Page 65 of Keys

“Never apologize to me. I should have helped you better back when you first came to blackmail your father.” I chuckled at that but didn’t get to respond before he continued. “You brought my niece and nephew back to me. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

There was a part of me that wanted to lecture the asshole about how his niece and nephew might not have been missing from his life if he hadn’t been working for evil incarnate, but what good would it do now? He already realized that when he put two-and-two together.

“Sarah,” a familiar woman’s voice called out to me. I turned to see my mother’s therapist standing there with a small smile on her face.

“Yeah?”

“I hoped it would be possible for me to come along when you take your mom back to her house. I think it might be necessary.”

“Do what you want. You’re here for her, not me.”

“I also think you might benefit from-”

I cut her off there. “Listen, don’t presume to tell me what I might benefit from. If I need to go to a therapist, it won’t be one who already has her mind clouded over by whatever bullshit my mother’s been feeding her all these years to try to ease her own conscience.”

A slight gasp alerted me to the fact that my mother had walked out of the room where they had been meeting just in time to hear my statement. Did it make me feel bad? Not really. Sure, my mom had been through a lot, but the woman had never asked for help. Even after she had me, she never tried to get help, and therefore doomed me to a possible fate similar to her own.

She’s just lucky that my father didn’t have me taken from her sooner. Apparently, that had been his plan to dispose of me eventually. Thankfully, I was one step ahead of their bullshit and had my proof of existence and my father’s shady second life to keep me safe.

“Let’s get you back to your husband. He’s been waiting on us to find you.” I turned my back on both of them and started heading out, but before I could get to the door and safely away from my mother, she spoke.

“I did the best I could for you, Sarah. That includes letting you go when you were smart enough to beat him at his game. Something I never was.”

What could I say? I wasn’t about to have an argument with my mother about her questionable life choices while everyone and their therapist stood around watching. Instead, I gave a silent chin tip and turned to walk away again. My mother could claim, in front of all these people, that she “let me go” but we both knew the truth. She was so caught up in the fucked-up relationship she had with my father that she didn’t just “let me go” she insisted I pack my bags, and told me never to come back.

Chapter 25

I ached to take Keys back into my arms, to get her out of there, take her home and hide her away from all the damage that the past couple of days had done to her. Hell, the damage that a lifetime with her family had done. Instead, I stayed by her side as we took her mother back to her home.

We sat in the van outside of her childhood home as Keys watched her mother get out of her therapist’s car. June wanted to ride separately so that she could get some more time in with the woman before they got to the house.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked her as she turned trepidatious eyes on me. There was a sheen of wetness there that Keys didn’t want me to see. The slight duck of her head and slump of shoulders accompanied a lengthy sigh, almost as if she was trying to relieve the weight that brought her down.

“I don’t know. It’s a lot to soak in. My dad has always been the villain of my story.” A single tear tracked down her cheek as her eyes lifted again to meet my own. I leaned over and swiped the tear away, pulling her toward me so I could offer the support of my body. “My mom has always been just a complacent, woman who was too in love to help herself. What we learned…”

Keys hesitated before continuing. “It’s so much. She was a victim this whole time, and she kept me in that prison with her knowingly. I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“I’m not by any means defending the woman, but you have to remember, she was in a prison. Maybe, she just did the best she could with you under the circumstances.”

“Why have me at all though?” She laughed humorlessly. “It’s not like the asshole would have objected to his little toy getting rid of a problem for him.”

“Maybe, that’s the one selfish thing your mom did. She needed someone who really loved her, because otherwise what was the point?”

A light seemed to switch on somewhere in the desolate depths of her eyes. “Thank you.” The words were a whisper on her lips as I leaned in and kissed the top of her head. Then I sheered up her strength by squeezing her shoulders tight and pulling her body to mine. “Take what you need from me to get you through this.” I tipped my chin toward the front door where her mother now stood, eyeing the vehicle we were in warily.

“Let’s go finish this.” Keys pulled back enough to lean in and place a quick brush of her kips against my cheek. “Wallace?” My name was a question and all I could do was hum out a response as I waited for more from her. “I don’t think I could have done this with anyone else by my side. Thank you for being here.”

“Don’t ever thank me for something that I have no control over,” I insisted as she stared at me uncertainly.

“What does that mean?”

“My gorgeous little keyboard warrior, I am compelled to be wherever you are, so I don’t get a choice in that. It’s been that way from the start, even when you tried to tell me that we would never be anything more than a fuck.”

Keys sniffled and attempted to turn away, her coppery hair slipping across her shoulder as she did. “Come on, let’s get this done so you can have a little closure and get back to figuring out the meaning of life one illegal hack at a time.”

She giggled, which was exactly the response I was looking for before I turned and let myself out of the van, not giving her a chance to postpone this any longer. Keys followed suit and met me at the front of the van where she shocked the absolute shit out of me when she grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed like her life depended on the connection. Maybe, in some crazy way, it did.

Jack must have finally realized we were had arrived because the front door swung inward, and the man hadn’t even taken a single step before his eyes landed on those of his wife. Once they did, he was on the move and had her wrapped up in his arms as he openly sobbed in front of all of us.

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