Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
To prove she’s not making empty threats, Felicia grabs a lock of my mother’s chestnut brown and the room fills with the horrific scent of burning hair.
“Whoosh,” Felicia says around a cackle as she pats the flames out. My mother stops wailing the second the fire goes out. “You use too much product. I almost took your entire mop out.”
“Please stop,” Mom begs.
“You know how to make this stop,” Kane puts in, wafting the smoke away from his face. “Dad crack a window.”
“I’ll do it,” I say and cringe when Felicia lights Mom’s hair on fire again.
“OKAY!” Mom sobs. “I’ll tell you what I know.”
“I’ll know if you’re lyin’.” West leans into her face. “Not fuckin’ around, Mary. You tell us everything you know.”
Mom nods and more tears stream from her eyes, leaving trails of black mascara. She always uses the clumpiest eye shit I’ve ever seen. “Your mee-maw knew where she was taken.”
“That better not be all you have.”
“It’s not!” She insists, sobbing again. “She used to get a call every month with updates.”
“She was being updated on my kid?” I hiss, wishing Mee-maw was alive so I could punch her in the mouth. “How long have you known?”
“Not long,” she replies and screams when Felicia moves the flame to the end of her hair again. “I SWEAR! I found a letter for you in the bible she left for you. It explains everything.”
My heart starts hammering in my chest. Could the information on my kid have been in that letter I destroyed? I didn’t even consider it because Mee-maw insisted she didn’t know where my kid was and Webber said she wasn’t lying.
“Does it say where she is or who she spoke to?”
Mom shakes her head, showing just how messed up her hair now is on one side. “It doesn’t say anything other than how you should leave her alone, she’s with a good family, and going into her life now would only mess it up.”
I rip a hand through my hair and feel ready to hyperventilate. “Phone records. We can call every fucking number.”
Mom nods. “I can help.”
“No, you’re gonna stay away from my family you rank ass bitch,” Felicia hisses. “Or I’m comin’ for you and I’ll set the rest of your shit hair on fire.”
We call Webber and give him the new information, but his reply doesn’t exactly bring us hope.
“We had your grandmother’s phone listened in on for months afterwards. Years, even. We never heard any calls that might contain updates. She was a suspect on the list for trafficking those babies, but we didn’t find a scrap of evidence against her. You know this. Woman like her, love of the community, friends with Father Righteous… the perfect suspect. We didn’t find shit.”
I didn’t stay on the phone for much longer, I instead went to the old bitch’s house, found the letter and read it through three times.
I don’t know if it’s a duplicate of the one she asked Mr. Jessop to give to me when she died, but I do know it’s full of bullshit I don’t want to read. Apologies and excuses as to why she did what she did. An admission that she was going to bring me home but they said I was mentally unstable and wouldn’t permit my release until they knew I was stable. More like until they knew I was brainwashed.
And finally, an admission that the baby grew up to be a stunning little girl with the love of a good family and she knows this due to monthly updates. She doesn’t say what kind of updates or who keeps her updated her. She does however tell me to leave the girl alone, interfering now could mess with her life and that hits me way too hard.
I growl with frustration and throw the letter across the room. Then I pace in her flowery as fuck bedroom until my legs ache.
Kane continues tearing the place apart looking for some kind of clue. There’s nothing. If Mee-maw was getting these updates in person, there’s absolutely no fucking way we will be able to track them down. It could be anyone she knew. It could be the barista at the local café. Anyone!
She didn’t have a computer because she couldn’t work them. She didn’t have any other form of communication to my knowledge.
I scream and throw her stupid bible at the wall.
“Hey,” Kane soothes, rubbing my arms.
“Don’t,” I plead and move away. “Not now. I don’t want you to touch me right now.”
“I know it’s frustrating.”
“This is the closest I have ever come to a real clue and it’s another dead end. Mee-maw knew where she was and she lied, Kane. She fucking lied.”
The silhouette of a person standing in the doorway has me reaching for the bible ready to throw it again, this time at my brother’s head.