wouldn’t come if I asked nicely, and I knew there was no way my husband’s bastard would let anyone else get close to you, so I decided to bring you back myself. You’re going to fix Sawyer, Olivia. You owe us after everything we did for you and your mother.”
I balked and curled my fingers even tighter around the canister hidden behind my back. I was going back over my dead body.
“You’re underestimating how well I can take care of myself. All I ever wanted was to get away from Sawyer. I’m okay on my own. I miss my mom, but I’m grateful every single day you can no longer use her against me.”
I was fortunate I found Huck and that we had reconciled, but I knew now that I could go on without him if I had to. He was my safe space in this chaotic and ruthless world. It was a treasured, hallowed place for sure. But he didn’t make up the entirety of my world the way I had for Sawyer.
Mrs. Richman shrieked and slammed her coffee mug down on the counter with enough force it broke. I flinched as she reached for the handgun, eyes going wide and wild as she continued to scream at me.
“You should’ve died that night! Everything is your fault! I lost my son because of you! I lost my husband because of you! Do you know how people have looked at me since Sawyer went away? As if something is wrong with him. Like I was a bad mother. The world will be a better place without you in it!”
Her tirade was interesting, yet not at all surprising. Huck’s dad had finally had enough and cut this awful woman loose? That would make why she had finally gone fully over the edge a little more understandable. All she had ever cared about was how much she had and how much she could keep others from having.
I recoiled when she suddenly pointed the gun at me, but I could tell by the awkward way she held it, she was unfamiliar with the weapon.
“You can threaten my landlord, my friends, and Huck. None of that is going to make Sawyer well or earn you any points with Huck’s dad. At the rate you’re going, you’re going to end up in prison. Without your husband’s name behind you, you’re finally going to have to see how the justice system works for those who can’t negotiate or barter for their innocence. If you end up behind bars, how are you ever going to check on Sawyer? How are you going to take care of him once he’s released from that facility? No one, and I mean no one, is going to be there for him besides you. Is that what you want? Have you really thought this through, Mrs. Richman?” Even if she did manage to drag me back to the mansion, Sawyer was in a facility where going to see him was a whole ordeal. Her threats served no purpose. She was just looking for someone to blame for her shortcomings.
She looked at me and then at the gun in her hand. Her maniacal gaze sharpened, and the look on her face was enough to make my blood go ice cold. “Of course that’s not what I want. What I want is for you to tell my son you love him. Promise you’ll be with him forever. Make him feel like he’s your favorite for once in your pathetic life. I want you to make him the way he was before you broke him by abandoning him. What I really want is for you to die the way you should have the night of the accident. You should be the one ready to take your own life, not my Sawyer. He’s destined for greatness. You’re destined for…” she sneered a little and waved the gun in the air. “For nothing more than that heathen I was forced to share my home and my husband with.”
She wasn’t wrong.
I was pretty sure I was destined to be with Huck as well.
“I was never even slightly tempted to kill myself. Not even when Sawyer made me question if I had a life worth living. That night I was driving and I lost control because of him. It wasn’t even an accident. That’s it.” Not that she would believe a word I had to say about that night anyway. “I’m sorry it happened, but whatever you think you’re