“For my girl,” I simply tell him as I head out to my car.
Driving across town, I try not to be mad that she didn’t call me. First, when Noah got in trouble, and second, when she had to call off. She’s not calling off, and we’re going to talk about communication, but first, she’s coming into work. I can’t go the whole night without seeing her.
Pulling into her driveway, I’m pleased to see her car. Not bothering to turn mine off, I leave it running and head to her door. Opting to knock for now, I wait for her to answer.
I almost forget how to breathe when Cora opens the door. Her brown, wavy locks are pulled back into a messy bun. She’s wearingleggings, and a blue T-shirt that makes her eyes pop, with a long cardigan over it. But the best part is her accessory. Cora is wearing glasses. Fucking glasses. Fifty different dirty librarian fantasies go through my brain all at once, and I can’t decide which one I want to try first.
If you had told meI’d be lusting after a librarian six months ago, I’d have laughed in your face, but now? All I do is lust after this girl and dream of when I can have her again.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I’m too busy daydreaming about Cora threatening to sit on my face if I don’t stop talking in the library to answer her immediately, so I simply smile. “Hi, baby. You’re late for work.”
Confusion draws her brows together. “I talked to Rhett already. He was supposed to tell you guys.” She looks worried. “I swear I talked to him earlier.”
“I know you did, but you didn’t call me.”
She avoids my gaze when she answers, “I didn’t think it mattered who I talked to.”
That’s one lie I’ll be punishing her for later. “Grab your shoes and some stuff for Noah.”
“Why?”
“Because he can hang out with me in between clients.”
“Atlas, no. I can’t take a seven-year-old to a tattoo shop. He’s already in trouble.”
Ignoring the first part, I opt to tackle the second part of her statement. “What happened? Noah’s not a troublemaker.”
Looking behind her, she comes out to the porch and closes the door. Sitting down on the top step, she pulls her cardigan around her. Taking my coat off, I drape it over her shoulders and join her.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Cora explains, “Our parents are dead, thank God.”
That’s not anything I ever thought I’d hear from her. I’ve been curious since Noah told me they were gone, but I stay silent, givingher time to continue. I can’t imagine how bad someone has to be for Cora to be thankful they’re dead.
“My mom had me when she was a teenager. The typical ‘whoopsie baby.’” Shaking her head, she takes a deep breath. “They weren’t always awful, but right before I turned ten, something happened. I don’t know what exactly, but over time they went from being mean and neglectful to something worse. She got into drugs, and he became quite the abusive drunk.”
My initial heartbreak is about to be replaced with anger; I can feel it.
“When I was younger, she’d hide me from him when he had an ‘episode’ as she called them, but as I got older, she stopped.” Pushing back her sleeve, I notice a long scar running up her forearm. “He broke my arm when I was fifteen. I came home late from a friend’s house because their parents got stuck in traffic. I wasn’t that late, maybe five minutes, but it didn’t matter. He beat me so badly that he broke my arm.”
“Cora. Baby?—”
“Just wait, please.” She shoves her sleeve back down, and I grab her hands. The need to touch her and know she’s here and okay is as crushing as the desire to murder her already dead parents.
“He was so drunk he couldn’t even take me to the hospital, so my grandmother, his mom, came and picked me up. She was quiet for a while, and then I explained what happened. I told her everything, thinking she’d help me. When the doctor asked me what happened, she said I fell and then pinched me when I tried to tell them the truth. I knew then that she was worse than my parents. I mean, what kind of monster covers for someone like that?
“I knew I was screwed. As soon as I was old enough, I got a job and worked as much as possible while still going to school. I never saw any of the money, but at least I wasn’tthere. I came home one night from working a double shift to my mom telling me she was pregnant again. My father flipped out, accused her of cheating, and left. He was gone for months, but she quickly moved on. The menshe had coming and going were awful.” Shaking her head, she looks to the sky. “I’ll spare you the details but trust me when I tell you I’d have slept at work if I could have, and it was a shitty diner that got shut down for health code violations.”
“Why didn’t you tell a teacher, anyone?” I ask, afraid to hear the answer, even though I know.
Sighing, she shrugs. “I’d rather the monster I knew than one I didn’t. Plus, I had the Morgans, Mila and Mara’s family. Their parents let me stay with them a lot and kept me safe. My dad eventually came home and then spent the next two years making everyone’s life hell. I opted to take online college classes so I could stay close to Noah. I ended up looking after him when they went on a bender—which was often.”
“Baby, you were just a kid. They were supposed to take care of you.” Knowing full well the hell I went through in foster care until I landed with Emma, I understand facing the monster you knew. I’m furious that she had to go through all of that. Since I can’t bring her parents back from the dead to kill them again, I may have to settle for her evil grandmother. I can’t believe she did that to Cora.
“Well, they didn’t. I take care of us. The night they died, my mom asked me to watch him, and I snapped at her. She got nasty with me, then hung up. I found out they left Noah with a neighbor and got trashed, then wrapped their car around a tree. Police found all sorts of fun things in the car, but I’m just glad they didn’t hurt anyone else.”
Sitting quietly in the cool breeze, I pull her closer to me. I can’t erase the pain she felt growing up and taking care of herself when she shouldn’t have had to, but I’ll be damned if she has to do it now—her or Noah.
