Page 31 of Light

I nod for her to continue. Not sure what the story is but based on her body language whatever it is she has to say is bad.

"I used to live about two hours from here," she said, her voice low, almost like she was scared the words themselves might break her. "Life was... good. Comfortable. I had a cushy job as a secretary. A husband. A house that stayed warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We were happy, or at least we thought we were."

She sucked in a shaky breath and twisted her fingers together in her lap.

"Then Tyler came along. My sweet boy. He almost didn't make it out of the hospital. His lungs were so bad, the doctors didn’t think he'd survive the first week."

Her voice cracked, but she pushed through.

"It took everything we had to get through that. Emotionally. Financially. We barely scraped by. Every paycheck went straight into keeping Tyler alive, keeping a roof over our heads. And just when we thought maybe, maybe we could breathe again..."

She looked up at the ceiling, blinking hard as a few tears slid free.

"Thomas, my husband, he gave up. Three years ago, he ended his own life. Just like that, he was gone."

She let the words hang there, like the weight of them might crush her if she tried to catch them.

"I didn’t just lose him. Tyler lost his father. I lost... everything. Everything we built, everything we fought for, it just... crumbled. I didn’t even realize how bad things were. Thomas handled all the bills, all the money. After he was gone, I found out we were drowning. Debt collectors breathing down my neck, no credit left to max out, no family to fall back on."

Her voice got quieter, rougher.

"Then Tyler got sick again. Really sick. Needed surgery. No insurance. They wanted six thousand dollars just to get him a fighting chance."

She gave a broken laugh that sounded more like a sob.

"I didn’t have it. I didn’t have anything. So I did the only thing I thought I could do. I went to Deke."

Her head dropped back against the wall and she squeezed her eyes shut, a few more tears slipping free.

"I knew what he was. Everyone knew. Hell, he used to try and rope Thomas into his shit all the time. But I was desperate. I asked for a loan. I thought it would just be money. But he wanted more. Favors. He had me running drugs, hiding shit for him. Stuff that could have gotten me locked up for the rest of my life if I had been caught."

She wiped her cheeks roughly with the back of her hand.

"I paid him back. Every dime, with interest. Twenty-five fucking percent. As soon as I could, I packed up Tyler and got the hell out of there. Started over. Thought I could disappear, thought we could be safe."

She gave a humorless, hollow laugh.

"But about a month ago, Zeke showed up. Right on my doorstep like a nightmare that wouldn't die. Said I had something he wanted. I don't know what the hell it is, but the more I tell him to stay away, the more he sends people. The more he tries to scare me into coming back."

She let the last words drift off, like she didn’t have anything left to give. Just a worn-out woman trying to keep her son safe and barely holding herself together.

I stayed silent, the rage in my chest burning slow and heavy.

She trusted me with this. All of it.

The good. The ugly. The broken pieces she tried so damn hard to hide from the rest of the world.

And now I knew.

I knew exactly what kind of hell she had crawled through to get here.

Exactly why she had that look in her eyes, like she was always bracing for the next punch life was about to throw.

And all I wanted in that moment, more than I had ever wanted anything, was to be the man who made it stop.

Even if I had no damn idea how.

Nine

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