Page 190 of Love Me

“Kaden? I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I have loved you since the first moment I knew I would have you, but he… I don’t want to go on another meaningless vacation or shopping spree, so I don’t have to face the fact that I can’t be the mother I want to be for you.”

Now, with Grandmother making changes in the Family, my mother could take the opportunity to leave. Start a new life away from all this, yet she remains. I set my hurt aside and make another vow: to try to have a relationship with my mother. That’s why it’s imperative for me to find Felix. I need to make sure he can never cast a shadow of fear over us.

“I need to find him.”

“I don’t know where he is. Felix never talked to me about anything.”

At least she stopped crying, but she has spent years with him. She must have heard something.

I take her hands and smile encouragingly at her. “Mother, none of us is truly safe until he is taken care of.”

Her face draws in concentration. “Wait… there is a lodge in the woods. I’ve never been there. It’s about an hour’s drive away. He always said he had to go there for peace and quiet.”

My mother gives me the address, and I put it in the GPS.

“I have to go.”

“Please, take care. Felix is… he’s a bad person.”

I kiss her cheek. “He didn’t break any of us, and when he’s taken care of, we’ll prove it to ourselves, okay?”

Her face lights up and she nods.

Back on my bike, a message pops up from my wife that instantly puts a smile on my face.

Missing you. What are you doing?

It’s as if she knows I’m about to do something she won’t like, but I have to do this. We didn’t come this far for him to escape.

Just left my mother’s place.

Good, try. It wasn’t her fault.

How are you?

They’re treating me like a five-year-old. Someone save me.

I chuckle and reply. Love you. Enjoy it because afterward I am going to treat you like the woman you are.

Sounds kinky.

You have a dirty mind, and I love it.

It’s not enough for me though without hearing her voice, so I call her and she answers right away.

“I might know where Felix is.”

“I can’t stop you, right?”

“I…”

“It’s okay. Do what you have to do, but be careful.”

“I love you like a madman.”

“Quite literally, and I am loving it.” She returns my words.

A pause follows, and I say, “I’m sorry I said that, you know…”

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