by Rue Volley
I wiped my cheek and rushed around to her side of the table. I leaned down and hugged her as she rubbed my back.
“I don’t even know what to say to you, but thank you.”
She nodded, rubbing her hand on my hair. “It’s always a shock the first time, I don’t control it. They just commune when they want to. I have some clients that I have seen for years who have yet to hear a single word from a loved one. That was very special.”
I stood up, wiping my hands on my jeans. “I should go, but thank you. I’ll do this again, really soon.”
I walked out, and my mom stood there smiling at me.
I pointed behind me with an astonished look on my face. “I think that I just talked to dad.”
She stepped forward. “Did you? Oh honey, what did he say?”
“He said that he loved me, and to tell you that he could still see the fireflies.”
She hugged me and sobbed. I didn’t know what it meant, but I held her until she was able to step back from me.
“Oh.” She touched my cheek. Her eyes were lit with memories.
“The night that you were born, I was having terrible cramps and your dad took me on a walk through the field. The sun went down, and the full moon rose up high in the sky. I stopped to catch my breath, having a small contraction with you, and when I stood back up, your dad was standing in that field with his arms out to his sides. A million fireflies were blinking all around him. He turned back to me and smiled. Then he walked up to me, felt my stomach and gently kissed me on the lips. He hugged me and whispered in my ear that he knew what your name should be. He whispered Abigail, and I felt the first hard contraction. You were born three hours later, and I will never forget the sight of those fireflies in the field celebrating you and what we had created together.”
I shook my head and sobbed as she hugged me again. I never felt closer to her in my entire life, and I never loved my dad more than in that moment.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DRINK ME
__________________________
I sat on the porch with a renewed sense of purpose. I had slept so well the night before that all of the stress and worry seemed to have melted away.
I stood up as the limo approached the house. The window lowered. I could see Rose smiling in the backseat. Mom was gone for the morning, off to do her regular routine. Exercise and then meditation. I was starting to consider what she did now as something that I could adopt in my own life. Perhaps it could help me clear my mind and strengthen my resolve when it came to what lay ahead for me.
The road with Jack would be a perilous one. He had warned me and even if he hadn’t, I would have known after that night when Rose returned. I felt that agreeing to meet with her was an important step for me. I could bury whatever negative feelings and insecurities that I had concerning her by sitting down and speaking with her. She had been a ghost in my life since she had returned. I created her, I didn’t know her. I hadn’t even tried.
She wasn’t even real, she was just a culmination of my fears and it needed to end.
It was time to make a change, and it began with me facing this fear and understanding it. He was not with her. I trusted what he said as truth, I had to. He had no reason to lie, no reason to simply string me along.
I would do anything for him, anything for us. I want us to survive. I need for that to happen. Perhaps she could provide the insight that I needed.
I stepped off of the porch and walked down the sidewalk, pausing only to stop at the door, and the driver opened it up for me. I looked back and stared at the house. I was so grateful to be home. So happy to be starting this new venture with Sam and extremely hopeful of the future that I wanted to build with Jack.
I slipped inside the limo and sat down. The same strong smell of leather met me. The same one that I remembered each time I had ridden with Jack in the back of one of these. It wasn’t that I felt uncomfortable, I just wanted to move past this and start bringing Jack into my world. The one that wasn’t all staff and limos, lawyers, or mansions.
Just us.
I looked at Rose and smiled. Her modest grin eased my anxiety. Her hair was slicked back into a smooth bun on the back of her head. She wore a white blouse, with a white jacket and skirt. That was something I could never pull off. I would be dirty in about thirty seconds flat, if not sooner.
She extended her hand to me, her bright red fingernails were manicured to perfection. It matched her lipstick. I sat there in my short black jacket, black button-down shirt, and dark pants. My hair lay in one braid over my left shoulder. We were the complete opposite of each other. The only thing we seemed to have in common was Jack.
I shook her hand and saw my nails, painted black. My wrist was exposed for a moment, and I pulled it back. She eyed it but didn’t say anything about the cut and stitches.
She spoke as if we were in a business meeting. “Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me. I appreciate it.”
I studied her eyes. “No, of course. You said that you wanted to talk about Jack.”
She looked up at my house as we pulled away.
“That’s where your mother lives?”
I looked back and nodded. “Oh yeah, they had that house before I was even born.”
She stared at it for a moment longer. “It’s a lovely home. It looks safe.”
“Yeah, I love that house. I spent every Christmas in it, and every birthday. In fact, every memory from my childhood is right there. Makes it easy.”
She placed her hands on her lap. She crossed them over. Everything about her was nice and neat. She was groomed to perfection. I felt like telling her to relax, shake her hair out and take off her shoes. I wasn’t that stuffy. I never would be.
“Stability is important in a child’s life, don’t you agree, Abi?”
I quickly replied to her. “I totally agree. I’m grateful for my childhood, everything was, well, everything was perfect until my dad died.”
“Death is a strange venture.”
I paused. It was, she just had a peculiar way about her. It was like she said things, but I wasn’t sure that she fully processed them. Then again, I don’t know her at all. I just know her past and that she is here now and trying to build a new life. I wasn’t going to judge her when I know that I have enough issues of my own that I need to work through. We all do.
I couldn’t help but feel pity for her. I couldn’t imagine how her life had been. Growing up with the Landons. Having Jerod rip her heart out and trying to find her way in this world. It must have been terrible at times.
I knew how badly it hurt to lose my dad. I didn’t know how it would feel to have no parents at all and to be given as a gift, a peace offering of sorts, to a bitter woman from an unfaithful man.
Was she even aware of it? I didn’t want to ask.
She looked out the window and didn’t say another word to me until we pulled up to the coffee shop downtown.
She spoke, her tone was even and calm. “Well, here we are.”
The driver let her out first and then came around to my side and opened my door up for me. I stepped out of the limo and felt a little embarrassed for travelling here in such a lavish vehicle. We could have walked here, and I had on many occasions, but I didn’t want to be rude.
Rose walked to the door of the coffee shop and waited for me to go inside first, she turned back to the driver and spoke to him quietly. I walked to a table in the back of the room and sat down.
She stepped in and took a look around. Her facial expression didn’t change. It was so hard to read her. She walked toward me and reached out. She touched the top of the chair and pulled it out, sitting down and scooting it forward. She left her hands on her lap as the waitress approached us. I smiled. It all felt very awkward but I attempted to hide it the best that I could.
“Coffee—black as night, sugar on the side,” I said without looking at the menu.
She looked at Rose. Rose hesitated.
“Do you like co
ffee?” I asked her as I leaned forward in my chair.
She looked up at me. “I usually drink Italian roast.”
“Make that two.” I said without hesitation.
The waitress left us alone, and Rose eyed me. I caught her studying my face. She didn’t look away like most people would. I had to assume that after everything she had been through, she wouldn’t be normal. I didn’t expect her to act the same as most people do in social situations.
“So, here we are,” I said, tapping my nails on the table. Her eyes watched my hand, and I removed it. The coffee arrived, and I was relieved. I didn’t regret the fact that I had agreed to meet with her, I just wondered if it was too soon, for her, I mean. I know that it had been months since she had basically woken up from a dream, but after seeing her at the mansion I knew that she still had her moments.
I picked up the sugar packets and tore the tops off of two of them, I poured the sugar into my coffee cup and stirred it with a spoon. She let hers sit in front of her. I didn’t know if she even wanted it. I was just trying to break the proverbial ice, so to speak.
I set my spoon down and took a sip, slowly allowing the hot coffee to roll over my tongue and soothe me. It tasted strong, just like I liked it. The bell went off at the door and Officer Quinn walked in. He strolled right up to the counter and bought muffins from the bakery and a tall coffee. All the while Rose looked around the coffee shop. I finally spoke, the awkward silence was driving me insane.
He stopped and waved to me and looked at Rose. Then he left with the bag of muffins in one hand and the coffee in the other. She watched him leave.
“You wanted to talk about Jack?” I asked. I was ready to hear whatever she had to say to me about him.
Her eyes locked back onto mine. “Yes, I did. I think I can help you.”
“Help me with what?”
“I’m sorry, would you mind getting us something to eat, Abi? Just something small. I haven’t eaten, and I feel light headed. I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to act strangely. My medication can do this to me.” She touched her forehead.
“Sure, yeah. Hold on.”
I walked up to the counter, and the waitress stepped up. “Um—how about two of those blueberry muffins,” I called out to Rose. “Is blueberry okay?” she nodded to me and I looked back at the waitress. “Two of those please.”
I looked back and saw the driver standing by the back door of the limo. I had never seen him before, but I couldn’t expect the same driver as the one that Jack used. I’m sure that they had many.
The waitress handed me two blueberry muffins on two small white plates that she had heated up for us. I took them and walked back to the table. I set one down in front of Rose, and I sat down and placed the other muffin in front of me. They smelled amazing. My stomach growled.
“This coffee is good,” she said to me, eyeing mine.
I grinned. I looked at her cup and I could see the red smudge on the edge of it from her lipstick. “Yeah, it can definitely wake you up.” I picked mine up as she watched me. I took a small sip and then decided to take a larger one. The coffee was cooling down, and I needed the caffeine.
I set the cup down and pointed at her muffin.
“She heated it up, you should—” I stopped talking as the room started to tilt. I parted my lips but I couldn’t speak. My vision blurred, and there were two of Rose in front of me and then they blended back into one. I shook my head, and she reached out and touched my hand.
“Are you okay, Abigail?” her voice echoed in my ears.
“What have you done?” I muttered to her as I started to fall forward in my chair.
I remember the driver walking into the coffee shop, helping me up and walking me out. I remember bits and pieces of conversation. It sounded like muffled words in a long tunnel. My vision went in and out, and finally everything faded to black.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
THE DEVIL’S FIRE
___________________________
I moaned and tried to lift my head. It felt so heavy. The lingering pain wouldn’t allow me to open my eyes. I blinked a few times and finally opened them up.
Everything around me was as bright as the sun. As things started to come into view, I could see candles lit at the table. There was fine china set out before me, and a glass filled with red wine. A bloody piece of meat lay on my plate, half cooked and soaked in a pool of crimson.
The aroma smelled sweet, but it turned my stomach. The room spun, whatever she had given to me still made me feel like I wasn’t fully in control of my body yet. I lifted my hand, and it stopped. I looked down and saw that it was handcuffed to a chain that attached itself to the chair that I sat in. I jerked on it and then tried to lift my other arm, it was the same. I was bound in metal, and it wouldn’t allow me to reach the table or anything else.
I looked up and slowly focused in on a shadowy figure at the head of the table. I blinked a couple of times and then Jack came into view. His head was hanging down, but I could see that he was breathing.
“Jack,” I tried to say, but my voice cracked. My throat burned as if I had swallowed fire.
His head moved, and he looked up, his eyes glossy, his mouth covered with black tape. Blood was running from his nose.
Rose entered the room. She wore a beautiful evening gown. It was blue and hugged every single part of her body. It lay across her perfected shoulders and cupped her breasts. I could barely see her nipples through it. The entire dress was covered with what looked like small circular diamonds. The candle light lit them up in sections as she turned. She stopped and placed her hands on her hips.
“Do you like?” she asked me. I slowly licked my lips and coughed. Whatever she had given to me, which I assumed she had placed in my coffee, had me dizzy and weak.
All that I wanted to do was hurt her.
“What are you doing, Rose?” I asked. I didn’t want to agitate her. I had no idea what she would do to either one of us at this point.
She lowered her hands and walked over to Jack. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and picked up a knife. She turned it so that the light caught its sharp edge. I shook my head as she placed it to his throat. I pulled on my restraints, and she pressed it against his skin. She jerked his head back and leaned in, placing her lips on the black tape that covered his mouth. She moved the knife, and I yelled at her.
“Stop! Please, kill me, not him. Me, Rose. Kill me.”
She removed the knife from his throat and wagged it in her hand. She grinned at me and then pointed the knife in my direction. I could see the small trickle of blood on Jack’s neck where she allowed the blade to cut into him. It infuriated me and terrified me at the same time.
She walked toward me as Jack started to yell from behind the tape, he jerked on the chair with such fury. It appeared that his hands were bound with handcuffs and chains too. I shook my head and watched as she approached me like a viper ready to strike.
She stopped and held the knife up above her head, quickly slamming it downward. I closed my eyes, expecting death. Then I felt nothing.
I opened my eyes and saw the knife sitting in front of me, swaying back and forth, the tip of the blade buried in the top of the table. I let my breath out. She lifted her hand and the light caught her ring—my ring, the one that I had sold to Ming’s Dynasty so that I could come home. She stopped and looked at it. She laughed.
“Do you like it? You should. Jack has excellent taste. It was such a shame that you chose to sell it. Of course, I had to buy it. I think it looks far better on my hand than it did on yours.”
I hissed at her. “He gave that to me, not you.”
She backhanded me, almost knocking the chair over with me in it. The ring cut into my mouth as it struck me. I hung over the side and moaned, rising back up and licking my lip, the blood dripped from the cut to my mouth. I swallowed, staring down at Jack. Jack shook his head, and I looked up at her.
She leaned toward me and laughed. “That’s a technicality and no
thing more.”
I spit blood onto her face. “You can do better than that, can’t you?” I hissed at her.
She stood up and wiped it with her hand, leaving traces of it behind. She stopped and then placed her fingers into her mouth. She lowered her hand and licked her bottom lip.
“He isn’t the only one who enjoys the taste of blood, it runs in the family.”
I leaned back in my chair and glanced at Jack. His eyes stayed locked on me. I swallowed and could taste the blood running down my throat.
I tilted my head. He tried to break free, yelling behind the black tape that held his mouth closed.
“I love you,” I whispered to him, and he stopped moving, shaking his head very slowly. His eyes were full of fear, but oddly enough I felt calm. I was at peace with everything around me.
I looked up at Rose and grinned, the blood on my teeth as red as the meat on my plate.
“You will never have him as long as I’m alive,” I said as I leaned forward.
She cried out and jerked the knife out of the table. She lifted her hand above her head just as I heard another voice. One that I knew very well. I watched as my mom stepped into the large room and looked at Rose. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. I shook my head. “Mom, what are you doing here?”
My mom lifted the letter that had been sent to her and laid it on the table. She stepped back and held her hands up to Rose.
“So, I see that you got your letter too,” Rose said as she eyed the letter on the table.
My mom looked at me and then back at her. “Rose, let them go. This has nothing to do with them. This is between us.”
I narrowed my eyes. Rose reached out and grabbed the letter. She held it up and waved it at her.
“You knew all along, and you did nothing.”
My mom shook her head.
“Mom, what’s going on?” I said quietly. Rose looked at me, and my mom walked around the table as Rose backed away from her. Mom stepped close to me, and I watched as she took a smaller knife that sat on the edge of the table. She concealed it behind her back.
