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"Who are you?" Dani asked.
"I'm Tom Wells. I live up the street. Your mother and I are…friends." He paused slightly before the word friends.
"You live on this block?" I asked. "Did you see what happened yesterday?"
"No. I wasn't home, but I heard about it from the neighbors. Everyone is really shaken. This is a safe area. We don't have problems like that here. It's just terrible. Can you tell me how your mother is doing?"
"She's hanging in there," I replied. "But her condition is very serious."
"She'll recover, won't she?"
"We hope so. How long have you known my mother?" I asked.
"About two years." He licked his lips. "We had a relationship, but that ended a while ago."
"Why?" Dani asked. "And what do you mean by relationship? Were you sleeping together?"
I gasped at her directness. Tom looked shocked, too.
He cleared his throat and said, "That's between your mother and me. I'll let you go. Please give her my best wishes."
Tom handed me the vase, then walked away. I watched him until he walked up the steps to the house on the corner.
Then I turned to Dani. "I can't believe you asked him if he was sleeping with Mom."
"Well, he didn't say no."
That was true. I frowned. "I met a man at her school who said they were dating. Maybe that's why she broke up with Tom."
"She certainly seems to be popular," Dani said sharply. "I guess she hasn't been living a lonely life away from us."
I understood her resentful tone because everything about my mom's current life annoyed me, too. "It's hard to hear people say how much they like her, how caring she is, how supportive… I keep thinking back to how devastated we were when she died, how alone we felt. And Dad retreated into a world of sadness."
"Maybe she cheated on Dad. She was unhappy in her marriage, and she wanted to get out. She made it look like she died in the hurricane, but it could have all been a ruse for her to leave."
"But why wouldn't she have just left?" I challenged. "She didn't need to pretend to be dead. There has to be more, Dani."
"You're right, and she wasn't scared of Dad. There must be another reason."
"That's what I need to figure out." I paused. "I should put these flowers in the house. Are you leaving now, or do you want to come in?"
"I'll come in for a second."
I took out the keys as I approached the door, then stopped so abruptly Dani ran into me.
"What are you doing?" Dani demanded.
"The door is open. I locked it when we left." I gave her a panicked look.
"I'm calling the police," Dani said. "Let's go back to the sidewalk."
I put the flowers down on the porch and followed her down the steps as she spoke to the dispatcher. But standing on the sidewalk didn't make me feel safer. This was where my mother had been shot. As I turned my head away from the stain of blood, I saw a motorcycle racing down the street. It made a quick turn into the driveway, and I jumped back in alarm.
"What the hell?" Dani said.
The man took off his helmet, his longish brown hair falling over his eyes before he pushed the strands away. I let out a breath. "It's okay," I told Dani. "It's Kade."
"What's going on?" Kade asked, as he strode toward us. His gaze moved from me to Dani. "This must be your sister."
