Road to Redemption (Valemont Violence #3)

1. Kiera

KIERA

She’s alive.

I would’ve stood in that rain all day, shock taking over my entire being as I stared at the gray-haired woman standing at the top of the cabin’s steps.

It had to be Vivienne. That voice…

I’d heard that voice in my dreams. And now she was standing in front of me, over a decade after her death.

A part of me was convinced that she was a ghost. Except, of course, for the obvious signs of aging. The gray hair was just the beginning. Wrinkles had formed across her hardened face, a far cry from the woman whose skincare routine took nearly an hour to complete each night.

I could still picture her hands as she rubbed her lotion in — the sway of her silk bathrobe.

As she gripped the trigger of the shotgun, Vivienne’s toned arms tensed.

She hardly resembled the bougie lawyer I remembered.

Mrs. Dumont was something else now. Battle tested.

Ripping myself from my thoughts, my eyes met the gun’s barrel. My instinct was to tackle this unfamiliar woman to the ground, just to take Dom out of danger.

To my side, Dom stood straighter — like the pointed weapon meant nothing to her. Her brow was furrowed so tightly I thought she might create a divot in her skull. Behind us, Leo and Spencer’s gazes flicked between us all, trying to catch up.

Lady stayed at my heels, her gaze fixed on the gun-wielding woman.

I could tell Leo was trying to figure out if she could wrestle the gun out of the older woman’s hands before taking a bullet.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all some elaborate trap.

Vivienne is dead.

Dom had been motherless for over a decade. Viv would never have left her, not like that. It was impossible to believe that she would have chosen to leave Dom with a monster like Isaac.

Only when Vivienne lowered the shotgun, leaning it against the porch posts, did I start to believe it was really her.

She nearly tumbled down the steps, taking all of them in one leap as she rushed down to her daughter. Leo’s head swiveled to me, unsure what to do.

Before we could make up our minds, Vivienne was wrapping her arms around her child. Dom hardly moved as the muscular arms pulled her closer.

Dom took a deep breath, suddenly recognizing the woman in front of her. Maybe it was instinct, Vivienne’s voice, or the way she smelled, but Dom’s body eased.

“Mom.” Dom hardly spoke, more air than word, as she lifted her arms to the hug.

Only when Dom said it again, this time certain, did Leo and Spencer relax. Confusion washed over their faces as they watched the reunion.

Pulling away from Dom, Vivienne cupped her daughter’s face. “My baby. You’re really here.” And then her eyes fell to me, a smile forming at the corners of her lips. “And so are you.”

Blinking quickly, Dom shook her head. “You. They sent us to find you. How…?”

Vivienne’s eyes scanned Dom’s face, taking in the adult woman before her. “We have some catching up to do, my girl.”