Page 56 of Violent Little Thing

Chasing Closure

DELILAH

I ’m not where I’m supposed to be.

If I’d stuck to my plan, I’d be landing in West Palm Beach, Florida right now to “surprise” Weston in the hotel room Adonis booked for him once he checks out of rehab.

I wanted answers.

But texting Elodie helped me realize one thing, I’ve said all I need to say to my brother.

I wanted to scare him. To threaten him. To make him regret the way he treated me all those years.

But for what?

He knew what he was doing. And my father helped him do it.

He’s never been a brother to me. If anything, he tried to become my handler when my father died, and it’s beyond me that I let it slide for so long.

I guess that’s the insidious nature of how a manipulator’s mind works.

When you’re as sheltered as me, you don’t realize how deep the deceit runs until it’s too late .

So, instead of boarding my flight like I planned, I’m with Indigo on the sidewalk outside the library where we first met. Waiting for Elodie to show up.

She extended her trip once her conference was over so we could meet up.

“Your driver is so serious,” Indigo remarks, casting a glance at the black SUV in a corner of the parking lot. She paces by me just to turn around and head back in my direction.

As she approaches, I chortle at Victor’s job title being reduced to driver, but I won’t be correcting her.

I like her not knowing the true extent of who Adonis is or the people who surround him.

“Do you want to get food after you talk to your mom?”

Masking the bone-deep shiver that works through me in the wake of her innocent question, I catch her gaze on me.

“Just you and me?” She sounds almost timid. “It’s been a while since we did anything alone together.”

I know it’s not my fault, but guilt carves a pit in my stomach. “I’m sorry I just up and left you this summer.”

Understanding shines in her eyes. “I get it. Love can consume you. Especially when it’s new. Just don’t forget about me.”

Just don’t forget about me.

For a whole year, she was all I had, and in her eyes, I left her for a man I had just met. There are so many things I want to say. So many things I should explain. I didn’t leave her for a man. But explaining that would overcomplicate every part of my life that’s finally starting to feel calm.

I’ve got to make peace with the fact some things are better left unsaid .

I nod, and just as I’m about to say something, a black Acura pulls up in the parking spot closest to us.

Indigo’s arm lands on my shoulder when I tense. “That’s her?”

“Yeah.”

“She should be the one nervous to see you,” she says lowly. “Don’t stress over this. It’s just a conversation. Then we’re getting strawberry pound cake after this.”

Right. Exactly. Just a conversation.

My fingers find the bracelet Adonis gifted me last week, toying with the white gold links.

“Delilah.” Elodie stands in front of me, eyes glassy. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I’m Indigo.” My best friend offers her hand as I find my voice. “Delilah and I are roommates.”

A warm smile spreads on Elodie’s face. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hi, Elodie.” Her name scratches my throat.

I’m trying to make sense of the woman in front of me in comparison to memories of the tattered photo in my father’s office. The woman in those photos bore a resemblance to me.

But even though Elodie looks different in this light, I still don’t look like her. And that’s…comforting. It’s less of a mindfuck than knowing someone out there looked like me for all these years and was just a few hours up the highway.

“Thank you for showing up.” Elodie’s attention doesn’t sway from me. “It means a lot.”

We decided on a walk through the park adjacent to the library. Indigo hangs back at a picnic table, reading her Kindle under the shade of a sycamore tree.

Now that we’re at the beginning of September and the worst of the summer heat is behind us, the walk is bearable.

“There’s so much I want to say to you, Delilah. All I ask is that you listen. Let me get it out and I’ll explain whatever you want.”

Nodding, I keep my gaze on the worn path in front of us. The flowers planted along the trail remind me of Ms. Agnes. And that reminds me of home.

“I won’t get into the details of our relationship, but things between your father and I hadn’t been good for a while before I left.

” Her next breath leaves her in a heavy sigh.

“I knew it wouldn’t get better. But he was all I had in Wildwood, so I had to be smart about how I did it.

It took me a year after you were born, but I finally had a plan. ”

As we walk, her arm swipes my shoulder, causing my attention to catch on her profile.

“I left with you in the middle of the night. While Marcellus was sleeping. But before I could make it to the motel I booked in the next city over, he was waiting for me.” She kisses her teeth.

My heart tries to escape through my ass. I’m nervous like I don’t know we both end up okay in the end.

“We walked to my room in silence. You were asleep in your carrier, and I was so damn scared, Delilah.” I can still hear it in her voice. “As soon as we got in the room, he backhanded me so hard, I lost my hold on you.”

My father’s cruelty doesn’t surprise me.

But her bravery does. The way my father and brother told me this story made it seem like Elodie up and disappeared in the middle of the night because she didn’t want the responsibility of being a mother anymore.

“He beat me until I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror.

Then he told me I could leave. But I wasn’t going anywhere with his child.

” There’s anguish in her pause so I look over at her again to find her lips turned down and shoulders rigid.

“I don’t remember much after that. I woke up alone in that motel room the next morning with my head pounding. He took you while I was knocked out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Honey, you have nothing to be sorry about. You were a baby. You deserved so much better.”

“So did you.”

Elodie stops to study me. “I don’t mean to trash talk your father. He might have turned out to be a great father to you. But I just wanted you to know my side.”

Sympathy expands in my heart. He’d been so far from great to me, but I don’t need to tell her that right now. “It’s not trash talking if it’s the truth.”

She exhales then, lip trembling. “I tried to get you back, Delilah. I sent two private investigators to try and get a location on you, but your father had them both killed. I couldn’t take the blood of a third person on my conscience. Especially when it wasn’t getting me any closer to answers.”

“He…what?”

She nods and her black tresses obscure her face before she tucks them behind her ear.

“I can’t prove he did it, but I know he told somebody to handle it.

He’d just joined a secret society, and he was feeling invincible.

It didn’t matter what I did, it wasn’t enough to outsmart him.

I didn’t give up because he was right, I gave up because I was scared for my life.

” She wipes a tear on her cheek. “It took me so long to save up for a PI after I moved back in with my parents. I was so determined to get you back, but I had to find you first.” She shakes her head. “Marcellus didn’t like that.”

“He didn’t like a lot of things,” I mumble, turning away from her. I focus on the sky. The blue. The birds. The clouds. And when calm replaces the beginnings of my panic, I offer her a smile.

“God, I can’t believe how beautiful you are.” She laughs, but those are tears in her eyes. “How grown you are.”

Talking to my mother shouldn’t be this awkward, but I let the silence grow between us.

We continue walking while she tells me Weston’s mother died of natural causes as far as she knows.

She tells me about the surgeries next. The facial reconstruction she needed after escaping my father. The years she spent in therapy trying to get back to herself.

Resentment. Jealousy. I allow myself to feel them both in equal measure. I’m happy she got out but now she has a twenty-six-year head start on her healing.

Heaviness weighs down my legs and I can’t walk another step with her.

“Thank you for telling me,” I say, sincere but reeling.

“Do you have time to grab dinner or?—”

“I’m sorry, I have plans after this.” It’s not a lie, but most of all, I need distance. Time and space to deal with the weight of her truths and where that leaves me. “But I hope you get back to Raleigh safely.”

She hesitates, biting her lips while her eyes search my face. “I understand. Use my number any time you want, Delilah. Please .”

I nod, backing away from her to find Indigo. When I do, she looks up from her Kindle with a brow quirked. “So, how’d it go?”

“Let me get a rain check on that strawberry poundcake. I need a fucking drink.”