One week later, our time was really up.

In retrospect, I guess I should’ve seen it coming.

I should’ve realized the bright and friendly questions from Deb Stone, the girl new to our floor, would come back and bite me in the ass.

She wouldn’t meet my eyes when I left that Friday for my twice-weekly trip back home. I usually had a quick visit with Nicky but those were short, maybe a dinner or he and I would go see a movie. It was hard enough to stomach being in the house with Mother twice a week. Having to deal with her more often than that was just too much.

The new girl absolutely loved to talk, but one day all of a sudden, she barely even looked at me as I waved at her where she sat in the communal area as I passed by. Naomi hummed out a mock funeral dirge that later proved to be quite fitting. She’d be the one to hold me when I cried later that night—I’d never spend another night in Mother’s house again, not for several years.

The day seemed so…normal. Late April, the heat promising that we’d have the typical Louisiana summer, but for now, it was warm without being oppressive and the beauty of spring was everywhere.

I thought maybe I’d talk Nicky into going out for some crawfish and a movie. We’d be out late and that meant neither of us would need to deal with Mother until sometime tomorrow, assuming she even spent much time at home. She’d told me a few days ago she’d be spending a great deal of time traveling when she wasn’t getting chemotherapy. “There are things I haven’t done yet. I plan to do them.” I had no idea why she’d called me out of the blue for the short chat we’d had, but maybe the possibility that she wouldn’t beat the cancer was making her think about things.

I could hope.

I could wish.

I could remind myself that I should know better.

Mother wasn’t traveling.

When I made it home, she was waiting for me in the family room, and when I hesitated in the doorway, she waved me in. “Come, sit…we’ll be having company before long.”

“I kind of had plans with Nicky,” I lied. I didn’t want to spend time with her idea of company.

“You’ll have to adjust to our schedules, Dorothea,” she said coolly. She looked me up, then down, her lips pursing as she took in the blue jeans and striped blue and white shirt I wore with a pair of red espadrilles. “It would be too much to ask you to change, wouldn’t it? We’ll be leaving shortly to go visit a friend of mine.”

Setting my jaw, I mentally counted to ten. “I didn’t dress with plans to go visiting or for business, Mother. Nor did I pack with such thoughts in mind. Casual is all I have. If it’s that important, we can schedule a time next week after my classes, and I can meet you wherever you like.”

“No.” She waved a hand. “This concerns your brother so you’ll…have to do.”

There was a knock at the door a moment later, but Alice got to it first. She shot me a tight-lipped glance, and before I could ask her how she was, she quickly shook her head.

I blinked in surprise as Alice ushered in Deb. “Hey…what are you…”

She didn’t look at me. Not even once. Instead, she kept her gaze on her shoes as Alice gestured to the salon. Alice didn’t escort her, a sign that things were worse than normal between Alice and Mother. For a moment, Alice turned to look at me, and unspoken things passed between us. She reached out a hand toward me and unconsciously, I took it.

“You’ve always been such a good girl, Thea,” Alice said. Then, from inside her pocket, she withdrew something and pressed it into my hand.

As she walked off, I looked down, confused. The folded envelope there didn’t do my twitching nerves much good. I recognized Alice’s neat handwriting.

“Do join us, Dorothea,” Mother called from inside the salon.

My legs wooden, eyes reading the neat script of my name over and over, I moved into the salon.

My stomach rolled and pitched when I saw Deb sitting next to my mother.

Deb.

Deb Stone.

The new girl.

The dorm room chick from down the hall.

What was she doing here? At my house?

And sitting next to my mother. The dragon, LeVan had called her. And in that moment, it made more sense than ever before. Swallowing the knot in my throat, I tucked the folded envelope into my pocket and met my mother’s blue-gray eyes. My eyes were blue, and larger—they didn’t make me think of my mother when I looked at my reflection, but I had a brief thought in that moment. If I were to see my face right then, I imagined my gaze had just grown as cold as hers.

“What is going on?” I asked coolly, looking from her to Deb. “Or do I even need to ask?”

Deb glanced at my mother from the corner of her eye.

“Your friend and I have…talked from time to time,” Mother said.

No. Not Mother. LeVan had been right. She might’ve birthed me, but she’d never been my mother.

Melody, unaware of the fissure forming in my heart, continued. “She’s been so…informative, telling me about things going on at school, your projects, your grades…your extracurricular activities.”

“You mean the fact that I’m still seeing LeVan,” I said bluntly. “Did you ask her to spy on us, too? What’s the matter…wasn’t your little PI stunt enough to keep up with me?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

“And Deb? Really? What did she offer you? Some quick cash, I’d bet.”

In a way, Deb was lucky. I later learned she’d betrayed me for a few hundred bucks Mother had slipped her way during that surprise visit to my dorm, simply because Deb had loose lips and didn’t know when to shut up. But betrayal or not, she wasn’t the real problem.

As both Mother and Deb fought to find words, I had no problem saying what had been brewing, sitting at the tip of my tongue for ages. “Just how far would you go, Mother? I should’ve known you’d stop this low. To be willing to pay someone to find out if I’m fucking him? What does it matter to you anyway? You don’t give a damn about me. This isn’t even about him.”

Melody’s face went an uncomfortable shade of red and she got up from the couch. Shooting Deb a look, she flicked a hand at the door. “You may go now.”

“Oh, no…” I blocked her when she tried to scurry past me. “You were eager enough to take whatever money she paid you to spy on me. Now you can watch the fallout.”

She tried again to go around me and I held my arms out, not caring how physical this was going to get. “Try to make another go around me and I’ll put you on the ground,” I warned her.

Deb shot Melody a panicked look. “Mrs. Kent!”

“Ms. Kent, girl!” Melody barked.

I laughed. “Yes, don’t call her Mrs. She probably doesn’t want the added reminder she isn’t Mrs. Vanderbilt.” I sneered at her. “That’s what this is about…” I directed the words at Deb, but kept my eyes on Melody. “She had an obsession for a man who didn’t love her. He loved another woman. Mother was always a bigoted piece of work, I imagine, but then the guy she wanted went and married a black woman who outclassed my mother in every way—”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare!” She drew back her shoulders as she shouted, as if that threat of another slap across my face could ever silence me this time. “You have no idea what it is you’re rambling on about. Toya was the piece of trash who took the man who loved me.”

“He must not have loved you that much if he let himself get stolen away,” I mocked.

As Melody crossed the floor toward me, Deb found the opening she needed to slip past me. I was so done with that backstabbing bitch anyway.

But Melody also found an opening. She slapped me as glanced to one side to see the door slam shut. It stung my skin, but in my heart, I felt nothing. I took the pain as a badge of honor.

“What do you hate the most about us, Mother? The fact that he looks so much like his father? That he’s half black? Or that he loves me in spite of your ridiculously useless interference?”

Then she lifted her hand at a second time.

But I lifted mine and it was balled into a fist. “Don’t. You’ve raised your hand to me for the last time. The next time you do it, it will end up with you on the floor and you just might need an ambulance. Now…” I drew in a deep breath. “I’m going to go get my little brother. We’re going to a movie and then to dinner. You and I? Well, there’s nothing left.”

That talk would’ve been about how things would go with Nicky but I’d known that I couldn’t just leave things as they were.

But Melody Kent was sly…sly like a snake. And cunning. But her specialty was that vindictive way she had about her. She was sure to make me pay for this. My bet was she’d already made plans of her own.

And she had.

She smiled at me, a sickening, gloating smile.

“Ah, yes…your little brother.” She turned then and moved over to the bar service. With the cancer eating away at her, she had apparently decided to stop worrying about taking care of her liver anymore. The glass she picked up was one more suited to gin and tonic but she filled it to the top with bourbon. Turning, she smiled at me before taking a sip. “Go on, go check out your brother’s room, darling daughter. Then go have a chat with Alice. But you better hurry. I hear she’s planning on today being her last day. It’s probably not, given she’s threatened to quit so many times. But whatever. Go on, take a peek at Nicky’s room.”

* * *

Nicky’s room was empty.

Disturbingly empty.

Posters on the wall of the video games and movies he loved so much were gone and there was a hole in the wall. An odd random thought occurred to me—it was about the size of someone’s head.

“He got…upset,” Alice said softly from behind me. “He had one of his spells, the kind he had so often when he was little.”

“He hit his head against the wall.” I didn’t need her to tell me anything else.

“Actually, he tripped,” she said.

I turned to look at her.

She inclined her head. “You’ll likely hear a different version and I was told to say that was the version and the only version, especially if I had plans of finding another job. But I’d rather spend the rest of my life scanning groceries at the Piggly Wiggly than lie for that woman.” Her eyes gleamed hot and bright. “The only reason I stayed here as long as I did was for the two of you and now he’s gone…”

“What do you mean, gone? Alice, where’s my brother?” I demanded, crossing over to her. I caught her arms and squeezed without meaning to.

She reached up and with a gentle hand, she cupped my cheek. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ll take you. But…we won’t be able to see him. She made sure of that.”

* * *

Sunny Vista.

That was all the sign read.

Nothing on it said institution or anything like it. In truth, it looked more like a home than anything else.

When we walked inside, we found ourselves in what looked like a beautiful, open, airy foyer—albeit a damn big one. We weren’t alone for too long when a woman dressed in a sweater set and slacks came walking up to us.

“Ms. Kent.” She turned to Alice. “It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Winston. We’ve been expecting you.”

“Is my brother here?” I demanded.

“Yes.” She gave me a look that was almost impossible to read. “I…please understand, there’s only a limited amount of information I’m allowed to share with you, but I was told I could answer some questions, and that if he was unaware you were there, you could see him.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“I can’t allow that.” She looked genuinely sorry.

“Because of my mother,” I said.

“She’s his legal guardian.” The words were stated with the same intonation as if she’d been explaining the sky was blue and the sun rose in the east.

“Please let me see him,” I begged, defeat washing over me.

That was probably the day Alice was most tempted to follow through and quit. But she never did. She loved Nicky too much, and thank God for that, because she was Nicky’s only other lifeline.