AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That’s when it hit me that she didn’t want me here. My mother had never lived alone. She’d gone from her parents’ home to living with my father. The thought of being on her own was so terrifying to her that she’d resorted to begging me, of all people, to stay.
“Mom, while I appreciate the generous offer, I don’t think—”
To my surprise and horror, she began to cry. “You can’t leave me, Harper. I need you.”
I wanted to tell her I’d needed her my entire life and never once felt like she was there for me. But I’d be lying if her words didn’t tug at some deep-seated need to be loved and wanted by this woman. I’d always felt second best to Andi, and then after her death, it was like we’d both been erased. I knew I should tell her no, because people didn’t change just like that. I knew it deep in my heart, but the little girl in me that desperately needed her mother’s love had stirred to life and was clambering to the surface, begging to stay. Begging to be loved.
Maybe this was a chance at a fresh start. Maybe my mother would really love me now.
I’d lied to myself often enough to recognize a lie when I saw one.
Then again, when you’d lied to yourself your entire life, what was one more?
What more?
Check out a special bonus scene from Malcolm’s POV.
If the link doesn’t work, go here: https://bit.ly/3P4Rb89
Join the Little Girl Lost Facebook Discussion Group!
Try this if the hyperlink doesn’t work: https://bit.ly/43Zj4Tt
Want more Harper? Preorder the next book!
Long Gone
Harper Adams Mystery #2
January 16, 2024
Don’t want to wait that long for a DGS book?
Try Blind Bake, the first book in Denise’s Maddie Baker Mystery series. Read chapter one on the next page!
Blind Bake Preview
Chapter One
Maddie
* * *
I tapped my finger nervously on my steering wheel. Where was this guy? I knew I shouldn’t have accepted an Uber request out at the industrial park after six p.m. on a Monday night, but desperate times meant taking risks.
I picked up my phone and sent a message to the guy who’d made the request. I’ve been here five minutes. If you’re not out here within the next sixty seconds, I’m leaving.
I’ll be good and pissed if I made the trip seven miles outside of the city limits on a cold November night for nothing, but a part of me rather hoped this guy would tell me to get lost. I’d seen enough horror movies to know when something was a bad idea. And this reeked of it.
A door flew open in the metal warehouse I was parked next to, and a short stub of a man hurried out, shuffling down a few concrete steps and then rushing over to my car and flinging open the back door.
The first thing that hit me was the smell, and I fought the urge to gag. The older man who’d just climbed into the back seat reeked of three-day-old egg salad and BO. I wasn’t sure the can of Febreze in my trunk would get that stench out of the vinyl seats.
Why hadn’t I just left?
Forcing a smile, I glanced over my shoulder at the balding man and hesitantly asked, “Marty the Man?” Which, now that I thought about it, seemed like a pretty sketchy nickname. “Going to 1435 West Walnut Street?”
“Yeah,” he grunted, looking out his side window at the warehouse. “Go already.”
