Chapter 30
The door panel buzzes. Hopefully not more flowers.
The small video screen fills with Clarke. “Morning, Ms. Callahan. Your mother is waiting in the lobby. There’s a note here that you requested all visitors be checked before letting them upstairs, so I’m just double checking. Should I send her up?”
I look over at Sinner and Colt. Sinner shakes his head.
“Can I talk to her for a second?”
“Of course,” Clarke says with a smile before Mom’s face replaces his.
“Honey? Why can’t I just go upstairs?”
“With everything that happened, it just seemed safer. I haven’t given them an approved guest list yet.”
“Like she’d be on it,” Colt mutters under his breath.
Mom frowns. “Well, I wanted to talk to you. Things ended badly yesterday. If you’re feeling difficult enough that you won’t let your own mother in, then at least meet me down here so we can talk.”
“Can’t it wait?” I’m still reeling from finding out about Axel. I’m not sure I can talk to her without losing it.
She’s not used to me pushing back and it shows. “What am I supposed to do, drive home again because you can’t be bothered to take the elevator and have a conversation like an adult? And you wonder why you need me to make your decisions.”
“Fine. I’ll come down and meet you there. We can talk in the atrium.” I end the call before she can respond.
“Don’t go down there,” Sinner says. “It’s not going to do anything good.”
“I know, but I just want Mom out of here so we can go talk to Axel. The last thing I need is for her to freak out and start causing a scene. I’ll give her five minutes.”
Colt crosses his arms in front of his chest. “One of us is going with you.”
“I won’t even leave the building.”
“Sorry, I’m on his side,” Sinner says with a shrug. “We don’t know what made your brother cut his own afterlife short, but we’re not taking chances.”
Colt ends up being the one to go downstairs with me.
I don’t want to see her, but I do want to hear what she has to say.
Or maybe it’s more that I want to hear what she thinks is so important to tell me after the disaster that was our last meeting.
I don’t understand why she thought that was a good moment to spring her boyfriend on me.
“She’s waiting in the atrium,” Clarke tells me when we walk into the lobby. “Seemed pretty upset. I hope everything’s okay.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. We had an argument.”
He nods. “Family’s important.”
Yeah, something like that. I nod and smile, not wanting to say what I really think about family right now.
“Can you wait here?” I ask Colt. “Give me five minutes, okay? We can’t go anywhere.”
He frowns. “That’s what we thought yesterday.”
“And you were there yesterday, and I got home safe and sound.” I stretch up on my toes and kiss him. “Five minutes.”
“Five and I’m coming in.”
I stick out my tongue. “Yes, Daddy.”
That earns me a look. I’m not sure if it’s a good look, a bad look, or an intrigued look, but definitely a look.
The building has a central courtyard, glassed over several floors above the garden level.
It’s one of those beautiful little spaces that people like looking at but never really use.
There are a couple of palm trees, a tiny looping path, and a lot of greenery and flowers.
In one corner, there are two marble benches next to a little fountain. Mom is waiting on one of them.
“Hi.” I sit down next to her. “So what was so important that you had to come out here and tell me without calling first?”
“Honestly Quinn, do you have to read the worst into every single thing I do? It makes me so sad to know that I poured the best years of my life into you and all I get is complaints. Maybe one day you’ll have a child and realize what a thankless job it is.”
I stand up. “Well, that was fun. Thanks for coming by. Let’s never do this again.”
“Sit. Down.” Her expression hardens as I watch, what little hint of softness there was replaced by something meaner. “Honestly, Quinn, at this point I wonder what the point is.”
I blink. “Excuse me?”
“Your father was a disgusting mistake, but for years I thought that at least I got you out of it. You were a clingy, needy little thing, but pretty. You take after me like that. It’s just too bad you lack ambition.
We could be anywhere else by now if you just listened to me.
I sacrificed everything to make you successful, letting you hold me back because I thought you could amount to something. And now you’re throwing it all away.”
My heart is racing a mile a minute. There’s static in my ears.
I’m used to a lot of things from my mother, but her saying all the quiet parts out loud isn’t one of them.
She’s left me with none of the lies I usually tell myself and I don’t know how to respond.
“I guess you’ve given up on me now that you have Romero.
He seems to have enough money to keep you happy,” I say bitterly.
“You know, it’s funny you should say that. After lunch yesterday, I suddenly realized something, and it gave me the motivation to finally move on.” She smiles sweetly, but they say poison often tastes sweet.
A door opens somewhere, followed by footsteps.
I don’t have any desire to have this conversation in front of other people.
Or at all really. “I don’t know what your point in coming here was, other than to insult me, but I’m going back upstairs.
I’ll talk to Roger and see if we can maybe get in touch with a lawyer or something to make this as painless as possible. ”
That’s such a joke I’m surprised neither of us laughs.
I turn back towards the lobby where Colt’s waiting. The only good thing I can say about what’s happening is that for once I’m not alone with what I’m going through. I’ve only just turned my back on Mom when she shoves me hard from behind.
“What the hell?” I stagger forwards, trying to catch myself before I go right on my face. Someone catches me. “Thanks, I—” I find myself staring up at a man in a ski mask.
Oh no.
“Co—” My scream is cut off by a hand over my mouth.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the guy snarls. “Nobody’s coming to your rescue this time, bitch.”
This time?
I kick and struggle, but he’s way too strong for me.
Another man shows up to help, dragging me towards a door I’ve never noticed before.
It’s painted green to blend in with the gardens, and opens into a hall that leads directly to a loading dock.
I try to bite the hand over my mouth, but he’s wearing a glove.
All it gets me is an ugly laugh and the hand fitting itself even harder over my face.
I can barely draw enough breath to gurgle around it.
Outside, backed right up to the front door is a van. The one from Brentport?
They drag me into the back, taping my mouth and covering my head so I can’t tell what’s going on. The last thing I see is Mom climbing in after us, followed by the slam of the back door. The van shakes as the driver pulls us out onto the street.
For everything she’s done, I never expected her to straight out betray me like this.
And I don’t even know why.