She tugged at my grip on her hand. “It’s not going to be easy,” she muttered.
“I know. I want an explanation, Thea. We’re not breaking that vacation until you tell me what happened, what sent you running—if not in body, in spirit.”
She swallowed, and the gesture was thick. Like it was involuntarily done. Maybe it was. She certainly looked queasy at the memory.
“You shouldn’t remind me,” she whispered. “If you do, I might come to my senses.”
“I think we proved last week that neither of us has much sense where we’re concerned.”
Her chin tipped up. “Maybe not, but for your safety, for your sake, I’d try.”
I narrowed my eyes at that definitely unusual phrasing. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m cursed, Adam.”
For a second, I thought she was joking. I wanted to laugh, I even started to, but she was so serious, so earnest, that I stopped myself just in time.
The last thing I wanted was to piss her off enough to make her storm away, and even though she might look as innocent as a nun, she wasn’t.
She was fire, not ice.
I rubbed my free hand over my lips, trying to discern what the fuck she was talking about.
That she believed such nonsense, I knew, was because of her heritage, and I didn’t want to mock her culture. That kind of stuff...it was make-believe. Wasn’t it? And yet, she’d altered her life course because of it. Shit, she’d altered our life courses because of it.
“Why do you think you’re cursed?” I asked carefully, trying to keep my skepticism out of my tone.
“Because I visited my mother in jail—”
“You did? When?” I demanded, even as hurt filled me that she hadn’t told me she was going to see her.
“A few months before graduation,” she muttered, her gaze on the ground. She toed the sidewalk a little with the toe of her sneaker. “It didn’t go well. She asked me not to visit her again.”
Everything in me stiffened in outrage on her behalf. “Are you shitting me?”
“No. She said it was for my sake.”
Was it? I tried to think that through. Tried to imagine telling Freddie not to come visit me if I ever found myself in that similar, horrific position.
But I couldn’t.
Because I wouldn’t.
How had her mother killed to protect Thea, to defend her against her father, then turn her back on her like that?
It was like she wanted to be erased from Thea’s life.
For a second, I was speechless, unsure of what to say to make things right when there was nothing I could say to make that better.
I guessed that, when the time came for Thea to meet her mom, I thought there’d be a grand reunion. The likes of which you saw on soap operas and shit. I’d never imagined Thea’s mother wouldn’t be happy to reconnect with her daughter.
“That sucks,” I rasped, and while it wasn’t particularly poetic, it was the truth.
She grimaced. “I get the feeling she was doing it for my benefit.”
“I wonder if she watched the Olympics,” I mused, the skepticism I’d felt earlier starting to slip into my words.
She cut me a look. “She isn’t the type to ask for money, if that’s what you’re thinking. Anyway, I told you long ago—I’ll get her out. Even if it costs me millions.”
“Which you have to spend now,” I pointed out, well aware from what my father had disclosed that she was going to be earning tens of millions of dollars over the next few years with proper management. “When are you getting the lawyers in on this?”
“The second I get enough to retain one. The contracts are still being negotiated.”
“My dad plays hardball,” I commented gruffly, glad for her sake that he did, because she sure as hell wouldn’t. Thea’s hunger wasn’t for money. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was for…freedom?
Maybe.
It fit more than a zealous need for material stuff that wouldn’t serve her.
“Yeah, and it will get me more money to get her out of that place.”
I tugged at my lip once more. “What if—”
“I’ve already thought of that,” she muttered, like she could read my mind. She straightened her shoulders like she was bracing herself for future blows, and if that didn’t fill me with rage, I wasn’t sure what would. “Whether or not she wants anything to do with me, I’ll get her out. She doesn’t deserve to be in there. I can’t stand it,” she admitted. “I go to sleep thinking of her in that place. It’s horrible.”