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"Are you expecting someone?" he asked when someone pounded on the front door.
"Nope." I laughed, wiping my wet hair out of my face. "Must be your people."
"They can wa—" he started, but another loud pounding cut him off. He growled, shut off the water, and headed towards the door with me still over his shoulder.
"What?" he growled, throwing the door open.
"Sadie?"
"Omigod," I screeched, trying to push off Jayden's shoulder. "Mom?"
seventeen
JAYDEN
Mom?
Standing in Sadie's bedroom, remembering the story Sadie told me back at my sister's house, a wave of confusion mixed with protectiveness surged through me.
"Why is she here?" I muttered, sliding my wet shorts off. "I thought you said—"
"I did," she cut me off. "He sends her once a year to try to convince me to 'tell the truth.'" She tore her wet shirt over her head. "And every year, she shows up here and tries to convince me to go to the police and fix this." My chest tightened with anger.
"Why do you let her in?"
"Because she's still my mom." She sighed, sliding a dry tee on. "And this isn't her fault. He's manipulating her too. She doesn't remember, and I guess I secretly hope that eventually, she will remember." I didn't care if it was her mother; I wasn't going to let her show up here and put Sadie through anything else. She placed her hand on the knob but stopped and twisted around. "You should probably go."
My gaze flashed up, meeting hers. "No fucking way. I'm staying."
"Sadie," her mother called from the kitchen.
"Fine," she said, pulling the door open. "But behave." She stormed out of the room and into the kitchen, where her mom still stood in the same spot we'd left her.
"Mom." She forced a smile stopping in front of her. I pressed my front into Sadie's back in a protective stance, my gaze fixed on her mom. I had no idea what to expect, but I wasn't going to let her dad use her mom to torture Sadie any more than he already had.
"I was hoping we could talk." Her gaze met mine. "Alone."
"No," I said dryly. My jaw flexed as she narrowed her eyes at me.
"I don't believe we've met." Her mother forced a smile. It wasn't a polite smile; it was the kind of smile that said you should mind your business. She was right, though. We hadn't met, and she didn't know that Sadie was my business.
"Mom, this is Jayden," Sadie said, stepping out from in front of me.
"Her boyfriend."
"Her boyfriend, huh?" Her mother's green eyes narrowed as they scanned me like she was sizing me up. "Well, I hope you'll respect that I need to speak with my daughter alone."
Something in the way her mother looked at me told me everything I needed to know about her. Sadie said she didn't remember, and maybe she didn't in the beginning, but I was almost 100 percent sure she remembered now. She was here to use the fact that she was Sadie's mother against her to manipulate Sadie into doing what she wanted. Truthfully, I would be fine with her father getting out, but he'd never take more than two steps into the free world because I would end him before I gave him a second chance to get to Sadie.
"Respect isn't my thing when it comes to someone trying to manipulate, Sadie," I said. A frown marred her mother's face.
"Jayden," Sadie scolded.
"Is that so?" Her mother said, her eyes widening in a challenging glare.
"Please, stop," Sadie shouted. "Just stop." She placed a hand on my chest, and I knew she was trying to soothe me, but I was oddly calm. I knew Sadie was hoping that her mom had come here to tell her that she remembered and was sorry for everything she'd put her through, but I could see that wasn't the case in her mother's eyes. Instead, Sadie's mother had chosen the man who'd murdered her children over her daughter, that had managed to escape.
I didn't know the whole story, but I knew enough to realize that Sadie wasn't safe alone with her mother. Sadie was so desperate to have her mother back that she couldn't even see what was right in front of her, but I did, and I would move hell and high waters before I allowed her to hurt Sadie anymore.
