The Enemy - Kelsey Clayton Page 0,92

and my jaw ticks. "Oh, hell no."

Brady and Sav follow behind me as I storm out of the room and burst through the front doors. The woman's eyes widen as she sees how angry I am, but this is not the time for this shit. Not now. Not after being gone for fifteen fucking years.

"You need to leave," I demand.

She sighs. "I know, and if that's what you really want me to do, I deserve it, but I had to come see you."

I snort sarcastically. "What, now that it's convenient for you? What happened? Did your other family not love you enough? Did you fucking walk out on them, too?"

She jerks back in shock. "I didn't walk out on you. Lennon, your dad—"

"Don't! My dad is the one who took care of me my whole life! The one who held me at three years old when I cried my eyes out because Mommy wasn't coming back! Don't you dare say anything about him to me."

She winces and her eyes fill with tears, but I'm not falling for it. I step back and find comfort between Savannah and Brady. My mother nods as she realizes I want no part of her and whatever the hell caused her to come here.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'll leave," she says. "But I really hope one day you learn the truth of why I left. You deserve that much."

"What I deserved was a mother who stayed, no matter what."

I wipe a stray tear away from my face, because she doesn't get to watch me cry. Brady leads us back inside, while Savannah holds me close. They take me into the office, where no one from the outside can see, and I finally come crumbling down. From the shit with Cade. To my dad. To now my long-lost mother appearing out of the blue.

It's all too much.

I STEP IN MY house for the first time in over a week. Everything looks the same, but it's different. It lacks the comforting feeling I always got when I was here. All the memories that fill this place from when I was a child until now, and not a single one feels significant anymore.

My dad steps out of his office, and when he sees me, his eyes soften. "Lennon, thank God." He rushes over to hug me, and for a moment, I let him. "I tried calling you over a hundred times. I was worried sick."

I shrug. "Honestly, I didn't want to talk to you. After everything that happened with Cade, I..."

He puts a hand up and stops me from talking. "It doesn't matter. You're home now."

The two of us walk into the living room and sit down. I waste no time in dropping the same bomb that exploded on my life today.

"I saw Mom earlier."

His brows furrow. "Since when did you start calling Nora ‘Mom?’"

I shake my head. "No. I saw Mom. As in, my actual mother."

His eyes widen for a moment, but he composes himself. "Well, that must have come as a shock. Where did this happen?"

"She showed up at the studio during rehearsal."

"Wow," he murmurs. "Did she say anything? Did you two talk?"

My head tilts side to side. "If you call me screaming at her talking, then sure."

He chuckles. "You always were the 'take no shit' kind of kid."

I smile, but then her words echo in my head. "She did say one thing though. Pressed on it, actually, which made it kind of strange."

"What's that?"

"She said she didn't choose to leave me, but you always said she couldn't take being a mom. That she walked out on both of us and never looked back."

My dad chokes on air and coughs for a second, clearing his throat. He tries to play it cool, but I've known this man my whole life. Judging by that reaction, there's something I don't know, and he definitely gave it away.

"Dad?"

He waves it off. "She's always had a few screws loose in the head."

"Dad."

"It's not true."

I sigh heavily, feeling my heart break. "Dad."

His head drops and he rubs his hands together, his own nervous habit. "Everything I did, I did for you."

Not this again.

I roll my eyes and stand up. "Do you know how sick I am of hearing that lately?"

"Lennon, I mean it."

"Just like you meant it when you said she walked out? Completely on her own accord, right?" I huff and shake my head. "What were you going to do if I had wanted to see her when you had that