Page 152 of Prey

“You’re a child. What do you know about love?”

“I know I would be a fucking mess right now if I lost Roman. I wouldn’t want to get out of my bed. I wouldn’t want to see anyone, and I wouldn’t be as put together as you are.”

“So you’re going to vilify me for how I choose to deal with my grief, just because it differs from yours?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. That’s why I’m asking you. I—I don’t think you guys loved each other.”

And I didn’t know why it was so important to me, only that it was.

If I had a baby with Roman, that baby would grow up knowing how much we loved each other. There wouldn’t be any doubt.

She shook her head and looked away from me.

“Mom.”

“Leave it alone, Ryleigh.”

“I won’t think any less of you, no matter the answer.”

She shook her head.

“Mom!”

“How could I love that bastard?” she shouted.

It was so sudden my heart started racing.

“W-What?”

“You want to know if I loved him? How could I love someone so cold? Someone who would put his own greed over his child’s safety.”

I stilled. “What are you talking about?”

She shook her head. “The man’s dead, Ryleigh. Whatever mistakes he might have made are in the past, and I don’t want to talk about it with you, so just leave it alone. I don’t know if I love him, all I know is that my emotions are over the place, and I am done discussing it.”

She slammed her mug down on the counter and walked away from me.

I stayed for a while, mulling over her words.

What was she talking about?

Dad would never place his greed over me. He couldn’t. He gave up his life protecting me, so there was no way… right?

But something niggled in my mind.

A memory I had long forgotten.

Of my parents fighting in the hospital room after my fall off the cliff.

They had always been evasive when I asked about the investigation, and at the time, I didn’t care enough to push.

I had been traumatized enough as it was, and I was in a lot of pain that took months to recover from. I didn’t want to dwell on it more than I had to.

But they had been arguing about something, and Mom had been angry.

So angry, I didn’t think she had ever shown such strong emotions before.

Tidbits of the argument penetrated my mind, but when I thought I had gotten to something that would have made sense to me, all the memories started to blur into the background.

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