Page 84 of Mending Hearts

“I know.” She stared at our hands. “I just don’t know if I can.” She didn’t look up when she said, “I need to talk to my mom.”

Walking away felt like someone had put boulders in my feet as I shuffled to the door. Laura slid me a sly smile as I went past. I had to remind myself that strangling her would be wrong.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Mia

Laura stayed by the door until it had clicked shut and Tyler was completely gone. “If you want to leave here, I can have us out and on our way in twenty minutes. I can help you escape.”

“Oh, yeah?” A bitter chuckle escaped. “And where would you be taking me? To some lawyers? For the Kenny Connors’ trial, perhaps? ’Cause I hear I’ve been summoned for a command performance.” I wasn’t dragging Tyler and Victoria into the mess my mother was creating. Not a chance.

“The only person who knows—”

“Yep. Taryn.” I shook with what I told myself was anger. “I am not testifying at the trial or anywhere else. Do you understand me? I need you to get me out of it.”

“I’ve been trying to do that.” Laura crossed her arms. “There are very few options since our primary residence is Nashville and the whole debacle is happening in Nashville.”

“So, change our primary residence. We own more than one house.”

“I would have needed to do that before they served the subpoena. It’s too late now. Trust me, I don’t want you there either,” Laura muttered. “Flee the country. That’s it. But you’d probably never be able to come back.”

Never be able to come back?Tyler. The baby. I glanced toward the bassinet. Either price was high. On one hand, I’d have to admit to the world what had happened with Kenny and how we’d handled it; and on the other, I’d have no choice, no chance at a family with Tyler.

“What will people think of me?” I twisted my hands in my lap and wished I’d let Tyler stay.

“That you were a fifteen-year-old girl led astray by, at the time, a forty-something man.” Laura sank into the nearest chair.

Led astray.She still didn’t understand. I’d admitted I hadn’t told Kenny no. At the time, that had felt like the most important part. The older I got, the more I realized what wasn’t said mattered just as much, and I’d never said yes. Of course, his hand over my mouth had prevented me from saying much of anything.

“Why don’t we go away for a few days, let the lawyers straighten things out? You’ve always wanted to go to Bali. Maybe now is the time. You’re taking a break. Why not make it a vacation? We’ll give them a chance to find a loophole.”

“You want me to go to Bali?” The words were stiff, foreign.

“Tyler can look after the baby.” Laura held my gaze. “You hid the pregnancy. Not just from me. As far as I can tell, you hid it from pretty much everyone. The Mia I know would have been shouting it from the rooftops if she was sure she wanted it, if she was sure she was making the right decision. You don’t do things you love quietly.”

I swallowed. It was eerily accurate. The baby made a noise, and I drew the bassinet closer. The right thing to do was impossible to know.

“I’m not going to Bali.” No matter what, I couldn’t take away the option of being with Victoria and Tyler, not until I was sure I didn’t want it. Right now, I wasn’t sure of much.

“Somewhere else, then? Maldives? Cape Verde? Name the place, and I’ll book the tickets.”

“I want to see the subpoena.” If Laura really understood how difficult it would be to talk about what happened in Kenny’s office, this push to escape would be loving and unexpected. Instead, it felt like she was trying to rip me from Tyler, from here, from the life I built without her.

If Tyler were in my shoes, I knew what he’d do. He wasn’t a runner. Vanishing would be off the table. Leaving wouldn’t be the right thing to do in any scenario. Of course, Tyler would have done more to stop Kenny in the first place. My mother’s affirmation that at leastwewere safe wouldn’t have been enough.

People would know I’d stood by and let more girls get hurt. I was party to other girls being manipulated, allowed them to feel worthless, less than. The realization caused my stomach to twist.

I imagined Tyler standing beside me, sliding his hand into mine. I wanted to bottle his strength and use it like an elixir for what was to come. Someone like him wanting to be with me was an inoculation against the rest of the world’s vitriol. No one else knew me like he did. If he saw value in me beyond my voice, beyond my ability to entertain a crowd, maybe it was really there.

Victoria stirred, and I laid a gentle hand on the mound of blankets. Good mothers slew beasts. Threw open the closet doors and banished the things that went bump in the night. Letting the Kenny Connors of the world win meant I was leaving them for my daughter’s generation.These things just happenwasn’t good enough anymore, should never have been okay in the first place.

“The subpoena, Mother.”

Laura rummaged around her purse and tugged a folded envelope from the depths. Lips pursed, she handed it over.

“I have to appear in four days.” A cold sweat broke out across my body as I scanned the document. “Four days! When did you get this?”

“A little while ago.” Laura shifted in her seat.

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