“And, if we’re assuming there were two traps, the first for Wesley, that was concocted on this side as well,” Galen said.
Marjory bobbed her head. “Any way you look at it, someone on this side is facilitating this.”
Galen slowly tracked his eyes to me. “It makes sense.”
I swallowed hard. It was pity I saw reflected back when I looked at him. It hurt so much I had to look away.
“Hadley, I’m not trying to hurt you,” he said. “I need you to look at this from all sides.”
“I know.” I was trying to sound strong, but my voice was a squeak.
“Oh, baby.” Galen pulled me to him and wrapped me tight in his arms. “We don’t know that it’s not her. We’re just sharing hunches.”
I buried my face in his neck, but I could see well enough out of the corner of my eye to register Marjory’s eye roll.
“I’m not stupid,” I blurted when nobody said anything for several moments. “I get that there are holes in the story and it makes no sense.” Things suddenly felt bleak. “I feel it, though. Not because I want to feel it. I don’t know how to explain it but I think it was her.”
Galen stroked over my hair. “Then I’m with you,” he said.
“Galen!” Marjory’s voice was full of scolding.
“Hadley saw her,” Galen firedback. “She knows better.”
“Hadley has never seen her mother,” Marjory argued. “For that matter, neither have you.”
That’s when I remembered what my mother had said about Marjory. “But you have.”
“I knew your mother.” Marjory nodded solemnly. “She was … a unique individual.”
My lips twitched involuntarily. “We talked about you.”
Marjory made a sound halfway between a snort and a laugh. “Did she mention how close we were?”
That was a test. Marjory wasn’t fooling anybody. “No. I told her I was engaged to your son.”
“She thought it was fabulous, didn’t she?”
“Actually, she said she hoped that meant Galen was nothing like you and your husband because that would make him a monster.”
Maybe it was petty, but I enjoyed watching her jolt.
“She said that?” Marjory no longer looked smug.
“She did,” I confirmed. Well, not the monster thing, but Marjory didn’t need to know that.
“Did you get along with her?” Galen asked his mother.
“I was older, so we didn’t interact that much,” Marjory replied evasively. “I would not say we were friendly.”
“Were you enemies?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t say that either.” Marjory managed a half smile. “Your mother was a bit of a free spirit. She liked walking shoeless downtown and would play a game hopping from shady spot to shady spot on the hot pavement. She would play that game even as a teenager.”
“The floor is lava,” I mused. “My father taught me that game.”
“I believe she might have said something like that,” Marjory acknowledged. “Your mother was a bit of a nut if you ask me. When you moved here I assumed you would be like her.”
“Is that why you didn’t want me for Galen?”
