“Fuck, Sofia, baby,” the middle-aged man stuttered, unable to believe his good fortune. His thick hands pawed at her waist, and a feminine giggle escaped my mother at his touch.
I cleared my throat loudly, causing Mami’s date to finally notice me.
“Lucy,” he said, the tips of his ears turning pink.
“Luz,” my mother immediately corrected him, as I smirked at him behind her back.
I might’ve understood why she was dating him, but I didn’t have to like it.
Eric took me in over her shoulder, his eyes roving up and down my body.
Gross.
“Sorry, Luz,” he said, his expression never changing. “I didn’t realize you were there. I was just about to take yourmother out.” His tongue darted out between his lips as he stared at my tits.
Crossing my arms, I refused to give him the satisfaction of my discomfort.
“Come on, Eric, we’re going to be late.” Mami tugged at his arms, and he broke eye contact with me to stare down at her.
“Of course, Sofia, let’s go,” he said with a satisfied smile, no doubt thinking he had my mother exactly where he wanted her.
As the two of them walked out of the living room and toward the front door, Mami called out to me one last time, “Love you, mija. Don’t wait up for me!”
The sun was rising by the time she returned.
Dressed in workout clothes with a small duffel bag slung over her shoulder, Mami looked like she was coming from an early morning workout instead of night out.
“You’re back late,” I said from where I sat at the breakfast table as she let herself into the house.
“Ay! Luz! You scared me,” she shouted, clutching her hand to her chest dramatically. She toed off her shoes andset her gym bag down before coming to join me in the kitchen. “I thought you would still be asleep.”
“I was worried about my mother out on a date with a known creep, forgive me for getting up to see if you had returned home safe.”
She stood on her tiptoes, reaching for the coffee on the top shelf, as she tossed her hair, tsking at me not so subtly under her breath. “I’m your mother, mija. It’s my job to worry about you.”
Mami had made my father and stepmother pay. But it hadn’t been enough to heal the wounds he’d inflicted on her.
“How was your date?” I said pointedly.
She sighed, fiddling with the moka pot. “Eric got a tad handsy.”
Mami turned to face me, and this time, I really took her in.
There were bags under her eyes, and her makeup had long since faded. But underneath the fatigue, there was a brightness in her eyes. She was brimming with energy.
“How did you do it this time?”
My father hadn’t just stolen Mami’s only child and effectively run her out of town. He’d systematically abused me and ritually murdered me over and over again, only to restart my heart.
There was no form of justice that could ever right my father’s wrongs.
“Poison hemlock. His family has a history of heart disease.”
Mami hunted men now.
Rich men. Powerful men. The kind of men who used their influence to destroy the lives of the innocent simply because they could.
Men like Dr. Eric Hauserman.