felicity
“I don’t knowwhen I’ll be able to come back,” I tell her gently. “I might have to go away for a while.”
“On a trip? How exciting!”
I nod. “Maybe I’ll write to you. Would you like that?”
“That’s sweet, honey.” She smiles like you would at a stranger in a grocery store, reaching out to pat my hand. “But don’t you worry about me. I’m sure my daughter will be by to visit soon.”
I flinch at the mention of my mother. I know Gran is adrift in time — that, in her mind, her daughter is still eighteen years old, a hopeful young woman in love with a man she thought she could change.
“My youngest. She’s pregnant, did I tell you that?” Gran beams. “I’m going to be a grandmother.”
“Congratulations.” My throat is tight. “That’s wonderful.”
“I hope it’s a girl. I think a granddaughter would be perfect, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I croak out. “So perfect.”
I glance out the window and brush a tear away from my cheek.
“Though, I don’t know how I feel about being calledGrandma.” Her nose scrunches. “I was thinking I’ll be aMamawor aGraninstead.”
“Gran,” I tell her in a choked voice. “Definitely go with Gran.”
“Are you all right, honey?”
“Oh, yes. I’m fine.”
It’s a lie, of course, but she doesn’t need to know that. The truth is, I haven’t been fine since that phone rang last night.
“Will you play with me?” she asks hopefully, gesturing to the piano.
“I’d be honored.”
We sit together in the early morning sunshine, playing Patsy and Etta, Dolly and Loretta. I try to keep my expression empty of the anxiety creeping through my veins like poison, but I can’t help feeling that at any moment my composure is going to snap.
I hate that I have to say goodbye to Gran, not knowing when I’ll be able to come back here to see her. I don’t have any choice, though.
He knows where I am.
I’m not sure how — I didn’t tell a soul I was coming here… Except Devyn. My cousin was the one who suggested I seek out a job at The Nightingale. She promised not to mention my Nashville plans to anyone, but if she slipped up and told her mother, it’s only a short skip and a jump between sisters tomymother. And then to him.
Last I heard, my parents weren’t on speaking terms with anyone in the family. Those bloodlines turned bitter a few years back, during the fight to control the esteemed Bethany Hayes estate. The minute Gran received her diagnoses, my relatives’ dreams of fat royalty checks became their sole focus — regardless of how many branches they had to chop off our family tree to get them. They started coming out of the woodwork, cousins and ex-uncles I never even knew I had, all claiming to love Gran more than life itself, all more than eager to be the one to manage her affairs, now that she’s no longer able.
Vultures, the lot of them.
Our family tree looked more like a stump than anything by the time the judge passed down his ruling, leaving Gran’s medical decisions to my aunt. I was relieved; Kim is the least vicious of the circling birds of prey. Despite much contest, the courts also honored Gran’s existing will and froze all her remaining assets in a trust until her death. Who’ll get the money when that day comes remains a mystery, but for now at least, I’m glad Gran is protected.
My mother was stunned to be cut out of the decisions regarding Gran’s care, but I wasn’t surprised in the slightest. The stories Aunt Kim told in court about the things that went on in my parents’ home were more than enough to sway the judge’s decision definitely in her direction. No law official in his right mind would cede control of a multi-million dollar estate to a pair of addicts with a record of domestic violence incidents longer than the Bible upon which they swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I don’t blame Aunt Kim for grabbing her daughter and high-tailing it out of Nashville the minute the court sessions ended. If they’d stayed, there’s a good chance my father would’ve tracked them down and expressed his displeasure the only way he knows how.
With violent rage.
No one with any sense at all would want that man to know where to find them.
Which is why I’m here, saying goodbye to the only family that’s ever been there for me. I don’t want to, but I don’t have a choice. If he knows where I’m working, it’s only a matter of time before he knows where I’m living. Before he makes his way here and tries to yank me back home to that life in Hawkins.