When The Grave Calls (The Veil Diaries #9) - B.L. Brunnemer Page 0,41

might have, but now? No. I wouldn’t do that anymore. “If there is hope of any kind of relationship, we have to deal with the past.”

She clenched her jaw as her body leaned toward me. “It was all the drugs. Can’t we leave it at that?” she hissed.

“No.” I wasn’t going to back down. I couldn’t. “I’m not going to just sweep all this under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen. Not this time.”

“Lexie!” Mom bit back. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way, you know I don’t like it.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you like or don’t. I didn’t like being called a demon child, but you did it. For years!” I bellowed, the words tasting bitter and acidic as I spat them at her.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Rory demanded as he strode out of the house and to my side.

Mom turned to Rory, squaring her shoulders as she lifted her chin defiantly at him. “I wanted to see my daughter.”

Rory dropped his hands to his sides where they formed fists that were clenched so tightly his knuckles had already turned white. “We had a deal. You take the check, and you don’t contact her,” he growled.

My stomach tightened into a painful knot. “Check?”

Rory nodded. “She came to town three days ago to borrow money so she could set back up in Los Angeles.”

Mom turned to me. She reached for my arm. “I also wanted to see you.”

I stepped out of her reach and looked around me. The twins had hands on Maria as they watched from the front porch. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes hard as she watched my mother. Rory stood beside me, tense and on stand-by. Every one of them was waiting, waiting for me to make a decision.

All the anger and fear and anxiety drained from my body as realization dawned on me. She hadn’t come for me. She’d just come for money. I shook my head. Suddenly everything I’d ever wanted to say to her surged forward but died on my lips as I remembered the beating, the pain. The things she said. My throat tightened as I opened my mouth to say everything I had ever wanted to say to her, only to find that the words were no longer there.

The woman standing across from me wouldn’t care. Not like Maria cared about the twins, all of us really. Not like Sylvie cared about Zeke. Not like Rory cared. He had two daughters who weren’t biologically his and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. This woman wouldn’t, couldn’t, give me the answers I wanted. She’d never been able to. My questions simply didn’t matter enough to her. I didn’t matter to her. I looked back at the people who were now surrounding me. I mattered to them. And she wasn’t worth my time, not anymore.

So, I did the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

I let go of the hate, the fear, the pain that I’d been wrapping myself up in for so long. The knot in my stomach eased as my mind and emotions finally calmed. “Goodbye, Lisa. Don’t ever contact me again.”

Zeke squeezed my fingers.

She stood there blinking for several heartbeats, mouth hanging partly open. “Lexie … I’m your mother. We’re family.”

“No. We really aren’t,” I said, making sure to enunciate every word for her before I turned and looked up at Rory. “Make her leave, please.”

Zeke blocked her view of me as I walked back into the house, past the guys. The crowd split for me, each of them touching me as I passed into the house. The love that radiated from them warmed my heart. They were my family.

Uma, Brody and Rory ended up talking for a full hour before Rory finally agreed to let me stay. Though, to be honest, he didn’t really have much of a choice and he knew it. Eventually it was time to say goodbye.

“That’s everything,” Rory announced.

My heart felt heavy as I got to my feet and followed them out to the car where Tara, Lucy and Jessica waited. “Are you sure?” I knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Rory turned to me on the walkway, jaw clenched. “Yeah, kid. We need to get on the road and put as much distance between us and this town as possible.”

Maria and the twins began talking animatedly in Spanish on the other side of the SUV. Asher met Jessica on the