AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for picking me up,” I tell him.
His face is sullen, heartbroken. He was Andy’s godfather. “I got you.” He hugs me—our second one of our entire friendship. The first was after he arrested Missy. “My guest room is cleaned out and ready for you. Let’s go.”
Missy’s mother yells my name at the same time I go to turn my back to them. She frantically scurries over to us, her husband on her trail, with stress and worry spread over her face like a rash.
Even though the distance is short, she’s nearly out of breath when she makes it to me. “Please … we need to talk.”
I bite the side of my lip to inhale the words I want to scream in her face. “Not right now. There’s nothing I have to say to you.”Other than you and your family can step the fuck out of my face.
Missy’s mom, Janice, has always been an honest and generous lady, a stay-at-home mother with the full-time job of organizing charity fundraisers. She had my full respect until she defended the woman who’d murdered my child … her grandchild.
“Five minutes,please.That’s all I’m asking for. Don’t you think we at least deserve that?” she begs.
I toss my bag on the floor in frustration and rub at my temples before replying, “You aren’t entitled to shit. When you stop sticking up and fighting for the woman who killed my child, that’s when you’lldeservemy time. I don’t owe you orheranything. You want my time? My respect? Do the right thing and stand up for Andy. For the love you have for your grandson. Accept that she deserves punishment for what she did.”
“I can’t stop protecting my child. Nothing she does will ever change the love I have for her in my heart. I don’t look at her and see her terrible actions. I look at her and see the scared woman I raised, and I wish I had instilled more strength into her. I look at her and see my heart.”
“At least you get to see your child. That luxury got taken from me!”
This is the first time I’ve listened to Janice’s words and taken them to heart. I hear her pain. She raised a daughter who did something horrible, and she’s dealing with the guilt of that.
“Gage, let’s go, man,” Luke says, grabbing my elbow, but I pull out of his hold.
Robert is quiet as he stands next to her. A change from what I’ve experienced since the first time I met him. The loudest man in the room isn’t used to being powerless.
“She’ll never parole,” I hiss. “You’ll have to kill me before I stop fighting for my son.”
“We loved Andy just as much as you did,” Robert says.
I snatch my bag from the ground. “Fucking prove it then.”
They get my back as I follow Luke out of the airport and to his SUV.
“You’ve got to calm down, dude. You know how powerful that prick is,” he says.
Robert is the mayor of Chicago, and his family litters the political scene.
“He could be the president of the fucking United States, and I wouldn’t give a shit. I moved away from this city, so I wouldn’t have to look at them, think about them or the hell I went through here.” I look out the window. “All I do is think about what happened. How I hadn’t stopped it.”
“There was nothing you could do.”
I ball my hands into fists and hold them against my legs. “I don’t know what type of hell I’m walking into.” I stare at him with watery eyes. “Tell me what I’m walking into, man.”
“You want raw or sugarcoated?”
“Fucking hit me.”
“They’re running DNA and dental records right now.” He stares ahead. “You know, it might not be him. Maybe it’s not over yet.”
“They found the body in the same lake Missy was seen driving from. You wouldn’t have called me and put me through this hell had you not thought it was Andy. You were at the crime scene. Youknewmy son. Tell me, do you think it’s him? Tell me what you saw.”
He tips his head down and lowers his voice. “The body wasn’t … wasn’t easily identifiable. It’d been there too long, but from the size, the details, and everything else I know about the situation …” He stops to look away from me. “I’m sorry, buddy, but I think it’s him.”
“Fuck!” I open the door and release everything in my stomach in the parking garage.
“Let’s get you back to my place. I’ll talk to everyone involved and provide any information. It’ll be too hard for you. I’ve got this.”
I shut the door and use the back of my hand to wipe my mouth. “No, I’ve got this. I want to know everything, so I can make sure that bitch goes down for what she did. I won’t stop fighting for him until I’m fucking dead. She never gave me the chance to say good-bye. Now, I can.”
