Mi was crazy, not that I didn’t already know that, but even more so. She was an expert con man, even bigger than Paxton.

“I’ll do the talking. Just follow my lead, okay?” she coaxed.

Of course I agreed. I didn’t know what to say.

“Hi, I called earlier. I’m Mi Chin, head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine.”

“Oh yeah, I’m a little busy, but you can go on back. It’s the Honda with the missing bumper along the fence,” the guy explained while searching for a key amongst a thousand other ones. There was no way in hell he would find it in that mess. No way. “Here you go. Lucky for you it was stuck underneath the front bumper in one of those magnet things. Stay on the path, don’t go wandering around out there. It’s dangerous. I hope you feel better,” he added, sincere eyes on me.

Mi responded, and I nodded with a smile. “For sure, we will,” she agreed. Mi took the key and shoved me along.

I walked out the backdoor with Mi, praying to God that we found something. Anything.

“I thought you delivered babies,” I questioned. Mostly for my nerves. I needed something to distract me.

“I do, but I figured I’d say it was your car, and we needed to find answers for your condition. House breaks into people’s homes all the time to diagnose people.”

I refrained from telling her she wasn’t Gregory House, frowning instead.

A sadness fell upon me when we neared the car. It wasn’t a good car. Izzy didn’t have things like I did. I couldn’t even fathom the thought of that car making it from Michigan to Florida. I felt guilty, wondering if I had given her the better life. Maybe hers was worse. Maybe I should have stayed Izzy.

The feeling that came over me from sitting in her car was surreal, eerie, like she was with me. I instantly smiled when I looked up, seeing the dark haired little boy pinned to the sun visor. A definite Delgardo grinned back at me through a badge. Had it not been for his Superman shirt, he could have passed for a little girl. Shiny black hair curled at the nape of his neck, and his long eyelashes bowed up. Just like mine, Izzy’s, and Ophelia’s. The similar guilt about leaving my twin blanketed me once again, knowing I let him down, too.

I took the button from the visor and pinned it to my shirt. Mi’s shirt. It had some dumb saying about changing the way you look at things. Exactly what I pictured Mi in.

The car seat in the backseat hit me harder than I expected. I couldn’t believe it. I had a nephew. I reached for a manila folder next to Van’s seat, flipping the flap to see her orders from children’s services. She’d been seeing him every other week, preparing for his return home. A drug completion form, and a suggestion of a different job. I wondered why they suggested another occupation while I looked around.

I lifted the lid to the console between the seats and dug through the compartment, taking everything. A blue whistle on a yellow string, a CD with Van’s name in red marker, her insurance information, a pay stub from Hooters, explaining why CPS wanted her to find another job, a little blue bowtie, plastic like part of a costume, and a change purse with nothing but pennies. Mi piled my collection in the bottom of her t-shirt, and I continued to plunder, hitting the jackpot when I reached below the driver seat. A silver wallet with pink ice diamonds. Her driver’s license, social security card, debit card, library card, multiple discount cards from different stores, and nine dollars. Once I had taken everything that wasn’t fastened down I closed the door, feeling a mix of emotions.

“Check the trunk,” Mi said with a nod of her head, hands too full to point.

“Good idea,” I said as I slid the key into the hole. Again I felt like a piece of shit. A red backpack with a birthday present. “She missed his birthday,” I sadly said as I retrieved the things from the back. A brand new skateboard with a Batman bow, the backpack with the tags and a wrapped gift. There was also a shoebox with a new pair of sandals, a red Transformer on the top strap, blinking lights on the bottom.

“You can give it to him. Come on, I think you’ve had enough for one day. Oh, can you get that? It’s in my back pocket,” she asked, turning her butt to me.

I fished her ringing phone from her pocket and put it on speaker. “You answer,” I said, not really wanting to talk to Nick. I had more questions than answers, and as silly as it sounded, I was annoyed at Nick, that he left me like that. It was his fault for not hypnotizing me more or better. I hated having all these questions and no answers. I kept collecting pieces to a puzzle, piling them higher and higher with nowhere to fit.

“Hey, muffin. What’s up?”

“Mi, where are you? I want you to stay away from Gabby. This is way more than just an accident. Lane just announced his resignation. Just out of the blue.”

My eyes met Mi’s, and I worried even more. Now what?

“She can hear you, Nick.”

“Gah! I knew I should have never shared a cab with you. I should have left you in the rain.”

“It was my cab. I let you share it with me. Nick, I’m not about to leave her like this. She just found out she has a nephew. He needs her help. I’m going to help her.”

“Mi, listen to me. This is bigger than some guy with Alzheimer’s. Something else is going on here. I heard Lane in the stairwell talking to her lawyer. Her husband dropped the charges, played it off as a misunderstanding with proof.”

I brought the phone closer to me with that information. “He did? What proof?”

“I thought I told you to leave.”

“You did, but Mi said I could stay. What else did you hear? Does he know I’m at your place?”

“No way, and he’s not going to either. I don’t want any part of this, and I don’t want Mi involved either.”

“Mi’s already involved,” my new best friend called into the phone, smiling brightly at me.

“I heard him tell your attorney that he would call him back because of another call. It was Paxton. He called him a low life motherfucker, and then they argued about where you were, and why you weren’t in your hotel the night before. Lane swore he didn’t know, but I don’t think your husband believed him. He kept saying he did what he was supposed to do. He posted your bail, gave you some cash, and made sure you got to your room safely. He’s going after the car right now. Mi, if you can hear me, you stay the hell away from that car. Do you understand me? Something’s not right here, and I don’t like it. I don’t want to be a part of it. You need to leave.”

“I’m still keeping her,” Mi said while ensuring him of her intentions. God, I loved her. We exchanged a look and walked quickly away from the car, afraid of running into Paxton. Why would he want the car?

“Thanks for the information. If you hear anything else, let me know,” I coaxed while overruling him, just like Mi did.

“I didn’t call to give you information. I called to get rid of you.”

“Mi wants to keep me. I’ll see you later.”

“Hang up,” Mi whispered.

With my sister’s belongings, and my nephew’s birthday presents, we left the row of cars.

“Thanks for your help,” Mi called to the guy who let us in.

The guy held up a finger and we stopped. “I’ll call you back, Pete. What about the bill? The car? This isn’t just a place to park your car until you want your stuff.”

“Does the car run?” Mi asked, once again taking control.

“Mi, we don’t have time. We’ve got to go.”

“Beats me. The tow truck driver found the key when he hooked up the car. We don’t drive them.”

“What do we owe you?” Mi asked as she dropped my things into Van’s little backpack.

“Mi, I can’t let you do that. Nick is going to kill us both.”

“This isn’t Nick’s money. How much?” she asked again, totally blowing me off.

“It’s been here for almost four months. We charge a hundred and fifty a month for a salvage yard fee. It’s taking up room you know.”

“Yeah, whatever. How much?”

“Five-fifty, I’ll cut you a deal.”

“That’s not a deal. I’ll give you three-hundred. Take it or leave it,” she countered while offering him the key.

“Fine, I don’t want the piece of shit sitting around here, and I wouldn’t give you fifty bucks for it. Take it and get out of here.”

Mi pulled a wad of bills from a secret compartment in her wallet and counted out bills. Nick would turn purple if he saw that. My wide-eyed expression moved to the dude behind the counter when he asked for I.D. The car was registered to Izabella Delgardo, that’s the only person he could release it to without an affidavit.

I didn’t even think about it. I took the license from her wallet and handed it over. The funny part was the fact that it wasn’t even a lie. I could be Izabella again if I wanted to. Had it not been for leaving my own little girls, I might have thought about that one.

Mi and I exchanged a glance, both nervous for no reason. The guy didn’t even question it. Why would he? I looked just like my photo.

“Well, now you have a car to drive around,” Mi boasted as we rushed back to the car.

I swear the girl never saw anything half empty. There was something good in every situation. I wondered how she would handle it had she been in my shoes. I betted she wouldn’t be so giving with the positive attitude.

Mi opened the back door and tossed in our findings, and then handed me the key.

“What?”

“You drive. It’s your car.”

“It’s a stick. I can’t drive this thing.”

“Seriously?”

“No,” I said with assured fact.

“Well, it can’t be that hard. You get behind the wheel since you might need to drive it, and I’ll help you figure out what to do.”

That was such a bad idea, but for the first time in a very long time, I laughed ridiculously hard with Mi. YouTube has a video for everything. I wouldn’t suggest it for learning how to drive a stick though. Despite the fact that we almost met him face to face, I laughed so hard I cried. Literally. Mi had just moved the car into first instead of fourth and we both took nose dives toward the dash. My hysterically laughing switched like a light. Emotions flooded from my soul and cried.

“Ahhh, honey. It’s okay. We’re going to figure this all out. I promise, and I’m going to help you get that little boy. Please don’t cry. It’s really a horrible emotion. You have to be stronger than that one. Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change. It’ll work out.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You can spit positive energy all you want, and it’s still not going to change the fact, my life is fucked. Lane was right. This is like box office worthy. I bet I could call up the Lifetime Network and sell them my story for millions of dollars. I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel like you do. It’s dark. It’s so fucking dark and I can’t see anything. I have all these questions and zero answers.”

“Turn here,” Mi said, her tone not changing a bit. She could have run over a bunny and smiled about it. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. You’ve learned a lot today. Look at the answers you found. Plus I think you found the only reason you need to keep going. Do you really want all the answers at once? Can you handle that? I think you should just hand it over to the universe and let God decide when it’s enough. In the meantime, this whole sad attitude is depressing me, you need an aloe vera plant.”

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and laughed again. “What?” I asked confused as hell.

“It’ll help with all the negative energy you got going on around you. I’ll tie a crystal on some hemp rope later, too.”

Nope, didn’t even go there. My friend was crazy and I loved her, appreciated her, and thanked God for placing her in my path when I needed her most. Crazy or not, Mi was my savior.

The next call from Nick brought more confusing information. Paxton just stormed in his office, demanding to know where Gabby was, and who the fat Chinese girl was, helping her.

Mi heard one thing. “Fat? I’m not fat.”

“You’re not Chinese either. That’s the only thing saving my ass. If he would have said a short Korean girl, Lane would be right here. You took the car, didn’t you? Why the hell did you take the car?”

“Well, I don’t know. The guy told us to.”

“You suck at this. Stop, Mi. Please, stop this.”

“And do what, Nick? Do you want me to turn my back on her? Leave her to claw her way out alone?”

“Yes. Yes, Mi, that’s exactly what I want you to do.”

“But you know I’m not going to do that. You could help us. That would make it easier on all of us.”

“I’ll see you when I get home. I don’t want her there, Mi.”

“Catch you later.”

“I’m serious, Mi.”

“Mi, we just missed him. We almost ran right into him.”

Mi’s tone changed, but I wasn’t sure why. “Yeah, we need to ditch this car. What should we do with it?”

I laughed again, this time a nervous laugh. “What is he up to? Why would he drop my charges? Why does he want this car? I don’t get what’s going on here.”

Mi looked out the window with a deep sigh, and I knew what she was about to say. “I’ll help you all I can, Gabby, but I sort of have to keep Nick happy, too. I’ll get you a room in my name.”

“Nah, you don’t have to do that. I’ll figure it out.”

“No, I’ll get you a room, and I’m still keeping you,” she smiled.

“It’s okay. I understand. I sort of have a plan anyway.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Tell me,” she insisted.

I explained my plan while we walked through the parking lot of her workplace.

“I don’t like that plan. I mean, if you knocked on my door after I thought you were doing my husband, I’d probably kick you in the knee. Do you think you did? Do you think you were cheating with him?”

“I honestly don’t know. He’s hiding something that he doesn’t want me to remember, and I don’t know why. He told me that I had planned to leave Paxton. New identities and all. I think he was helping me do that, but I don’t know why,” I clarified.

“I still don’t like it. Just go to the room tonight and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.” Mi opened the door for me and I walked in.

“I’m not going to stay in a hotel, Mi. I’ve got somewhere to stay. I don’t want to cause any more trouble with you and Nick. He’s very uneasy about all of this.”

“Thanks for understanding, but you don’t have any money. Where are you going to stay?”

“I have nine dollars,” I teased while flipping my hair to my back and smiling at her. “We have a little cottage out by my husband’s workshop. He’ll never know I’m there, and I’m hoping to get lucky enough to see my girls. I miss them like crazy, and I don’t know what he told them. They must be worried about me, and I hate that. I don’t want them to feel lost. You know?”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I have some binoculars. Remind me to give them to you.”

Afraid of Paxton looking for an old white Honda, I dropped Mi off behind the school and she walked home, trying to keep Paxton from seeing the car. I drove toward my house, and left the car in the back parking lot of a busy Mexican restaurant and walked. I took back streets, carrying my bagful of clothes with a kids backpack across my shoulders. I ran from a dog, broke my flip-flop, and then crossed a patch of swamping woods to the beach. That was no fun. A wild boar scared the hell out of me, and I walked right through the biggest spider web I had ever seen in my life. I screamed with that one at the same time my mind thought about alligators.

Paxton’s shop was locked when I tried to use the side door, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. I’d seen his guys come in at nine, sometimes ten o’clock at night. I crept along the side, wondering whether he’d come and locked everything up like he always did, praying that he hadn’t. The main garage door was open and the rollback was gone. That meant they were moving equipment. It also meant Paxton was with them. Another one of those things I wasn’t sure why I knew. Just like the key to the cottage. No, wait. I knew that because Paxton told me. I slithered around the side of the building with cat-like precision, remembering the day I had ask him to see the cottage.

He was in his office with a blueprint clipped to his drafting table. The old fashioned kind. For whatever reason, I loved that about him. Seeing him sketching a backyard plan with a pencil, wearing dark-framed glasses, was the sexiest thing I’d found about him. I remembered standing in his door watching him work. He sensed me before he saw me. I told him the girls were asleep and asked where the keys to the little cottage were. I explained how I wanted to check it out and walk along the beach. He dropped his glasses and pencil and told me to shut the door.

“Jesus, Gabby,” I mouthed without audible words. I was about to break into the only empty place I knew and I was thinking about the spanking I had gotten over Paxton’s lap for interrupting his work. At least he told me the key was in his shop before punishing me. The throb between my legs reminded me that I got more than that. Hence the reason for chastising myself. Good grief.

The sudden arousal left as soon as I realized what I was about to do, replaced with a thump. My heart pounded out of my chest as I tiptoed around the inside wall, looking for keys. Everything started to settle when I saw the row of keys hanging by the side door. The garage was empty and I was alone with some sort of backhoe, and a lot of tools. More tools than five businesses needed. I took the key, slid out the side door, and jogged the short path to the little cottage. Once again, my nerves calmed a little more.

Using the little door on the opposite side of our house, I stood in a daze just inside the two-room house, a feeling of déjà vu permeating the air around me. Pale yellow curtains hung in front of French doors, and although they weren’t moving with a cool breeze, that’s how I saw them. The familiar way I instantly felt assured me that the house and I were well acquainted, but why? I stepped in swiping a cobweb from my face, looking around the quaint little space. Sand tinted walls decorated with a beach theme on every wall. A large net with a collection of starfish hung in one corner, and seashells lay on every flat surface.

I flipped on the light just to see if there was power and flipped it off. That meant the water was on, that’s all I cared about. I didn’t need to see. At least I could take a shower and use the toilet.

I turned in a circle, one big open room with an amazing ocean view. A rice-paper divider separated a king sized bed from the living room and kitchen, a closet with a squeaky hinge held a broom, and the door next to it was the tiny bathroom. A small shower and no bath tub. I hated trying to shave standing up. I smiled when I realized I didn’t have to do that.

I walked right to the glass doors and stood when I heard the trucks coming in. I’d looked in these doors many times, trying to see in. You couldn’t do it. Not from the outside. Paxton could have been standing right in front of me and he wouldn’t have known I was there. The other three windows weren’t one sided like the doors, but they were too high to see in. Therefore, I wouldn’t be using the lights. I definitely didn’t need a visit from Paxton.

I watched him with crossed arms, walk toward me, pacing back and forth while he talked on his phone. Just his actions were enough to tell me the conversation was about me. His arms flailed and I could see the anger in his face. The smile, taking over my face was uncontrollable. Paxton’s plan wasn’t going as planned, and it was eating him up. I sort of took pleasure in that. Paxton Pierce needed a taste of his own medicine.

I would love to say I upped him one; that I was the smart one and I didn’t need him. I did need him, but not the way he required me to need him. I watched Paxton walk to his truck, pissed off and backed away, wondering who was taking care of my girls. Had to be Tricia. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it one bit. None of my neighbors were worthy of my girl’s. Not one.

I spent my evening looking up to the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of them playing outside, or swimming. God, I missed them. My eyes stayed on the house the entire evening, waiting for a preview. It wasn’t until the tide had come in that Paxton fired up the grill. Tears instantly welled in my eyes when I saw them, just a glimpse. The slope in the yard kept me from seeing them the entire time. I could see them perfectly when they slid down the slide, but I could only see the top of the two chains, swaying back and forth. An occasional, foot here and there, high into the air, but that’s it.

My eyes narrowed when I glanced back to Paxton, swearing he had a smirk. I retrieved the binoculars from Vans little backpack and zoned in. Sure enough, Paxton was smiling. His hips even moved a little to the music playing outside. Okay, maybe that was the sexiest thing about Paxton. I loved it when he swayed his hips like that, flipping his spatula like he was all that and then some. It was one of the very few times I’d seen him being playful. I gasped and dropped the binoculars when I saw him look directly at me and toast his bottle of beer like he knew I was there.

I instantly spun around, looking for a camera. “Fuck—fuck—fuck,” I said out loud when I saw it. Barely visible, but there. A normal person would have never known it was there. I on the other hand knew exactly what to look for. Perfect view, right in the center of the ceiling fan. Paxton knew I was there. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d been watching me the entire time. My heart pounded hard, drumming in both my ears while I debated on what to do. I had no phone to call Mi. She was the only one that I trusted, and she was crazy.

I quickly gathered my things, trying to concoct a plan. I had no idea what to do. Did I stay? Did I run? Where would I go? Nick hated me, I couldn’t stay there. Just when I thought about sleeping in my car, my heart stopped, hearing the knuckles on the glass.

“Open the door, Gabby.”

I tossed the transformer backpack over my shoulders and froze, stopping with my heart. My eyes stayed glued to his body while my body refused to move.

“I know you’re in here. Open the door.”

Once the dry lump moved down my throat, I gathered my bearings and straightened my posture. The little lever clicked loud in my ears when I raised it and opened the door, my eyes looking up to his. I don’t know how I looked on the outside, but the inside was insane, adrenaline pumping quickly through my veins.

“Let me guess, cameras?” I said in my best strong voice. The strong voice that sounded meek and cracked.

Paxton smiled down at me and crossed his arms. “Of course there are cameras, and I knew you would come here. Where else you going to go, right?”

“What do you want?”

“Dad, Rowan throwed an apple in the pool,” Ophelia yelled down from the bank.

All other thoughts suddenly disappeared. I didn’t care what he wanted. I didn’t care about anything but Rowan, Phi, and now Vander Delgardo.

“Can I go to them?”

“Of course.”

I stepped one foot out the door and his body stopped me. “After I get some answers.”

I chuckled and spit the sarcasm right at him. “You want answers? Try being in my shoes.”

“Dad,” Phi called again. “Watcha doing?”

Paxton stayed strong in front of me, keeping me from sidestepping him with a stiff posture. He called over his shoulder, but never took his eyes from mine. “Hang on, I’m coming. Stay there.”

“I have a right to see them.”

“You can’t just run up to them after leaving them. They don’t understand you disappearing like this again.”

I frowned, wondering if he was insinuating that it was my fault I’d left them. “What did you tell them?”

“That you were sick. You sort of are. I mean, I don’t even know what the fuck to call you.”

“The same thing you’ve always called me.”

“Slut? Or did you mean Gabriella? Which do you prefer, love?”

“Fuck you, Paxton. I’m not your doormat, and I’m not doing this with you. I have just as much right to them as you do.”

That thing about being strong and standing up to him dwindled to nothing when Paxton stepped inside. I was forced to take a step back, too, but I didn’t falter. Not on the outside anyway.

“I’ll let you come up after they go to bed. I will tell them you’ll be home when they wake up. This is over, Gabriella. You’re playing my way from this point forward.”

“I’m not staying in that house with you,” I said, again with my strong, crackly tone.

“Oh, but you are. You’re staying in my house, and you’re going to do everything I tell you to do. Just like old times.”

“What are you going to do, Paxton? You gonna call the cops? Maybe have me arrested for trespassing? Go for it, baby boy. I dare you,” I said while I watched the veins in his neck pop with the clenching of his jaw. My hand was patting myself on the back for my brass balls in my mind while my mind bragged. I did that. I stood up to Paxton and it felt good.

I yelped, taken off guard, when Paxton grabbed my throat and shoved me inside. My lower back dug into the counter and I grimaced in pain, dropping my left shoulder for relief. “Don’t fuck with me, slut. I don’t even know what the fuck to call you. You’ve been lying to me since the day I met you. I’m calling the shots, just like I’ve always called the shots. Stop with the fucking games. You understand me? Do you Gabriella?”

The grip he had on the back of my jaw kept me from responding with words. I moaned an incoherent yes and nodded with wide eyes. Paxton smiled and kissed my lips, releasing the firm hold he had around my neck and jaw. With a prominent smirk, he removed my cell phone from his pocket and dropped it into my hand. Just when I thought my heart couldn’t beat any faster, Paxton leaned in and whispered sultry words, kissing my neck and throat as he spoke, proving me wrong. “I’ll call you later. I like the fringes on these shorts. I can’t wait to see you bend over in front of me in them. Have a good evening, Mrs. Pierce.”

“What are you doing in there, Dad?” I heard Rowan ask as the door slid closed.

I walked over to it to see them both, butts planted on the ground, waiting for their dad. They both stood and ran to him when he walked toward them. Paxton scooped them up, and told them some story about catching a rat and to stay away from there.

“Well, fuck me sideways,” I said out loud to the empty room, and then I remembered I wasn’t alone. A camera in the middle of the room reminded me of that fact. I spun in a circle, swimming in a pool of ridiculousness. Trying to figure out where to put this piece of the puzzle was frustrating to no end. Now what the hell was I supposed to do?

I should have known. Of course the cottage had a camera, but why? “Why all the Goddamn secrets!” I screamed like a crazy person, right up to the little camera. I didn’t care if Paxton would see it. I wanted Paxton to see it. I couldn’t let it go down like this. If I went back into that house I was doomed, I would be his victim just like he wanted, and I would never find Van. I couldn’t let that happen.