“Let’s go see Mom” I lake Lucia’s hand and walk down the hall with a spring my step.
She wrote about me on a napkin and she kept it. Things are looking sp
“Everything all right?” Mark’s eyes flick up to meet mine in the rearview mirror as we drive to the airport. “You’re very quiet”
I run my tongue over my teeth. “What are the ingredients in scrambled egg?”
“Tges.“He frowns. “Milk, maybe cheese.” His eyes meet mine again. “Why do you ask?”
1 just ate scrambled eggs that tasted like fishuanud were laced with shell” I wipe my mouth with a time as my
“Really?”
“You have no idea home had her cooking is.“I wipe my moth again to try to get rid of this vile taste in my month.
He smiles to himself is the front seat.
Not in the least bit funny.”
“Actually, it i
“Yeah well. “I turn my attention out the window. “Ifde, tell the police who paisoned me.”
“Sure thing.”
*T be moving out here on the weekend.”
“Permanently?”
“Thursday through to Monday morning each week Ohle contimes to drive.
y stomach rolls.
“You have your own house on the property I’ve rented. Although I understand if you don’t want to be here. You can stay in New York, I mean ler’s fre it, this place is a focking dump.”
Til come.” His eyes flick up to meet mine. I kind of like it here.” He turns the corner into the airport. “And besides, I go where you go, remember?”
I give him a lopsided smile and nod in a silent thank you
Mark is the only person who goes wherever I go, whenever that is.
Ma time in my life where everything is unknown, his steadfast presence is a calming farrel
“How did it go last night, with Seraphina I mean?” he asks.
“Well “I run my hand over my stubble as I think. She told me she hates me,”
“Okay.” He drives as he listens. “And the kids?”
“We tell them who I am on the weekend”
How does it feel to have two children?”
I twist my lips, “Terrifying.”
So what’s on today, boss?” He smiles as we pull up at the airport. “Tirst stop. My mother.”
50
The plane touches down unto the tarmac And I immediately dial Frank’s number.
Hello Mr. Terrara”
“Where is my mother?
… REAL FREEDOM
Chapter 63
charity hunch for the Ferrara Institute at Town Hall.”
Tclench my jaw, annoyed. “What time does that finish?” “it goes well and the evening Forks
Tine, call me for
Yes sir.”
me tomori me when she’s up and about.”
Thang up and glate out the window as 1 imagine bone tomorrow is going to go,
Twenty million dollars is all my happiness is worth
The city lights twinkle over New York. I pour myself a glass of scotch and place it on my desk beside the bot that I got from beneath Seraphina’s bert Tve been anxiously waning all day to get in this hot, what dat she mean when she wrote on that napkint
I take the lid off the hos, sit down and slowly begin to sift through it, there’s photos and note cards, a weird combination of things that don’t really go together but they all seem to be from around the time that Seraphins was pregnant.
I pick up a piece of paper that has been ripped out of a book
The Lord knew that I would miss him so much that one baby couldn’t fill the hole that he left So he gave me to
For a long time I stare at her handwriting and I don’t know what the hell kind of hot this is, but it’s fucking depressing,
With a big sip of scotch, I dig a little deeper and find a diary, the cover is created as if it has been taken everywhere. I open it up and read the entry
I went to New York to tell him about our
baby.
He refused in see me and I’ve never been so
humiliated in all of my life
Or heartbroken
I can’t see this page:
age for the tears, I don’t
ly if I can do this alone.
He’s given me no choice. Alone I am.
I close my eyes in regret.
My heart twists as I think back to that day, if only I had handled things differently. If only I had gone down to see her, would things be different now would my children know me?
My vision blurs and, feeling like the biggest piece of shat on earth, I keep digging through the box until I get to a pastel pink and blue congratulations baby card and I open it up.
You were a rock star in birth and we are so protal of you
Love.
Mom and Dad
She didnt even tell her mom and dad about me. I picture her with two little hables and nobody knowing who the father is and my heart hurtA.
really has done this all alone
I can’t imagine what it would be like having a child and not being able to tell anyone who the father is Did they ask her questions, or did she just le straight from the beginning”
I think back to my mother’s offer of twenty million dollars and what an air that is. If she had wanted the money, she could have taken at years ago,
Found A. FREEDOM
Chapter 63
There’s a black velvet her underneath everything and I frown and open it, the diamond tennis bracelet bright strapped inin place, it’s sparkling and looks brand new, as if never been witn
Why would she wear it, she hates you, remember?
Chapter 64
Chapter 64
