The sounds of gravel spewing underneath tires pulled their attention toward the window.
Beau sat down.He didn’t need to look outside to realize Travis had just pulled up.
The scene unfoldingbefore Ivy brought more tears to her eyes.It was strange to see a family forming in reverse of the way hers had unfolded.Hers had felt so strong in the beginning.She’d innocently believed the bond was unshakeable.Life had tested them, broken them.And she’d worked hard to repair it—until the accident.Life had a way of shattering her ideals and obliterating her plans.
She was happy for Beau, though.He deserved to have the respect of his siblings.He deserved to belong.He deserved to have the whole world in his palm as far as she was concerned.
Travis walked in the back door.Any hope this could all be a bad dream went up in smoke as the sheriff sat down at the table.He sat upright and still.Tension lines scored his forehead, and his brow was slightly furrowed, signaling concentration.“Tell me everything.”
Beau recounted everything that had happened so far as Ivy worked on getting her new phone connected to her account.Thank the stars for the internet, because you could get pretty much anything done with a laptop and an internet connection.Beau also explained that his mother had two identities to hide her bad credit and secure an apartment at one time.
“Can I see Kade’s phone?”Travis asked, referring to the picture.
Kade handed it over after tapping the screen and verifying his identity via Face ID.
Travis studied the picture.
“It’s probably just wishful thinking on my part, but I could swear something is off,” Beau said.
Her heart went out to him.Ivy knew all too well what it was like to lose a mother.Since he’d already lost his father, losing both would make him feel like an orphan.It was strange to think of yourself as an orphan when you were in your thirties.Ivy should know.She’d thought her father was on an express train to destruction, and he had been at one time.The thought of him dying had done weird things to her brain.
Travis’s fixed gaze didn’t move away from the screen for a second.His mouth was closed, lips thinned as he studied the screen.There was no hint of a smile to be found anywhere near the corners of his lips.
The gravity of the situation was like running through quicksand wearing a hundred-pound weight vest.Her heart was heavy in her chest.
A low hum of conversation restarted when Travis didn’t speak up.He issued a sharp sigh, but that was the only sound coming from his mouth.Chloe moved next to him.Not even his wife sitting down could distract him.
“When do you want to leave for your apartment?”Beau absently asked.He was too busy focusing on Travis’s reaction, or lack thereof, to the image to have a real conversation.
“Whenever you’re ready,” she said.She didn’t want to mention the obvious.That her father was still out there, presumably alive.She wondered how on earth her father was connected to Beau’s mother.Fear said they were involved with each other during her father’s dark drinking days and had gotten themselves mixed up with something that had come back to haunt them.While drinking, her father had blanked out on days and sometimes weeks of his life.Even if she did find him, would he realize why he’d been abducted in the first place?
More questions without answers hit the hamster wheel, running on repeat inside her head.Overthinking had never amounted to anything positive.And yet, here she was doing it anyway.
“We can head out after we finish with Travis.”
“Okay,” she said for lack of anything better.
As much as she wished she could take away Beau’s pain at the loss of his mother, Ivy knew that was impossible.Grief had its own timeline, and trying to rush it would do no good.In fact, the opposite happened when you tried to avoid the pain.It built up and eventually caught up with you.
She knew firsthand how damaging avoidance could be.She’d watched it play out with her father.Ivy couldn’t count the number of times she’d begged him to talk to someone about what he was going through.He’d shaken his head and said that he didn’t deserve to feel better when he’d been the one driving the boat.He’d admitted to fearing that a small part of him had wished life were easier, and he blamed himself for the accident since he’d had a beer that day.You would think he would’ve sworn off drinking after the crash.But, no.He’d leaned in harder.
The pain he’d tried to avoid had grown bigger and stronger until it had grown so large that it broke him.
If Beau didn’t deal with his pain, would the same thing happen to him?He might not abuse alcohol like her father, but he would shut down.He might find some other way to punish himself.
Travis glanced up before scooting the phone toward Beau.“I’m almost one hundred percent certain this image is AI-created.”
“Does that mean…?”Beau stopped short of finishing his sentence.Did he fear saying the words out loud, even whispering them, would cause soul-crushing disappointment if they weren’t true?
“It’s very possible your mother is still alive,” Travis confirmed.
Beau shoved up to his feet and quickly moved toward the back door.
Ivy did the same.
He turned his face as he grabbed the door handle.“Don’t follow me.”Knives cut her with his tone.
What the hell was she supposed to do with that?
