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“I’m sorry, Gia—”
“You planned a meeting with Mom and didn’t tell me?”
Maybe it would’ve been easier just to say I ran into Florence; at least it would be easier than admitting that Florence didn’t even care toaskabout Gia, never mind admitting she didn’t want to meet with her. But lying to Gia weighs heavily on me, and there’s a fine line between telling the truth and hurting her feelings.
“She left me a note and asked to meet me. I didn’t tell you because I was worried about her intentions, and I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. And it turns out I was right; she was only here becau—”
“Youknewhow much I was missing Mom, and you didn’t even tell me she was here!” She cuts me off, not wanting to hear it. “If I had the chance to justtalkto her, maybe she would’ve . . .”
Taken us back? Explained why she left? Wanted to be in our lives? I don’t know where Gia’s train of thought is going, but I can guarantee that no matter what Gia would’ve said to Florence, itwouldn’thave made her do anything that Gia’s thinking.
Delicately, I say, “I was trying to protect you from getting hurt.”
Gia’s face scrunches up. “Well, you failed, because I am hurt.”
She storms off without giving me the chance to explain just as thunder rumbles. Brianna looks at me for a moment before chasing after Gia, exclaiming, “Wait!
Were youreallynot going to tell me your mom is Florence Bowen? Everyone is going to lose their shit when they find out! I’m pretty sure Chris has a poster of her in a bikini taped to his ceiling.”
I’m frozen in the middle of the parking lot, watching the two of them cross the street. I stand there long enough to lose sight of them as they head to the mall entrance, long enough to realize it might not rain and is just thundering, long enough to realize I have no idea how to make any of this better.
I have to figure out how to explain that it’s better that Gia didn’t come see Mom. She would’ve gotten her hopes up only to be crushed when she realized Florence still wants nothing to do with us. Maybe I should’ve just told her and let her come see for herself; maybe I can’t protect Gia from everything, and maybe it would’ve been for the best to give her a healthy dose of reality. But she was just getting back on track, and now who knows if this will derail her.
A loud honk scares me out of my trance, and I look over at the headlights of a car I’m blocking, half expecting it to be Jason. But it’s not.
I sigh, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration as the driver’s door opens and he steps out in full uniform.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Officer Liu, the last fucking person on Earth I want to see right now, asks, closing the police car door behind him. “You’ve been standing there in the middle of the street staring at nothing for at least”—he makes a show of checking his watch—“five minutes. That’s putting yourself and others at risk and being a public nuisance. Maybe I should bring you to the station for a drug test.”
I do not have time for Officer Liu and his stupid bullying tactics, but I can’t help being frustrated that he can do this all he wants, and I can’t do anything to stop it. I step away from him and onto the sidewalk in front of the shops.
“I don’t need a drug test, and I wasn’t blocking any traffic,” I say, keeping my tone even. I really shouldn’t make standing in the middle of the road a habit, but we’re in a mostly empty parking lot, and the only car’s path I happened to be blocking washis, and that’s because he’s stalking me.
“Maybe I should take you in anyway,” he challenges, and I take another step away.
“You can’t do that.” I don’t know if he can or not, but that sounds like something Jason would tell me to say.
He purses his lips and makes a face like he’s trying to decide whether he can get away with hauling me off or not. I take another step away from him.
He must decide it’s not worth whatever trouble he might get in because he crosses his arms and leans a hip against his still-running car. Sure, it’s okay whenheblocks traffic with his whole car, but I’m a public nuisance.
“A little bird told me that your mom’s in town,” he states, clearly just as obsessed with her as he is with me.
I shrug. “It’s a free country. She can go wherever she wants.”
He laughs and looks in the direction her car went, as if he can still see it driving down Fifth Street. Maybe I should hide in the coffee shop until Officer Liu grows tired of me and leaves.
“Maybe not,” he says in answer to me. “I’m pretty sure she’s got some Class C traffic violations she’s never paid.”
After everything that happened today, I’m too mentally exhausted to think better of it before I reply, “It’s weird and creepy that you remember my mother’s traffic violations after almost two decades. Just as weird and creepy as you stalking me.”
Thunder rumbles overhead as Officer Liu’s eyes darken, and I take another step back. Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t be poking the proverbial bear.
“It’s been too many days since Lily went missing,” he starts, following my retreat with his own menacing prowl. “Every day that passes is another day that makes me feel more desperate, that pushes me toward the edge.
We have no new leads, and every clue we find and person we talk to, it all point us to the only piece of the puzzle that makes sense, which isyou. So me beingcreepywill be the least of your worries the longer we go without finding her, the longeryoucontinue pissing me off by being uncooperative.”
That was a thinly veiled threat if I’ve ever heard one, and it works. I don’t know what he’s capable of or what he’s willing to do past what he’s already been doing, but that crazed look in his eyes leads me to believe he truly is getting desperate, and I’m scared.
