Chapter Nineteen #4
“Silenced him a day after some woman who attacked and tried to kill you was arrested for their crime? And hang on,” he cried. “When did you decide Mrs. Finley was innocent?”
“I knew ten minutes into our conversation.”
I told him why—explaining how she didn’t know Mrs. Prado was dead until I told her, and she wouldn’t have done a thing that would’ve taken her away from Colin.
“It makes sense,” he gave in. “But it doesn’t make sense that after getting away with two murders because someone else confessed to them, he’d kill someone else in the same way and draw the police’s attention again.
Why didn’t he cut Layton’s brakes or something?
Make it look like an unrelated accident— And what the fuck am I saying?
” Alex bolted up, tossing his head. “I’m talking about someone I knew.
A real person with a real family—not a character in a game of Clue.
“Sue, I’m sorry, but this has to stop. I know she was your mother and that you cared about Mrs. Prado, but you’ve already been attacked once.
” Tender fingers stroked my neck. “The detectives have guns, training, and partners for a reason—because this is dangerous. Did you even consider for a second what you would’ve done if the person who stabbed Mr. C was standing right next to him when you opened the door!
“I can’t— I don’t even—” He hugged me, crushing me to his chest. “I wasn’t even fucking here!” he burst out, surprising me. “This could’ve been so bad, and where was I? Not where I was supposed to be—with you and our daughter.
“Promise me.” He pulled back, boring into me. “Promise me you’re done playing sleuth, because I promise you we’ll have a new security system installed around this entire place by this time tomorrow.”
“That’s good. We need one,” I said softly.
“But I can’t promise I’ll stop looking for the monster who killed my mother.
I can’t, Alex. Right now the cops are two for two with putting the wrong person in jail for the crime, and three for three with how many innocent people this shitbag has murdered while they’re faffing around getting everything wrong.
At this rate, a unicorn will find Atlantis before they find Omma’s killer! ”
The sad look he gave me made my heart shrivel that much smaller.
“Baby, why is this so important to you? I know in the last few weeks of her life you two made peace, but you hated her.” The words slapped me in the face.
“You despised your mother with every fiber of your being, and going by the shouting match you two had shortly before she took a turn for the worst, the feeling was mutual.
“She was one hundred percent lucid and knowing when she called you filth. A worthless slut and her greatest shame. She said she never even wanted you,” he rasped.
“That your dad threatened to leave her for a woman who would give him children, so she gave in and it was the biggest mistake of her life.
“Sue.” Alex cupped my cheek, sympathy etched into his face.
“I heard her say that every day she was stuck with you was a waste of her time, her money, and her life.
That she wished she caved in your skull and tossed you off the cliffs!
Your own mother told you to your face that she wished she violently murdered you and disposed of your body.
“And then if that wasn’t enough of a blow, she finished off by saying, ‘I may not ever again know the peace of living in a world without you in it, but I will know the satisfaction of passing on and leaving you with nothing.’” He blew a hard breath.
“And that was just what she said. The stuff you screamed back at her almost made me run in and pull you apart. I thought you were going to kill each other.”
Alex held me close. “I know you’re turning over a new leaf, and I love that, but you don’t have to take it this far.
It doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad daughter if you choose to not risk your life chasing down a psychopath to get justice for a woman you hated and who hated you.
Let the police do their job,” he whispered.
“Because you have an even more important one—to be the mother you deserved to the most perfect little girl in the world.
“Lily can’t lose you too.” His soft, full lips teased my trembling mouth. “I can’t lose you.”
So many horrifying and sweet truths demanding an answer, but I couldn’t if I tried.
I had no idea that Sue and Omma had such a vicious fight. Omma’s mental state had deteriorated by the time I stepped back into her life, but the few times she did mention Sue, she didn’t bring up her name in anger or disgust.
Had Omma really forgotten saying those things to her child, or had their relationship gotten so toxic over the last decade, it was just another day for Omma—not worth remembering.
But even if Sue and Omma did hate each other in the end, what did that change for me? There were some things that a person just needed to do, and I needed to see the person who came into my home and made it an unsafe and frightening place again—punished.
My mother’s killer couldn’t get away with it. They simply couldn’t.
“You won’t lose me.” I hugged him back just as tightly. “I finally have a fresh start—a new life. No one is going to take that away from me.
“Not this time.”