Anna for three years and neither of us noticed, even though it was happening right under our noses. He had her living in fear. His eyes were on her every single day, and she knew it. It’s not something she’ll ever be able to leave behind. So how can we?” My voice breaks.
“I didn’t forget the past,” Mom says. “But I have to hope for a better future. I have to trust. If I don’t, where does that leave me? Who does that make me?” She rubs my arm. “You’re protective of Anna. I get that. But you have it in you to be vulnerable too, Zo. Because with all that toughness comes the strength to handle a few risks.” She pats my knee. “What do you truly want to say to your sister?”
I still don’t know. Mom heads back to Jeremy, and his eyes twinkle when she sits next to him. He kisses her so far back on the cheek it might be her ear. She laughs and catches his mouth with hers with a quick peck. I look away. Is everyone able to do this but me?
* * *
SEBASTIAN
Everything was going great with my little plan to help Zoey. That is, until yesterday. After Anna and Mike talked to me on Sunday, I spent the week getting ready. I’d done my research on Jeremy. Zoey and Anna’s mom found a nice man. He checks out on paper as well as when I tailed him over several days. The guy volunteers at an animal shelter, works as a nurse at a children's hospital, drives a Prius, and even buys carbon offsets. He takes Anna and Zoey’s mom out for dinner three nights a week, and always pays. The rest of the week, she cooks for him. They grocery shop together. They’re joined at the hip, and they laugh with each other a lot. It’s all printed in a folder for Zoey: the background check, the photos, everything I found.
Mike has a folder full of good tidbits too, albeit with a lot more late nights at the office, and a lot less volunteering. But then came Madison.
Yesterday afternoon, Mike went to the ATM by his office, and took out a gigantic stack of cash. He shoved it into the pocket of his blazer before heading down the block and ducking into the lobby of the Line Hotel. Inside, he met up with a petite blonde, kissing her on the cheek and putting his hand on the small of her back to guide her across the lobby to an orange velvet armchair. When she turned to sit, she was pregnant; as in, about to pop. She pulled a small box out of her bag, and Mike peered inside, shaking his head. For maybe twenty minutes, they leaned their heads together, debating something. Then he handed her part of his cash, put the rest back in his pocket, and left. My stomach turned. Maybe Mike isn’t as honest as I was starting to think.
Now it’s an hour before the ceremony, and I still don’t know what’s up. The woman’s name is Madison Grifter. She works part time as a server at the restaurant at the Line Hotel. Her home is a rundown one bedroom in the valley, basic except for a collection of blow-torches and weird hammers I saw through her living room window. And now she’s slowing her ancient Honda sedan and pulling over to the side of the road in the middle of Topanga State Park.
I pull over behind her. A line of traffic stretches away on either side, but around here, people don’t stop for breakdowns. If I want to sort this out in time, I’m going to need to get involved. Like it went so great the last time I made contact with a tail.
“Can I help you?”
Madison looks up in surprise as I stride up to her car. “I’m so screwed,” she says. “I’m late to an event, and I got a flat tire.”
“Lucky for you, I’m quick with a tire,” I say. “What’s the event?” She opens her trunk and we get to work.
“It’s a vow renewal ceremony,” she says. “I have to arrive before it starts. If I don’t, it’ll screw up everything.” She wrings her hands.
“How so?”
“The husband is a client of mine, and I have to deliver…” She frowns at me, narrowing her eyes. “Sorry, we don’t know each other. You don’t need all the details. Just, if I’m late, his wife will wind up very disappointed.”
Oh shit. Of course, Mike’s pregnant, well-paid mistress is about to bust up Anna and Mike’s ceremony and share all the gory details of their affair in front of their closest family and friends. Why would I expect anything less? He was most likely trying to pay her off yesterday to keep her quiet. But she’d only taken part of his money. Some disagreement perhaps? A deposit on a bribe? It makes no sense.
Whatever it is, I can’t let her ruin the ceremony, destroying Mike’s marriage so publicly. I can’t let that happen to Anna. And Zoey? It would only confirm everything she’s afraid of. I slow down my efforts on Madison’s tire.
“If we don’t fix this in time, perhaps you can set up a private meeting.” I raise my eyebrows, hoping she’ll agree to the idea. But she shakes her head, rubbing her hands around her belly with nervous speed.
“The ceremony is my last chance.”
Just then, a police officer walks up behind us.
“Need some help?” the officer asks. No dawdling now. I need some other way to stop Madison.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
ZOEY
