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“How—how dare you?” I shove his chest, and he falls back into the pew, letting out a low laugh. Heat rises to my cheeks when I shove my dress down, covering my thighs as I get to my feet.
“You’re the one opening your legs for everyone,” he muses, snatching the Bible from the floor. “It’s a valid question.”
My mouth opens and shuts as rage rolls through me. “You’re a dick,” I snarl, and he laughs again, the sarcastic sound grating down my nerves.
It’s almost worse than if he’s physically hit me.
“I am what you ride, little sister,” he throws back in a mocking voice.
I turn away from him, my dress billowing out around me as I storm through the church, the scent of burning Bible pages filling the air once more.
“Make sure to wrap it before you hop on. Don’t want to spread diseases. Who knows what Daddy has these days,” he taunts.
I throw my middle finger over my shoulder, and he lets out a roar of laughter, this one less sarcastic and more real, but just as dark.
Despite the hot day, goosebumps ripple over my skin when I step into the blinding sunlight. The echoes of his soul-deep laughter and burning papers chase me home, mocking me the entire way.
I’m so fucked.
My son is back.
The words have echoed in my mind all day, over and over, like a taunting mantra. He’s back, and he knows. He knows about Eve, and I’m terrified of what he’ll do with that information.
He holds the key to our lives. His knowledge threatens to shake our entire foundation, everything I’ve worked so hard for. Everything I’ve built. But with one word, one exaggerated statement, he can send it all up in flames.
I don’t know if he’s here for money, for revenge, or just because he wants to be a terror in our lives. I don’t know what he wants from me. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what he’s thinking, what his motivations are.
I parked my truck five minutes ago, but I haven’t been able to force myself to get out yet. My hand is still wrapped around the door handle as I stare up at the house that has looked like so many different things to me over the years.
A fresh start. A new family. The end of a dream. And then another. The start of something good.
And now…
Now it looks like a deathknell.
The upper floor is dark, but the bottom isn’t. The kitchen light is on and I can see Eve’s shadow flitting around like it always does. That sight alone has something in my chest settling.
But then the realization that she might not be alone has my spine snapping straight once more.
Fuck.
Is she even safe with him? I don’t know who he is anymore.
Maybe I never did.
With a steadying breath, I force my body to move. I jump from my truck, letting the door close softly behind me. My fingers strangle my keys, but the sharp bite of pain keeps me breathing.
I take a few long strides up the dirt driveway to the porch steps, and that’s where I pause again. I can’t go in there, not with him here. Not with the boy I raised and watched run away from his family, turning his back on us. He broke my trust, again and again. He shattered our lives with reckless choices, and then he broke Eve.
He might’ve pretended to hate her, but I saw the way he looked at her, the way she watched him. They had a secret life, away from Jane and me, and a part of me was always envious. Not of my son or their friendship, just that Eve was able to get through to him when I never could. I wanted that. I wanted to know that when I told him something, he’d listen to me the same way he’d listened to her.
But he never did.
I thought she’d finally changed him. Brought him out of his shell, and made him see what was right in front of him all along. The endless possibilities here, the life we could’ve all had. The family.
I thought she’d fixed the broken child I’d once failed to heal.
I thought things were better.
