“Thanks for saying I’m beautiful,” Violet says.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. I’m going to walk back home and then I’m going to start my attack.”
“Attack?”
Violet holds up her pinky finger.
“Oh,” I say.
“I’m going to make Liam cry.”
“Good for you.”
“And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just have Taz handle it. Taz and Les. Right?”
I offer a fake smile.
She really has no idea how dangerous they all are.
Violet and I hug.
When she starts to walk away, Taz whistles at her.
He opens his arms and nods, wanting a hug.
Violet shakes her head.
Then she blows him a kiss.
He catches the kiss… and for a split second I think he’s being romantic… until he puts his hands between his legs.
I shake my head at him.
“Where do you think I want her to kiss me?” Taz calls out.
I don’t even bother responding to him.
I enter the house and my heart instantly jumps into my throat.
The house has always been big and quiet.
That was just how I grew up.
The only people I really talked to were those taking care of the house.
The kitchen was the busiest part, but only at certain times of the day.
As I walk into the kitchen, I find my mother sitting at the counter with a glass of wine in one hand and her phone in the other.
“Mom,” I say.
She looks me. She puts the wine and the phone down.
“Jolie…”
She sucks in a shaky breath.
That’s when it hits me that she doesn’t know I’m okay. She still thinks I’m missing. Kidnapped. Whatever.
My heart sinks out of my throat and my eyes fill with tears.
The fact that she still thinks I’m kidnapped means my father didn’t come home after our confrontation.
Which means…
I run toward my mother and hug her.
She hugs me back.
We both start blubbering.
I’m trying to tell her I love her. But I can’t get the words out.
She’s trying to say something to me and I can’t figure out what it is.
“Jolie,” she whispers. “My Jolie… Jolie…”
I break away from her. “Mom… I’m fine. How are you?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “I have to be dreaming right now, right?”
“No. I’m really here.”
“Oh, I know you’re here. I’m glad you finally showed up.”
“I wanted to-”
“Your father told me everything,” she says.
Oh.
I suck in a breath and hold it.
“Everything,” she says.
“Mom… when you say everything…”
“I mean everything,” she says. “What happened to you, Jolie?”
“What happened to me?” I ask. “Forget about me. What about you? What he did to you. All these years. Lying. Cheating. Gambling. He’s in debt, Mom. He owes so much money… to people… dangerous people…”
“And you know this how?” she asks.
“I can’t tell you,” I say.
“You can’t tell me?” She laughs. “You can’t tell me…” She walks back to the counter and grabs her wine glass. “That’s where we are at? You can’t tell me? You can’t talk to me?”
“Please, just understand,” I say. “I’m finally doing what I want with my life.”
“Oh, well, good for you,” she says. “You’re doing what you want with your life. Which is, by the way, throwing it all away.”
I’m shocked. I swallow hard. “Really?”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing out there, Jolie,” she says. “You suddenly want to quit law school? You disappear… and then actually disappear for real. The fucking police were here!”
My mother’s voice echoes through the kitchen.
She shakes her head and takes another sip of wine.
I know I’m in a position where anything she says she’s probably going to be right.
But it’s not going to change me. Who I am now. What I want to do with my life.
And it’s not going to change the fact that her husband - my father - is a dirty scumbag cheater.
She turns her back to me.
I slowly catch my breath and inch toward her.
“He’s in serious trouble, Mom,” I say. “Whether you know that or not.” I swallow hard. “I actually need to know…”
“You need to know what?” she asks.
“Will you look at me?” I snap.
My mother turns her head. “Excuse me? Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“He’s in trouble,” I say again. “This isn’t legal trouble either. His master plan was to send me to law school so I could bail him out… it wouldn’t help him even if I followed through. The trouble he’s in goes way beyond the law.”
“And, again, how do you know this?”
“Just tell me whether you really knew or not about him…”
My chin quivers.
My mind is starting to realize just how serious this conversation has become.
And the fact that I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be having this conversion with my own mother.
She finishes her wine and walks around to the opposite end of the counter to get the bottle.
She pours another glass.
Then she looks at me. “Should I offer you one? I mean, you’re in control of your life, right? You just do what you want, right?”
“I’m not a child anymore,” I say. “I haven’t been for a long time.”
“And this revelation hit you… let me guess… because of a guy, right?”
“Answer my question first.”
My mother laughs. “I don’t have to tell you anything, Jolie. But I suddenly feel like you’re here not as my daughter. You’re here to threaten me. To warn me. And then I wonder just who you are right now…”
“I’m the same person,” I say. “Just able to see a little better now. I’m just hoping my mother isn’t the same as my father. Secret money. Secret plane tickets to Hawaii. To take Tanya…”
My mother’s face drops.
Then she smiles again.
She lifts her wine glass and sips it.
She puts it back down.
“Wait a second,” she says. “You’ve been missing. You were kidnapped. At least that’s what I was told. But now you’re here…”
She walks toward me and hugs me.
It’s a big hug.
I can feel her body quivering.
She’s crying.
She doesn’t want me to see her crying either.
So I hold her.
I think about what to say next.
Before I can say a word, I see movement.
And then there’s a man at the sliding glass doors.
I gasp and push my mother back.
My first instinct is to reach for a gun.
Who are you, Jolie?
I don’t have a gun though.