“Thank you,” I whisper.
Gina watches me for a silent moment before reaching across the table and placing her hand over mine. “For what it’s worth, I truly hope you find a way out of this. I lied to you about who your father was so you had no reason to go looking. This isn’t the life I ever wanted for you.”
“I see that now,” I murmur. “I guess sometimes secrets simply aren’t meant to be uncovered.”
“Agreed.”
“Have you considered talking to Riv- Samuel about all this? I’m sure if he knew the truth, really knew who you were, he’d be able to start putting it all behind him. Not that he’d ever admit it, but I think he holds a lot of guilt for being the one to turn you over to the cops.”
Gina shakes her head with a deep sadness in her eyes. “No, that’s a lost cause right there. He clearly wants to forget and I’m not about to go and remind him of all the bullshit he suffered through. He has you now and those friends of yours. He’ll be just fine without me.”
“He lives in your home,” I tell her.
Gina’s whole expression lightens as she sits up a little taller in her seat. “He came home?”
“It honestly looks as though he never left.”
Gina relaxes down into her seat and her eyes go distant with nothing but pride shining right through them and I realize this is the single best piece of news she has heard since the day she was locked up.
I cringe. “Knowing that’s where he lives, you would never…sell it, right?”
“Couldn't even if I wanted to," she tells me. "Anton strong-armed me into signing over the deed when Samuel turned eighteen. That’s his home now.”
“Really? So we can fix it up for him?”
“Fix it up?” she questions. “Why the hell would it need to be fixed up? That house was beautiful.”
My face scrunches up. “It might have been beautiful back in the day when it had someone caring for it properly. I’d dare say Samuel was living there all by himself as a kid. He wouldn’t have known the first thing about patching leaks in roofs and replacing cracked windows.”
“Oh, no. It’s destroyed, isn’t it?”
“Well…I mean, it would have been alright had Anton not ripped through there and trashed the place looking for these,” I say, fingering the papers on the table. “It’s kind of a mess and needs a little TLC.”
“Damn,” she sighs. “That place was my salvation after getting away from Anton. It breaks my heart to hear that it’s not doing so great anymore.”
A ruckus is heard behind me and both Gina and I look that way and I’m quickly reminded where the hell I am, but something inside of me is screaming that I shouldn’t worry, that this is probably the only time I’ll ever get a chance to talk with my real mother like this and I don’t want to screw it up. I know that when I come here next, her walls will most likely be right back up but for now, this is probably the best I’m ever going to get.
“Can you tell me what it was like before that? You know, was there a time it wasn’t…bad?”
I sit back in my chair, realizing I might have just dug a little too deep but when she gives me a fond smile, my body relaxes.
“Of course, there was. He was my high school sweetheart. I fell in love with him almost immediately. I was the nerdy girl who kept to herself and he was the popular bad boy who nobody could touch. I could never understand why he liked me but he did and it made me the happiest girl in the world. I was so blinded by how I felt that I never questioned his cruelty to others or ever realized what was right under my nose.”
I let out a sigh as I listen to her story and find myself leaning in, wanting to hear every last detail. “When we were married, things changed. That’s when he became possessive. I was his obsession and when I first fell pregnant with Samuel, he was jealous that the baby would take my time, but the second he was born and he laid eyes on his little boy, that possessiveness crossed over. I was forgotten as he suddenly had someone to mold into the perfect soldier that he could use and one day take over his business. I hated it. He didn’t treat him as a son, he was a weapon that would one day rule over the Mathers’ kingdom.”
“Is that when you found out you were pregnant with me?”
“Sure is.”
“So, all you ever wanted was to be a mom and play happy family?”
A breathy laugh comes from within her and she looks at me with that same sad smile that she’d reserved for Rivers before indicating around her once again. “I guess this is what you get for dreaming, huh?”
I don’t have a response, but I don’t need one as a table is flipped from the same people the ruckus had come from earlier and before I know it, guards are rushing in and putting an end to today's visit. “Thanks for coming, Henley,” Gina murmurs as she stands and waits patiently with her hands behind her back. “You’re a good kid and I hope to God that you can somehow save yourself because there’s no way in hell Anton is going to let you go.”
A guard reaches Gina and instantly starts cuffing her. “I’ll try. I’m not ready to give up yet.”
“I knew you were a fighter,” Gina murmurs with a proud grin and not a moment later, she’s taken away and disappears into a crowd of orange jumpsuits all being led out of the room, leaving me feeling as though I finally have a proper understanding of the woman who gave me away, and I couldn’t possibly be more grateful.
Chapter 10
“Ugh,” Tully groans, dropping down onto the couch and throwing herself against the backrest. “This is complete and utter bullshit.”
Aria jumps up from the ground, spinning around to point at Tully in horror as though she’s some kind of walking disease. “You said a bad word,” she squeals, jumping up and down before promptly bursting into a fit of laughter.
Tully rolls her eyes as we both watch on in amusement. “Well, you better block those ears of yours because I’m about to say a few more and they’re going to be the really bad ones.”
Aria gasps, slapping her hands over her ears as her laughter dies. Her reaction is like watching a fully blown balloon deflating into nothing. Aria bolts from the room and into the kitchen, and I can’t help but laugh as the very next words come pouring from her mouth in a loud, incessant howl. “VIOLET! TULLY SAID ‘BULLSHIT’.”
I turn to Tully with a smirk. “See what you’ve done? That’s somehow going to get back to my dad and I’m going to be the one getting in trouble for it.”
Tully rolls her eyes. “Trust me, that kid knows words a lot worse than ‘bullshit.’ I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the one at school who teaches all the other kids how to curse.”
Something tells me Tully is right but I’m not about to admit it. “What’s going on with you anyway? What has your panties in a twist?”
Violet walks into the living room with Ari hanging off of her. “Yeah, I was about to ask the same thing,” Violet says. “You’ve been in a foul mood all day.”
Tully huffs at her mother. “I have not been in a foul mood.”
“Uh huh,” she smirks, making a wide grin spread across my face. I mean, there’s nothing better than when Violet puts one of her twins in their place. “You slammed the bathroom door so hard I thought it was about to break free from the hinges, then you stomped around your room like a herd of elephants, huffing and puffing, and then you snapped at-”
“Ok, ok,” Tully cuts in with another huff. “So, I’m in a little bit of a mood. There’s no need to point it out.”
I shake my head as I turn to face her on the couch, crossing my legs under myself to give her my full attention. “You’re in more than just a ‘mood.’ What’s going on?”
Tully rolls her eyes and flops back into the couch, hating nothing more than talking about her ‘feelings’, though I guess that’s not quite accurate. She loves talking about herself and loves telling me all about her love life, but only ever when it’s something good. When something has her down, it’s like trying to get information out of a brick wall. “My letter stil
l hasn’t come from BHU and it’s been forever. I’m sick of waiting.”
“I’m sure it-”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Violet laughs, grinning down at her daughter. “That letter came over a month ago. I put it in your room so you’d see it when you came home, just like I do with everything else.”
Tully gapes up at her mother. “What?”
As if it’s the most amusing thing in the world, Violet can’t hold back her laughter. “Did you not see it? I put it right on your bed.”
Tully shoots up from the couch and flies down the hallway like a flash of lightning. I hear as she barges through her bedroom door and it rebounds off the adjoining wall only to slam shut once again with Tully on the other side.
Things start getting thrown around and it’s not long before she’s screaming down the hallway. “I can’t find it.”
“I put it on your bed.”
“Well, I’ve kind of used it a few times since then.”
Violet rolls her eyes and sits down on the armrest of the couch. “You do realize that if your room wasn’t such a disaster, you wouldn’t be having this problem.”
Tully grumbles something before her door is ripped open. She storms back up the hallway and shoots her mother with a less than impressed glare. “You’re really not helping right now.”
Violet holds up both hands. “Hey, if it wasn’t for me, you’d still be sitting on the couch thinking you didn’t get in.”
“If it wasn’t for you putting it on my bed without saying something, I’d probably already know if I got in or not.”
“Geez,” Violet sighs. “You’re just like your daddy.”
“Am not,” she demands. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything? If you thought I got the letter, wouldn’t you want to ask me if I got accepted?”
Violet’s face scrunches up and her eyes briefly flick towards me before focusing back on her daughter with guilt. “To be honest, because you didn’t say anything, I just sort of assumed you didn’t get in and that you weren’t up for talking about it.”
“WHAT?!” Tully screeches in outrage. “You just assumed I didn’t get in? What kind of mother are you?”
Violet shrugs unapologetically. “Sorry. You would have thought the same thing.”
Tully huffs in annoyance before turning her glare on me. “So, you’re just going to sit there and do nothing or were you going to help me look?”
“Do I really need to be dragged into this?”
“Yes,” Tully demands, turning on her heel and stalking back to her room. “You’ve got two seconds to get your ass in here and start looking or I’m telling Noah that you said the tattoo covering his shoulder was too feminine.”
“What?” I demand, throwing myself to my feet and stalking after her. “I never said that. You said that. And besides, he knows I love his tattoos. They’re fucking hot and you know it, you just don’t want to admit that your brother is the hottest thing in Haven Falls.”
Tully scoffs, completely ignoring my ‘hottest thing in Haven Falls’ comment. “Who’s he going to believe?”
“Me,” I laugh. “Always me.”
I can practically hear her rolling her eyes and am already grinning to myself as I push into her room. That grin instantly turns into a loud snicker as I look down and find Tully’s body shoved under her bed with her legs dangling out the back, wriggling around as she grabs items and launches them out to join the rest of the mess.
“It’s not fucking here,” she groans.
I try to hold in my laughs as much as possible as that shit is only going to warrant me a stern talking to from my best friend and honestly, I’d rather enjoy every little minute of this.
I walk over to her bed, being careful not to trip over her flailing legs as a box of extra buttery popcorn is launched across the room. I grin to myself, remembering how Tully has to hide that shit from the boys. Though, I guess it’s only being hidden from Noah now.
I dive for Tully’s bed and decide to make it easy. Grabbing a handful of sheets, I tear them straight off the bed and shake them out before dumping them on a clean space on the floor and going back for more.
“What are you doing?” Tully screeches from under the bed, clearly having seen the sheets drop.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I laugh, tearing yet another blanket off the bed. I mean, I’ve never quite understood why Tully needs so many sheets and blankets on her bed. “The letter is most likely shoved under all this crap.”
“What kind of trashy bitch do you think I am?” she demands, scooting back while groaning and huffing as she tries to reverse out from under the bed. Her head appears down by my feet and she looks up at me with an unimpressed scowl. “I wash my sheets regularly, thank you very much. It’s not going to be in there.”
“Could have fooled me,” I tease, grabbing the pile of sheets off the floor and dumping them back onto the bare mattress.
“You’re fixing that,” Tully grumbles as she gets to her feet and starts looking around.
Yeah…unlikely.
She heads for the desk and I make my way over to her shelving. This room is a freaking mess. It’s no wonder she can’t find shit in here. I start searching each shelf and have to look back over my shoulder as papers, pencils, and old school books start flying around the room. Tully groans. “Where the hell is it?”
I take that as a rhetorical question and keep searching before smothering another laugh as her desk chair goes sailing towards the window and crashes into the wall. She gives up on the desk and moves to her drawer. I look back and taking in the state of her desk, I decide it’s probably best to give it another look.
I flick through old books, check within piles of paper, and even lift her laptop to check it didn’t get lost underneath. Realizing it’s definitely not on the desk, I admit to myself that maybe Tully was right and go to check somewhere else, but as I step away from the desk, I notice a small corner of paper that’s fallen behind it.
“Hey, what’s this?” I question, leaning in closer to see if it is what I hope it is. I get down on my hand and knees and try to slide my fingers behind it to pull it out, but there’s absolutely no hope.
Tully hovers over me, moving left and right trying to see around me to get a look at the paper. “Is it the letter?”
“I don’t know,” I grumble with a pained groan as my fingers start to ache. “I can’t…quite…get it.”
“Here, let me try,” she says, barging me out of the way. “You have fat butterfingers.”
“Excuse you,” I say, getting to my feet. “My fingers are beautiful.”
Tully ignores me as she dives for the paper and I send a silent prayer, hoping that this is what we’ve been looking for. “Can you pull the desk out?”
My mouth drops open as I look at the desk. She’s got to be kidding, right? This desk has got to be one hundred years old. It’s solid wood and I’m sure probably weighs a little more than Rivers’ fucked up car out front.
I step up to the desk and grab hold of the side, laughing to myself as I imagine just how badly this could go. I give it a pull and the desk moves about a centimeter while my arms want nothing more than to fall off. Where’s Noah when you need him?
Tully slams her head right up against the wall, peering through the gap at the paper. “IT’S AN ENVELOPE,” she squeals.
Her excitement is enough to give my aching arms a new lease on life and I give the heavy desk another hard yank. It hardly moves again but it’s enough for Tully to squeeze her hand between the wall and the desk and pry the envelope out.
The second it’s free from its hiding spot, we both stare down at it. I suck in a breath, taking in the envelope. “That’s the BHU logo.”
“And it’s a big one. They don’t send rejection letters in big envelopes.”
“That’s exactly what I said.”
Unlike me who was so nervous, I was going to be sick, Tully can’t possibly wait. She tears into the envelope like there
’s no tomorrow and I fear for the safety of papers within. As she pulls the papers out and looks down at them, her wild, erratic movements become absolutely still and she concentrates with everything she’s got.
I peer over her shoulder and read the information at the top, though have to stifle a laugh at the date telling us that she’s had this letter hidden behind her desk for well over a month now. My eyes drop to the first few lines and start scanning over them. I get as far as the third word before Tully’s throwing her hands up and screaming out. “I GOT IN!”
I scream right along with her as she disregards the acceptance letter and grabs hold of me jumping up and down until we’re both on her bed, excitedly losing our minds while trying to avoid hitting our heads on the ceiling fan. “I have to call Spence and let him know.”
“Spencer is the first call you want to make?” I tease, realizing that she’s been talking more and more about him lately.
“Knock it off,” she laughs. “It’s not like that. We’re just friends.”
“What happened?” a little voice beams from Tully’s bedroom door, cutting off my taunting.
“Tully got into BHU just like me,” I squeal, making Aria laugh right along with us. It takes her all of three seconds to climb up on the bed and start jumping with us, but the fun and games promptly die as the bed caves under our weight. A loud, sickening crack is heard before the bed drops to the floor with a heavy crash.
I grab hold of Ari as Tully grabs hold of me, the three of us falling off the edge and crashing down onto the floor with a bang. My ass gets the brunt of it as Ari falls right down on top of me while I’m pretty sure Tully landed on her hip.
“Shit,” I groan, pushing Ari off me so I can attempt to get up.
“What the hell is happening in here?” Violet shrieks from the doorway before taking in the broken bed and gaping at us like we’re idiots. Though…she could be onto something.
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 9