A little girl rode her bicycle on the sidewalk ahead of her mother, who pushed a stroller with a baby waving happily. Lena turned her head and followed them a few more seconds from the passenger seat of her car. The cool weather had the leaves blowing off the trees and caused redness to paint the child's cheeks.

Letting the scene leave, she looked in front of her at the corner store—a Swift Mart. A van load of young boys spilled out of the side door in blue and white soccer uniforms. Their spirits high, she could practically hear their squeals and yells over the radio playing in the car.

Thad's hand on her thigh squeezed. She glanced at him. For the last hour, he hadn't taken his hand off her. He spent the time either holding her leg, her hand, or leaning over when traffic stopped to kiss her.

The question in his gaze remained the same. How was she?

She'd told him at least twenty times over the last two hours she was fine. The visit to her mother's house couldn't hurt her. It was the ride home alone with Thad that she dreaded.

"We only have a mile until we arrive," said Thad.

She looked away from him and concentrated on the world outside the car. They'd entered the residential area of her youth. Instead of people, she spotted the curb she hit with her skateboard, scraping the skin off both knees. An older woman from the brown house came out and put Band-Aids on her injuries. She had never learned the lady's name, but it was the first time someone had taken care of her when she'd been hurt. She was fourteen years old at the time. That day remained branded in her head.

The car slowed down. Lena dragged her gaze forward. Her childhood home sat in front of her. A one-story brick house. Ugly and barely maintained. What had happened inside the home was like nothing she'd ever viewed throughout the years from the outside of other houses, through the open curtains.

Thad stopped the vehicle at the curb and shut off the engine. "Anytime you want to leave, just say so, and I'll take you home."

She waited for her heartbeat to accelerate. Instead, a chill went down her spine.

"I need to ask you for a favor," she said, knowing Thad was not the kind of man to stand and be the observer. He'd try to protect her, and things could get ugly.

"Anything." He rubbed her leg.

"When we go inside, don't..." She inhaled deeply. "Things will be different than you're used to with your family. It's okay, and you don't have to make them change."

He frowned. She patted his hand and opened the car door before he could question her further.

Outside, the wind hit her face. She zipped her coat higher and waited for Thad on the sidewalk, then grabbed his hand and led him to the door. The faster they got this over with, the better.

She knocked on the door and held onto Thad. Not because she needed the support, but because her time was limited. She had no idea if standing here would be the last time she touched him.

The door opened, and a man stood in front of her. It took a few seconds for the man Jack to morph into the boy Jack and recognition come to her. The round face and baby fat still clung to her brother's body, along with the too long hair in need of a trim.

Jack glanced from her to Thad and back to her again. "I thought you weren't going to come."

Taken aback by the deeper voice coming from her brother, she said, "I changed my mind."

Jack stepped back and waved his hand. "Come on in."

She held on to Thad's hand and stepped inside. The stale smell of tobacco clung to the walls and assaulted her nose. She gagged, covering her nose. Thad pulled her closer, putting his arm around her.

Jack walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Lena remained standing. The urge to hurry the visit along poked her continuously. She swallowed several times to make sure she wasn't going to lose her stomach.

"Why did you hire Notus Motorcycle Club to find me?" she asked.

"I'm sure he told you." Jack pointed at Thad. "Mom's dying."

"That has nothing to do with me." She clamped her teeth. Before she'd walked through the door, she promised herself not to get defensive.

Jack hefted himself off the couch and walked over to the book case and removed an envelope. Approaching her, he handed it to her. She looked down and read her old name on the piece of mail.

"What is this?"

Jack motioned to her hands. "Open it."

She slid her finger under the flap, prying the adhesive apart. Extracting the paper, she unfolded the official looking document. It was her mother's Last Will and Testament. She scanned down where her mother named her and Jack as her adult children.

"You can skip to the end," said Jack.

Her gaze flickered down, and she read. Her mother was going to legally disown her upon her death. She was blocked from contesting the will, going after the house that her brother inherited, and getting any shares of the money in her mother's bank account.

She refolded the paper, slipped it into the envelope, and put the official mail in the back pocket of her jeans. Her mom wasted her money getting the legal document drawn up. She wanted nothing.

"That protects me." Jack pointed at her. "You can't sue me or stop the lawyer from giving me everything."

"I don't want anything," she said.

"You say that now, but that paper will stop you from coming back after mom is dead." Jack's eyes lit up in amusement. "You never did anything for her. She doesn't owe you a penny."

"You're right." She was bored with the conversation. "You should've saved your money on the search for me and posted the information in the newspaper instead."

Jack frowned. "The lawyer said we needed to give that to you."

"Then, you should've paid a better lawyer." She dared not look at Thad, or she'd demand he walk her out. Instead, she directed her attention to her brother. "I take it she's still alive."

Jack exhaled loudly as if he too was bored with the conversation. "She's in her room. It's been three weeks or so since she's been able to get out of bed. She's still talking when she's awake, but she sleeps a lot. The Hospice nurse keeps saying one day she won't wake up. She's stopped eating, and they removed the feeding tube."

"I'm going to go see her, and then I'll be out of your life for good." She grabbed Thad's hand and led him out of the room, down the hall, and stopped in front of a closed door.

Thad pulled her back and whispered, "Babe, you don't need to do this."

"Yes, I do." She lifted her chin, unwilling to lower her voice and hide anything from him. "It's the only way you'll understand what kind of person I am."

"Jesus Christ," he mumbled. "Do you think I give a rat's ass what other people say or think."

"You might." She opened the door.

In the bedroom, her mother laid on her back in bed, looking older than her sixty-four years. The blonde hair she remembered her mom styling every morning had been reduced to a few wisps of fuzz on a bald head. Her sculpted cheekbones even higher in her sunken face. Her mom's appearance came as a shock. She was no longer a woman to fear and had become a poster model for Hospice.

"She's sleeping," said Lena.

She leaned against Thad, unable to hide her disappointment. The purpose of the trip to Eugene was to show Thad why she lived the way she did and had asked him to have a non-committal relationship with her.

Determined to get the job done in one trip, she stepped away from Thad. Not wanting to touch her mother, Lena cleared her throat. Her mom stirred, moaning so low that it was barely audible in the silent room. She stared at her mother's eyelids as they fluttered open and she saw the moment her mom recognized her long, lost daughter.

"W-where's Jack?" The weak, shaky voice was nothing like the stern, loud one Lena remembered.

"In the living room." Lena walked around the bed and stood at the other side. She wanted to see Thad as her relationship with her mother became clearer to him. "Jack gave me the will. At least you did one thing off your bucket list. I'm no longer your daughter as soon as you die."

Thad's gaze intensified and he refused to look away from Lena. She looked back down at her mother. There were no hurt feelings over being disowned. She only wished her mom had given her away years ago.

"I-I never wanted you," whispered her mom. "I should've had an abortion and got rid of you, but he wouldn't let me."

She'd heard the story her whole life. Her father wouldn't let her mom get an abortion, yadda yadda. She was the reason her dad left when she was born. She made her mom suffer and work two jobs to feed her. According to Amelia Grayson, Lena caused every hardship that came her mom's way.

"Yes, you should've gotten rid of me," she said, holding up her hand when Thad stepped toward the end of the bed to come to her.

"You...." Her mom wheezed. "There was nothing about you to love. I hated you, and that's your fault."

Lena stared at her mom because she couldn't make herself look at Thad. Her mom had specified what Thad refused to see. She hoped he'd heard and understood. She never wanted Thad to love her because he'd only be hurt when the disenchantment of their relationship wore off. When one of them had a bad day and took it out on each other, he'd hate her. When she eventually irritated him, Thad would be reminded of how Lena's own mother believed she was unlovable, and he'd believe it was true and leave her.

"I know," whispered Lena, feeling the weight of the burden placed around her neck.

Thad grabbed her arm. "That's enough. We're leaving."

She let him pull her around the bed. The room swayed, and she hoped she wouldn't pass out.

"You're just like him," said her mom, her voice stronger. "Despicable and disappointing."

Lena stopped and looked over her shoulder at her mom. "Like who?"

"Alexander Grimaldi." Her mom's mouth opened and shut several times, and she sputtered, "Your father."

She turned her head and looked up at Thad. "My...?"

"Fuck," he muttered, practically lifting her off her feet as he removed her from the room.

Her father? Her dad left when she was born. His name was Steve Grayson.

Thad hurried her through the house. Jack stepped in front of the door and Thad pushed him out of the way with one hand solidly planted on her brother's chest. Outside, Thad cut across the lawn and put her in the passenger seat of the car. She looked back at the house as he buckled the seatbelt around her. What had her mother meant? Was she delusional? People dying were often incoherent. She was probably on drugs to make her passing painless.

She knew who her father was because she'd been blamed for him leaving her whole life.

Her brother peeked out from behind the curtain in the living room. From the outside, Lena watched him cover up the secrets of the house. There was nothing normal that ever happened in that home.