I don’t see anyone around, and I swallow hard before I quickly grab my phone and bring up the only number I know I can trust right now.
“Ashley, sweetheart, is everything alright?” My father-in-law answers on the second ring with worry, and I clear my throat as I shake out my now sore hand, and I mumble, “I uh, I need your help, Scar…”
Chapter 11
Trigger
I lean my elbows on my knees from where I’m sitting, resting my mouth on top of my linked fingers as I watch Cole. He’s sitting at the table on his own, doing his homework, not paying any attention to anyone around him. He’s refusing to talk to anyone, even Caleb.
He’s barely said two words since I picked him up three hours ago, and I’m beginning to worry about him. This thing between his mama and me, it is hitting him hard, and the fact that he believes I don’t want him, that I don’t love him, that we’ll never be a family again when I’m trying my hardest to get his mama back, is fucking killing me.
I’m at a loss as to what to do right now.
My phone rings as I watch Mama go and take a seat next to Cole, but he doesn’t acknowledge her, and I sigh as I grab my phone out of my cut, but frown seeing who the caller is.
“Dad?” I answer.
“Virginia is in the torture chamber,” he says before hanging up, and my brows rise.
Huh?
The woman has been underground for fucking ages, so how in the fuck did he find her when Dirty hasn’t managed to?
Shaking my head, I climb off the bench and put my phone back in my cut as I walk over to Cole, gripping his shoulders when I’m behind him.
“I’ve got to go help Grandpa with something. I won’t be long, alright?” I say, but instead of words, he shrugs, and I sigh, “Cole–”
He cuts me off and counters, “Are you going to split Mama and Talen up?”
I lock eyes with Mama, hers wide before I look at Cole and see his attention on me. Fuck, I really don’t want to piss him off again, so what do I say to that when I plan to?
His mama is mine, she always has been. We just, fuck, we lost our way a little.
“Do you want me to?” I ask instead of answering his question.
“Yes,” he instantly returns, and my body relaxes. “I don’t like him, Dad, he’s not you, I want you and Mama back together. I want my life back to normal and not live in an apartment with cockroaches.”
What the fuck?!
My eyes widen as anger fills me, and Mama seeing my reaction, clears her throat and confirms, “There are cockroaches?”
Cole nods with shame, like he just got his mama into trouble and my jaw ticks. She hates me that much, she’s living in a shithole with fucking bugs.
“Mama kills them every time and puts stuff down, but I-I hear her at night, she cries herself to sleep, she isn’t happy. I’m not happy, I want to come home, I want Mama to come home, I want my family back, Dad…” He whispers, and I swear to fuck, my heart breaks.
I wrap my arms around his body from behind and press my lips against his head as he sniffles, and I lock eyes with Mama’s watery ones.
“Can you sit with him until I’m done, please?” I rasp, and she nods as she wipes away a stray tear.
I pull back from Cole and bend slightly so we’re making eye contact, his eyes that are so much like his mama’s, all watery.
I fucking hate this, I hate all of it, and I know I’m partly to blame.
“I’ll be half an hour, and when I get back, we’ll go home and eat all the junk food you can think of,” I promise.
His bottom lip trembles as he whispers, “But it won’t be the same without Mama…”
I hear my mama sniffle, but I ignore her and I state, “I’m going to get her back, Cole, I promise you, I will get her back.”
