Page 141 of Cougar

“Do you have these in a six and a seven?” I ask the salesman, holding up the nude Tory Burch sandals from her latest spring collection.

This past week has been hell not seeing Cam. I’m so pissed at him for lying after I’d given him so many chances to tell me everything about Juliette. Honestly, I find their whole friendship-relationship a bit unsettling, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with it. He left a few days ago for spring training, but I got a text from him this morning saying he was in town and needed to see me. I replied with one telling him I had plans. A day of shopping with my mother, Jay, Harper, and their friends.

I gave Levi and Troy the day off since we were only going to the mall for lunch and a little shopping.

Unfortunately, we had to take two cars because Jay wanted to bring Willow and Zoe along. Lexi rode with Mom and me, and we stopped on the way to pick up another one of their friends, Kali. I’d only met her a handful of times, but she always seemed like a nice girl.

We had lunch at Bazille at Nordstrom and then parted ways. The girls headed over to Build-A-Bear with Willow and Zoe, while my mother and I shopped around Nordstrom.

The salesman comes back with two boxes. “Would you like to try them on?” he asks, but his voice sounds far away.

“No. I’ll take them.” The room spins and my vision blurs. Reaching out, I grab the counter and steady myself.

“You okay?” my mother asks.

“Yeah.” I wave her off. “Probably something I ate.”

“Would you like a bottled water?” the salesman offers.

“No thanks. I’ll be fine.” I pass him my credit card, and he swipes it before handing it back to me.

“Hey, Em.” I look over my shoulder to see Lexi walking up with her boyfriend, Evan, and his brother, Grayson. “Jay wanted me to let you know she was heading to the car. We tried calling you, but the signal in this place sucks.”

“Here you go, ma’am.” The salesman hands over the shopping bag with my purchase.

Then something happens. I get this sinking feeling in my stomach, and my heart starts to race.

“Are you okay?” Lexi asks. “You look pale.”

“Honey, maybe you should sit down,” my mother says.

A wave of dread washes over me, and my whole body breaks into a cold sweat.

Go.

“Jayla,” I breathe, and the next thing I know, I’m running toward the escalator.

“Emerson,” my mother calls after me, but I don’t stop. I gotta hand it to her—the woman is in her sixties, but she manages to keep up.

“What’s wrong?” Evan asks as he comes up behind me.

“Something feels off,” I call over my shoulder as I continue up the steps.

“Where’s your security?” Grayson barks out as he jogs past me and leads the way to the exit.

He’s right to ask, because he knows I pay their father’s company a lot of money for Troy and Levi. I don’t get the chance to answer him because just as we push through the doors and step into the vestibule, Harper comes running toward us, dragging a screaming Willow and Zoe by the arms.

“Help her!” she yells hysterically and falls to her knees.

“Call Levi,” I hear someone shout.Evan.

I drop everything in my hands and start running. The moment I became a mother, my heart was filled with love, protectiveness, and fear. Some say a mother’s biggest fear is losing her child. There are books out there that teach us how to be the best parents we can be. But nowhere in any of those books was there a chapter that prepared me for the gut-wrenching fear of witnessing a stranger pinning my daughter to the ground, beating and choking the life out of her.

“No! No! Jayla! Nooo!”

“Motherfucker!” Grayson rushes the man on top of Jay and tackles him to the ground.

Dropping to my knees beside her broken body, I scream out for help as everything around me begins spinning.

---