old coworkers and volunteers she had worked with, Tanya Martin. So many people, offering condolences, asking for her to get in touch, sending good wishes. The volume was overwhelming.
There wasn’t anything from her mother, but email was not Gloria’s preferred method of communication. She had an email account that she checked from time to time, but the phone was how she chose to reach out, and Molly knew her old phone number had been deactivated after the bill had gone unpaid.
Julia had sent dozens of emails. Dozens. Molly covered her mouth as she scrolled through them. She opened some at random and read through them. The first ones sounded calmer, but the later emails were more erratic. She let her head hang and sighed.
She was a bad friend. Julia had listened to her so many times over the past several years, and Molly had dropped her without so much as a word.
And she was here to confront everything she had left dangling from her old life, not just to deal with legalities, possibly confront bad guys, or claim her estate.
First things first. She composed a blast email that was warm and reassuring but not apologetic. She would not apologize for doing what she needed to do to stay safe. She also didn’t go into details. The fact that she was a person of interest in an ongoing police investigation was nobody’s business.
She sent the blast email off to everybody except for her mother, Julia, and her real estate agent, Tanya. For each of them, she composed personal messages and added her new phone number. After sending those, there was nothing more she could do that night, so she went to bed.
Where was Josiah resting? Was his coven looking out for him like Molly’s was looking after her? She stared sightlessly at the darkened ceiling until her eyelids closed and she drifted into a doze.
Her phone shrilled. Josiah. Bolting to a sitting position, she snatched it up. “Hello?”
Julia’s choked voice sounded on the other end. “Molly, is that really you?”
Disappointment plunged her eagerness into a downward spiral. She glanced at the motel’s luminous red bedside alarm clock. The time was just after midnight. It was stupid to think he might have called. If he was anything like she was when she’d been injured, he must be deeply asleep. He might not wake up until the next afternoon, if then.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s really me.”
“Oh my God.” Julia started sobbing.
It took several minutes of disjointed conversation to calm her down. It sounded like Julia had been drinking, but Molly stuck with it.
“I still can’t believe I’m talking to you,” Julia said. “I have to see you in person. When can we get together?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “There’s so much going on right now. I spent hours at the police station. They wanted to question me about what happened the night Austin died.”
“Why did you disappear without a word? Not even your mother knew where you’d gone.”
“Austin attacked me that night,” she said bluntly. Not everybody needed to know every little thing about her life, but she was also done with pulling her punches or sugarcoating reality. “I got away, but I was afraid he might try again.”
“Oh. My. God,” Julia breathed. “Where are you? I really need to see you.”
“Now?” She glanced at the clock again. “It’s almost one in the morning. What about Drew and Philip?”
“A lot has changed since you left. I left Philip and went into therapy, a-and my parents have taken Drew for the summer so I can get my shit together. They’re taking great care of him.” Julia sounded bitter. “They’re taking him to s-swim lessons and riding therapy, and he loves it. He’s better off with them than he ever was with me.”
“I don’t believe that,” Molly said in a gentle voice.
“I do.” Julia laughed wildly. She sounded dangerously unsteady. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Molly.”
“Well, speaking for tonight, I don’t know that you should come here. It sounds like you’ve been drinking. You shouldn’t be on the road.”
“Yes, I’ve been drinking, but so what? Who cares!” Julia exclaimed. “I can get a taxi. Come on. I’ve got things I need to say to you, and I’ve had them bottled up inside for months. Please?”
Ugh. She let her head hang again as she considered. It might be one in the morning in Atlanta, but her body clock thought it was three hours earlier, and now she’d napped she felt wide awake. “Sure,