Chapter 29
Kiora
I HAD LANDED IN A PARALLEL dimension, the one where Mom was happy. Giddy, even.
We were at Troy’s house, and despite Mom’s announcement that she wanted to dance, she stayed on the couch with me like she was worried I’d disappear. Dylan sat in an armchair kitty corner to us and kept looking at me and grinning.
My father. He couldn’t be my father. I had lived my whole life thinking Billy was my father, and now it was this guy? What the hell?
Mom was telling me all about her daring escape, which included her driving a car at twenty miles an hour and being terrified of crashing it because she couldn’t remember how to drive.
“Why haven’t you ever told me you were half selkie?” I interrupted her.
“I’m not half selkie. I’m all selkie.”
But I was a mermaid, too. I looked at Dylan. Right. He was a merman. So, that tracked. Waves, I needed to get out of here just so I could think. I couldn’t think with everyone here and Mom throwing more and more stories at me.
“I need to use the restroom,” I said and got up.
Troy stood up as well. “I’ll show you the way.”
Of course, they wouldn’t let me go alone. I might actually escape if they did, especially now that I wasn’t stuck on the mountain.
Troy led me upstairs and showed me to the restroom, but instead of letting me be, he squeezed my hand and stopped me.
“You okay? That’s a lot to take in.”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
His searching eyes stayed on me for a long moment, like he could see into my soul, like he could hear the thoughts racing through my mind. Pff, racing, more like tripping over each other.
Finally, he released my hand, and I was able to retreat into the bathroom. I could get a moment to myself, even if I couldn’t stay here for too long.
My eyes scanned the walls automatically. It was a habit at this point to always look for escape routes. Sure enough, there was a small window that I’d fit through, if I had to make a run for it.
Did I have to, though?
My body still buzzed with that restless energy that kept telling me to go for it, to open that window and slip away. Kitty lay lazily on her side, perfectly content with the situation. Of course, she was—Mom was here.
Mom was here, and Billy was dead. She had killed him. My mild-mannered, meek mother who was afraid to leave the house had killed someone.
No, not afraid. She hadn’t been able to leave. It had been a physical impossibility to her.
And then there was Dylan. I didn’t know what to make of him. He hadn’t said much, letting Mom have the stage, but I could tell he wanted to.
For a moment, I imagined Dad...Billy... in his shoes. How would he behave if he had met his adult kid for the first time?
He wouldn’t have stayed in the background, that’s for sure. If he felt like talking to his kid, he would’ve pushed everyone aside and talked. If he didn’t want to talk, then he would’ve made sure everyone knew just how much he didn’t want to talk.
I looked like Dylan. My knee-jerk reaction was to deny that my life had been a lie, but Dylan had my face, only older and more masculine. Well, more like I had his face. Whatever.
I had never looked like Billy.
It’s not like I hadn’t noticed that I looked nothing like him. In fact, I loved it most about my appearance, but I had assumed I must’ve gotten my looks from my grandparents or something.
Again, my eyes found that window, but instead of running, I splashed cold water on my face and took deep breaths.
The soap was shaped like a shell. The cup with Troy’s toothbrush had the little mermaid on it. I half-expected the toothpaste to be mermaid-themed, but it the same brand as the one I used. So, he liked natural toothpaste.
Why the hell was I thinking about his preference for toothpaste? I had more pressing issues, like the fact that my life had been a lie.
Mom was allowed to have her sealskin. She felt comfortable telling Dylan what she wanted, and he listened. So, he couldn’t be that bad. Certainly not as bad as...Billy.
How long would it take me to get used to the idea that Billy wasn’t my father?
And how long could I sit in the bathroom before they started beating on the door? I must’ve been here for at least five minutes already.
I washed my hands even though I hadn’t actually done anything other than hiding. Force of habit and all that. I just couldn’t leave the bathroom without washing my hands first.
When I returned to the living room, I found Mom and Dylan on the couch, hugging, but as soon as they saw me, Dylan moved back to the armchair, freeing the spot next to Mom, so I could take it. Yeah, Billy never would’ve done that.
As soon as I sat down, Mom gave me another bone-crushing hug. I returned it. These last six years, she had been the only one I had regretted leaving behind. I just hadn’t seen a way for the two of us to leave together, considering she had been stuck in the house.
“I missed you, too,” I whispered as if saying it any louder than that would bring back the ghosts from the past that had kept us apart.
“Sorry.” Mom released me. “I know I need to give you time to breathe, but it’s been six years. When we didn’t find you on that boat, I didn’t know what to think.”
“What boat?” I asked.
“I didn’t tell you about that yet? When we found out what Billy was planning, we went to rescue you. The traffickers were transporting all the supernaturals they snagged on the yacht. Long story short, you weren’t on it, and your father almost got himself killed.” She waved at Dylan. “Your real father, I mean. Would you rather I call him Dylan? I know it’s a lot to process right now.”
I nodded absentmindedly, my mind stuck on the part where they went to rescue me. They had been on that yacht.
After I had run away, I had seen on the news that a bunch of traffickers had been caught and their victims rescued, and I had wondered if they had been the same traffickers Billy had tried selling me to, but never in a million years would I have thought Mom was part of the rescue mission.
“When you say we, who is we?” I asked because I needed to know if Dylan was there, too. Well, if he almost got killed in the process, then he must’ve been.
The wound Billy had left when I had realized my own father had wanted to sell me was deep, and even six years later, it festered. But if he weren’t my father...And Dylan was...
“Dylan, Troy, and I,” Mom answered.
Troy had been there, too? And Dylan—my biological father.
“Are you two together?” I asked, gesturing between Mom and Dylan.
“Sweetie, we’re married. I mean, we got married before I got kidnapped, but Dylan never found anyone else, even though I was gone for like seventeen years. “
“No one else could compare,” Dylan said, and there was so much love in his eyes when he looked at Mom. Billy had never looked at her that way.
Troy came into the house. I hadn’t even realized he had been gone until now, but the two containers in his hands explained his absence. He had gone out to get food.
“Tea, coffee? Anything else?” Troy asked as he placed the boxes on the coffee table and opened them.
I peeked into the first box to find an apple pie, then into the second to find something baked. I couldn’t tell what it was, though.
“Oh, apple charlotte,” Mom said when she saw the contents of the second box. “You’ll like it.”
So, that’s what it looked like.
“Coffee,” I answered Troy’s question.
Mom and Dylan opted for coffee, too, although they probably did it for normal reasons, like the taste or whatever. I chose coffee because I could feel my energy draining. Maybe it was a good thing my truck got decapitated. I’d crash it with the way I kept getting sleepy.