It scares the hell out of me.
“Afraid not,” she says, crossing her arms. “The last time I saw you, you were so tiny. So perfect. We’d called you Eden, but—”
“Stop.” My mind is a blur, and my heart is beating so hard, I can’t even hear myself. I gawk at her, trying to process her presence and her words. “You’re lying,” I snap.
“Why?” she murmurs, raising her hands. “Why would I lie about something like that?”
“I-I don’t know.” I’m so confused, I feel panic begin to rise within my chest. “I just want to get my mom and get her to a hospital. Please, let me take Jenn—”
“Her name isn’t fucking Jenn, it’s Alexandra. Alexandra Mallory.” Nora turns a look of clear disgust toward Jenn. “And she’s not your mother, she’s your aunt. My baby sister, though you wouldn’t think it by looking at her.”
I don’t know what to do with any of the words she’s speaking right now. Everything she’s saying is crazy. And yet … it makes sense. She looks so much like Jenn—Alexandra?—that it’s terrifying. “If you’re my mom, where’ve you been?”
“Dead,” she says with a shrug. “Or at least presumed dead. I almost did die, too. I almost got caught in that fire that killed my family sixteen years ago. The fire I thought had killed you and Alex.”
“Presumed?” I’m desperate to poke holes in her story wherever I can. “Why not let everyone know you’d survived.”
Nora sighs and shakes her head. “It was too dangerous. Despite what official records might say, it wasn’t an accident. Someone torched the place intentionally.” Her voice cracks slightly at the end of her words, and her eyes shadow with such a raw sorrow, I actually feel it in my own heart.
“What…what happened?” I ask because I’m helpless not to. A part of me really wants to know what she’ll say next.
Nora licks her lips and appears momentarily hesitant.
At length, though, she says, “It happened the weekend I was supposed to finally marry Benjamin. Your dad. My family and Alex’s best friend were gathered at the beach house we’d rented near the venue, and it caught fire the night before the wedding.”
“But somehow you escaped?”
Her features tighten for a moment, then she slowly nods. “I’d gone out for a walk on the beach to clear my head before the fire broke out. By the time I returned, the house was already on fire, and I thought … I thought…” She trails off and swallows, turning her gaze from me as she takes a moment to collect herself. “I thought I’d lost you along with everyone else.”
My mind is still resisting her story because there’s something off about it—something that makes the tiny hairs on my arm stand at attention—but my heart, always over-eager to find affection, breaks for her.
“Then how did I survive? And how did you not figure out later that there were two bodies missing from the house?”
“Because the fire destroyed everything.” She looks down at Jenn again, her lips curling. “And because she saved you.”
“What?” I murmur, turning to gaze at the unconscious form of the woman I’ve always known to be my mother.
She saved me? The woman who never seemed to give two-shits about me growing up had saved me from a burning house?
That might be the most difficult thing to believe out of anything Nora’s said so far.
“She saved me … and then took me?”
Nora nods, making her way toward the couch. She sits next to Jenn and smooths a hand over her forehead. “When we found each other again, Alex told me what she saw the night I thought you died. Three men broke in, Eden—”
“Mallory,” I correct.
“Hmm,” is all she says before clearing her throat. “They broke in and started that fire. She hid and she got you out of the house and when she tried to get in touch with Benjamin, she found out about his car accident. Baby sister always was a goddamn conspiracy theorist, so she stole her best friend’s identity—Jennifer Ellis.”
“Her best friend?” I squeak, desperately trying to put all these pieces together. “The one you said was in the beach house for the wedding?”
“Jenn was dead. Obviously, she didn’t need it,” she says with a nonchalant shrug.
The sound that escapes my throat is raw and angry. “But what about her family? What about her—”
“The real Jenn had nobody that gave a shit about her other than my family,” Nora coldly interrupts. “The real Jennifer Ellis went to Ravenwood straight out of the foster system and had just graduated. Obviously, nobody missed her because look at what Alex did to that poor girl’s name.”
Nora snatches her hand away from Momma’s head and that look of disdain crosses her features again.
I understand that look. I’d felt it countless times toward my mother throughout my life. Whenever she’d come stumbling home, covered in filth and vomit, I’d gaze at her and wish I’d been born to someone else. Anyone else.
If what Nora’s saying is true, though, I was.
And if what she’s saying is true, Jenn’s drug abuse probably had a lot to do with seeing her whole family and best friend die in front of her.
The more and more Nora speaks, the more and more I’m inclined to believe her, as crazy as her story sounds.
“Then where’ve you been all these years?” I demand. If she didn’t know we were alive, where did she end up? Why would someone want us dead?
“It doesn’t matter where I was,” she says, waving her hand as if shooing the question away. “What matters is that I found you. If it hadn’t been for Alex making national news with her little explosion last year, I’d have never known my sweet baby girl was alive.”
I stare at her for a moment as her words sink in. “Wait … you’ve known I’ve been alive for over a year? An-and you’re only now approaching me?”
She purses her lips, looking a little annoyed with my question.
Her expression relaxes after a moment, however, and she answers, “Sweetheart, it was far too dangerous for us to meet face to face. I’ve done plenty to make sure you’re happy and safe, though. Don’t you worry.”
Happy and safe?
That’s an odd thing for her to say, and it does the opposite of what she’s suggested. I’m very worried now.
“What types of things have you done?” I demand.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” There’s a glint in her eyes that tells me she’s not above using nefarious means to get what she wants.
Just how far would she be willing to go, however?
“Oh, my sweet baby girl, I’ve missed you.” Nora moves towards me with her arms open, as if she’s about to hug me.
Instinctually, I throw my hands up and ward her off as I take a step back.
She freezes, her eyes flashing with irritation.
“I-I’m sorry,” I mumble, though I’m not sure what I’m apologizing for. My gut is telling me not to let her touch me. That something’s wrong.
“You won’t hug your own mother?” She doesn’t sound hurt. She sounds angry.