Meadow’s chin wobbled, tears falling down her face. “Don’t go, Mommy,” she begged.
“Shh. Don’t cry. I’ll come back for you when they stop fighting.” Her mommy stroked her hair back from her face and kissed her forehead, then hugged her fiercely before pulling away and holding her at arm’s length. “Remember what I said, Meadow. Be invisible!”
She stood up and closed the door, plunging Meadow into darkness. She whimpered fearfully as she peered into the pitch-black stillness. The closet smelled like musty rags and bleach and other cleaning—
Pop! Pop! Pop!
She jumped at the sound, her heart pounding so loudly it echoed in her ears.
A few seconds later, she heard her mommy’s anguished wails and panicked screams. Then her uncle was shouting and—
Pop! Pop!
“Mommy!” Meadow cried out before she could stop herself.
There was silence.
She was trembling so hard her teeth rattled and her breath came in choppy bursts.
Then she heard a noise.
The creak of floorboards…the thud of heavy footsteps coming down the hallway.
Coming toward her.
She clapped her hand over her mouth and screwed her eyes shut, trying her hardest not to cry. Her heart was beating fast and she was so scared she couldn’t stop shaking.
Be invisible, she reminded herself. Be invisible!
The footsteps were coming closer. She shrank back against the wall, wishing she could make herself disappear.
The footsteps stopped right outside the closet door.
She held her breath so her uncle wouldn’t hear her. As terror clawed at her throat, she felt warm pee trickle down her legs and puddle at her feet.
Suddenly the door was yanked open and her uncle loomed above her.
She screamed.
“Shut up!” he roared.
When she saw the glint of a gun in his hand, she darted out of the closet and ran past him.
He chased her, cursing and bellowing as she raced out of the laundry room and down the hallway. She had to find her parents and make sure they were okay!
At the entrance to the living room, she skidded to a stop, her eyes widening in horror.
Her mother was lying on the wood floor in a spreading pool of blood. Her eyes were open and staring, but she wasn’t moving. Across the room, her father lay crumpled on the floor next to the wall. Blood was leaking from a big hole in the back of his head.
“Daddy!” Meadow screamed at the top of her lungs. “Mommy!”
Her uncle grabbed her roughly from behind. “Stupid little brat!”
She shrieked and kicked, struggling frantically to break free. “Let me go! Let me—”
“Shut up!” Yanking her head back, he slammed the butt of the gun against her temple.
Pain exploded behind her eyes. She slumped forward as a black emptiness swallowed her—
* * *
“Please listen to me, Meadow—”
Her aunt’s voice wrenched her out of the horrific flashback. She was gasping and looking around frantically, her surroundings suddenly unfamiliar.
“He killed them!” she screamed hysterically. “He killed my parents!”
“I know, baby,” her aunt wailed tearfully. “When I came home from work and saw their bodies on the floor…your father…my sweet sister…dear Jesus,” she whimpered brokenly. “I couldn’t believe my eyes! You were lying on the couch unconscious and…oh God, Meadow, I just lost it! I started screaming and hitting him and asking him what the hell he’d done! His eyes looked wild, like he was in shock. When I ran over to check on you and saw that your head was bleeding, I started panicking and shrieking. He grabbed me and dragged me away from you. I begged him to let me take you to the hospital before you lost any more blood. He finally agreed, but he warned me not to go to the police. He told me if I didn’t come back in an hour, he would drive to my parents’ house and kill them! Then he’d find you and me and kill us, too!
“I was shaking so bad I could barely walk, let alone carry you to the car. I got you to the hospital as fast as I could, and I told them you hit your head on the corner of the dresser while you were playing. I found out later that you had two broken ribs. At first Flynn told me that he’d accidentally dropped you on the floor. But later when he got drunk, he admitted that he’d kicked you out of anger and frustration.” Everly was crying, her voice heavy with wet sobs. “After I left you at the hospital that night, I rushed back home and helped him…I helped him clean up all the blood—”
“You mean you helped him cover his tracks!” Meadow yelled in enraged disgust. “You helped him cover up my parents’ murders!”
“Yes!” her aunt screeched desperately. “I had no choice!”
“Bullshit! You could have called your parents and warned them to leave the house! You could have gone to the police and told them what happened! They could have helped you!”
“I didn’t know that! I was panicked and scared out of my mind, and I wasn’t thinking clearly! My husband had just killed two people and was threatening to kill me and the rest of my family! I couldn’t take any chances! So yes, Meadow, I helped him! I helped him take your parents’ bodies to your house. He drove your father’s car and I drove ours. When we got there, we…we staged the scene to look like a home invasion that went wrong.”
Meadow doubled over in agony, wracked by unspeakable grief.
“You have every reason to hate me, Meadow. But you have to understand that I saved your life! You couldn’t stay with us after what happened to your parents. Do you understand that? You were the only living witness to your uncle’s crime. He was terrified that you would remember what happened and tell on him. He would have killed you before he let that happen! He would have killed all of us!”
Meadow had her arms wrapped around her legs and was rocking back and forth, crying soundlessly.
The words kept tumbling out of her aunt’s mouth. “Your grandparents wanted to keep you. They couldn’t understand why we had to give you up for adoption. I didn’t tell them the truth because it would have destroyed them. Dad had serious health issues and they were drowning in debt. I wasn’t financially stable either. I convinced them that my friend at DFS could find a good home for you. It broke their hearts to let you go. Dad got even sicker after that, and Mom became so depressed she was no good to anyone.” Everly’s voice thickened with tears of sorrow. “They went to their graves blaming me for taking you away from them. But I did what I had to do to protect you, and I’m not sorry for that! Since I couldn’t save your parents’ lives, I owed it to them to save yours! So, yes, I pushed your uncle down those stairs so he couldn’t come after you. I killed him, and because of that, my children don’t have a father anymore and I don’t have a husband. But I’d do it again to protect you!”
Meadow squeezed her eyes shut, tears dripping from her nose and cheeks.
“Before my friend left DFS, I asked her for one last favor. I didn’t know if you would ever regain your memory of what happened to your parents. I prayed to God you wouldn’t. But just to be safe, I asked my friend to destroy your records. I thought you might request them someday, and I didn’t want you to see the hospital report or anything else that might trigger your memory of that night.”
Meadow shook her head from side to side, fresh pain wringing her heart.
“Anyway,” her aunt continued in a more composed voice, “your uncle’s funeral is next Saturday. I don’t expect you to come, of course. I just wanted to reach out and tell you what happened. You deserved to know the truth once and for all.” She paused for a long moment. “Maybe now we can both be free of the past.”
Meadow’s ears were ringing and her vision grayed around the edges.
As her phone slipped from her hand, she pushed herself to her feet. The room spun as she staggered to the bed and collapsed in a broken heap.
With her arms wrapped tightly around herself, she closed her eyes and succumbed to angui
shed, wrenching sobs.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
MEADOW
* * *
She didn’t know how long she lay huddled under the covers.
She drifted in and out of sleep plagued with nightmares that were all too real. Visions of her dead parents bombarded her brain like loaded grenades, making her cry out and toss fitfully on the bed.
As day slipped into night, she forced her heavy eyelids open and lay staring out the window at the glittering city lights. Her mind was reeling, her heart aching, her body engulfed in pain.
Her phone buzzed somewhere in the dark room.
She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling until the phone went silent. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Just breathing was painful.
Seconds later the phone buzzed again. The caller was persistent.
With her body protesting, she sat up slowly and dragged herself out of bed. She felt like she was slogging through quicksand as she made her way toward the door where she’d dropped her phone.
As she bent to pick it up, she was seized by a moment of panic. What if her aunt was calling back with more shattering revelations? How much more could she take?
Relief washed through her when she looked at the screen and saw Jess’s number. She pressed the answer button, brought the phone to her ear and croaked, “Hello?”
“Thank God you picked up!” Jess burst out in exasperation.
“Hey,” Meadow said weakly.
“Have you seen the pictures?”
Meadow shuffled back to the bed and sat down. “What pictures?”
“Apparently some Rebels went to a party after the game two nights ago,” Jess fumed. “The party was thrown by some Canadian racecar driver. A bunch of pictures were posted to a trashy gossip blog that covers hockey players. I’m pissed because the photos have been up for two whole days and I’m just now seeing them!”
Meadow felt a cold prickle of dread. “Which players went to the party?”
“Your man and mine, for starters!”
Meadow’s stomach bottomed out.
“Can you believe that shit?” Jess raged. “Did they seriously think we wouldn’t find out? Don’t they realize people are always taking pictures and posting them to social media?”
Meadow lay back on the bed and closed her eyes.
“At least the pictures with Logan aren’t too incriminating,” Jess ranted on. “In one picture he’s doing shots with the racecar driver, and the other picture shows him signing autographs for a bunch of models. But Dubs? That motherfucker has his arms wrapped around two skanky bitches! Even if nothing happened, he and Logan had no damn business being there! And the fact that they didn’t tell us about the party speaks volumes!”
Meadow squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
“You aren’t saying anything,” Jess snapped irritably. “Why are you taking this so well?”
“I’m not.” Meadow swallowed sickly. “I’m just…dealing with a lot right now.”
“Like what?”
She swallowed again. “Family stuff.”
Jess didn’t ask for details, and for that she was grateful.
“Let’s go out,” Jess suggested vindictively. “Let’s put on our hottest fuck-me dresses and hit the club. That’ll teach those lying bastards a lesson. Plus it’ll help take your mind off your family drama.”
Tears leaked from the corners of Meadow’s eyes and slid into her hair. She felt so raw, so fragile and broken. It was all she could do to hold herself together, to keep from flying apart into a million pieces.
“What do you say?” Jess prompted. “You with me?”
Meadow stared at the ceiling. She needed a distraction or she’d go crazy. “Sure,” she heard herself whisper. “I’ll go.”
“Great! I’m gonna ask one of my coworkers to go with us. She’s pregnant so she can be our designated driver.”
Meadow frowned. “Should she be clubbing in her condition?”
Jess laughed. “You haven’t met Emily. She loves to dance and have a good time. She knows her days of partying are numbered, so I’m sure she’ll jump at the chance to hang out with us. We’ll pick you up at nine. Be ready!”
“Okay.” Meadow hung up, dragged herself into the bathroom and took a shower, sobbing under the hot spray.
She felt exhausted and utterly depleted by the time she came out of the bathroom and made her way into the cavernous walk-in closet. She’d agreed to stay with Logan another week, so she’d brought a bunch of clothes over.
She chose a short red halter dress that she’d planned to wear on a date with him. Moving on autopilot, she flatironed her hair and put on more makeup than usual, applying red lipstick to match her dress.
Jess and Emily arrived shortly after nine. When Jess called to say they were in the lobby, Meadow went downstairs to meet them. Jess looked like a hot video vixen in a black bandage dress that barely covered her crotch.
Emily was a curvy blonde with blue eyes and a very small baby bump. Meadow couldn’t believe she was seven months pregnant. She seriously wished the young mom-to-be would reconsider spending an evening at some overloud, smoky club. But it wasn’t her place to police the actions of a perfect stranger. And she was hurting so much right now, she didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to worry about other people’s problems.
Jess appraised her from head to toe and whistled approvingly. “Looking good, baby!”
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
Emily looked around the posh lobby in awe. “Are you really sure you wanna walk away from this guy? I mean, he is Logan Brassard. And look where he lives!”
Jess rolled her eyes. “She’s not breaking up with him. She’s just giving him a taste of his own medicine. Now, c’mon, let’s do this!”
When they got to the club, there was a line down the block.
“Shit,” Emily complained. “Look at all these people!”
“Girl, you know I don’t do lines.” Jess tossed her hair and strutted to the front with Meadow and Emily trailing behind. The bouncer took one look at her, grinned broadly and waved them through.
Once inside the darkened club, they surveyed the scene. The music was blaring, neon lights were flashing and the dance floor was packed. The sensory overload made Meadow’s stomach roil.
Jess looked around with a satisfied grin. “This will do just fine. C’mon, girls.” She grabbed Meadow’s hand and plunged into the crowd, ignoring bad pickup lines and groping hands.
They sat at the bar and ordered drinks. Meadow let Jess order for her. Emily grudgingly requested a nonalcoholic cocktail.
The bartender brought their drinks, smiling flirtatiously at Jess. She returned his smile and winked.
After taking a few sips of her virgin cocktail, Emily excused herself and headed to the bathroom.
Jess rolled her eyes at the blonde’s retreating back. “She does this every time we go out.”
Meadow blinked. “What? Use the bathroom?”
Jess snorted. “She doesn’t have to use the bathroom. She just goes in there to call her baby daddy and pick a fight.”
“Or maybe she really has to pee,” Meadow suggested. “She is seven months pregnant.”
“No, that’s not it. She’s in there arguing with her loser boyfriend. Trust me, I know. We won’t see her again for at least another hour.” Jess sighed mournfully. “She used to be so much fun. Getting knocked up was the worst thing that could have happened to her.”
Meadow made no reply, taking a sip of her mojito and praying the loud music would drown out the chaos in her head.
Jess pulled out her phone to check the score of the playoff game. “The boys won 5-3.”
“Really?” Meadow managed her first smile in hours. “That’s great.”
Jess scrolled through the game stats. “Logan scored a goal. So did Hunter and that rookie who’s always ogling my ass. Viggo scored the other two goals.” She put her phone down and smirked at Meadow. “Is it petty that I’m glad Dubs didn’t s
core?”
“Yes,” Meadow said unequivocally.
Jess laughed and drank her mojito.
Meadow felt her phone buzz in her snakeskin cross-body clutch. She unzipped the tiny bag and looked at the glowing screen. When she saw Logan’s picture, her heart squeezed. She felt conflicted. On one hand, she missed him badly and wanted to hear his voice, especially after the traumatic day she’d had. On the other hand, she was pissed at him for going to the party and not telling her. What was he hiding? How could he go out partying the day after reassuring her that she was the only one for him?
Frowning, she rezipped her clutch without answering the phone.
Jess raised an amused eyebrow at her. “So you are mad at him. I was beginning to wonder.” She glanced down at her own phone, frowning a little. “Dubs hasn’t called.”
Hearing the disappointment in her voice, Meadow said consolingly, “Give him time.”
Jess forced a shrug. “Whatever.”
As an unhappy silence settled between them, Meadow propped her elbows on the bar and stared into her glass, thinking about her parents’ senseless deaths. As a fresh wave of grief slammed into her, she squeezed her eyes shut and took another gulp of her cocktail.
Jess cackled. “That’s right, girl. Drink up and enjoy yourself. We’ve earned this.”
After just one mojito, Meadow’s head was already buzzing.
Jess grinned at her empty glass, then slapped her hand on the bar. “Another mojito for me and my girl!”
The bartender winked at her. “Sure thing, gorgeous.”
Meadow glanced in the direction of the bathrooms. “Should we go check on Emily? She’s been gone a while.”
Jess gave an unconcerned shrug. “I told you she would be.”
Meadow frowned. “What if something happened—”
“Nothing happened to her. She’s fine. Stop stressing.”
“Let me go make sure—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Jess grabbed her arm before she could slide off her stool. “I’ll text her to see if she’s okay. Will that put your mind at ease?”
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