“Suitable, how?” Cassidy exclaims, her hands fisting in her lap.
“I vetted it myself,” Lilith answers. “I’ve kept track of her.”
“Then how did she end up released with no notice?” I ask confused on how Amber ended up on the streets without anyone knowing.
Lilith sighs heavily then states, “I’ve had a whole lot of mess to clean up over the last few years. I assume I was unreachable for the last hearing and then it just got dropped.”
“I’ll be looking into why and how that happened,” Conrad interrupts. “Not that it’ll change anything. “
“Did you know about me before?”
“No,” Conrad responds. “They waited a while before starting the volley of lawsuits. And by then they’d vanished with you.”
“How long did it take to find me?”
“Years.”
“And once you located me, how long did it take you to get me out?”
“Less than a day.”
Cassidy falls quiet, her gaze now on the floor. Then she asks, “How old was I?”
“Between four and six, mostly likely,” Lilith responds. “You were malnourished and severely neglected, which indicated you were small for your age. But no birth certificate was ever found, and Amber was a poor historian to say the least.”
“My own mother didn’t know my birth date?”
“It’s not that simple—” Conrad begins, but Lilith interrupts, “To be clear, Cassidy, Amber was never allowed to be your mother. She was another pawn in Miranda’s twisted games. The best she could do at the time was keep attention away from you, and that’s what she did.”
“By locking me in a cage in the fucking basement?” Cassidy shouts, hands fisted in her lap. “That’s the best she could do?”
“You listen to me,” Lilith responds, words clipped, tone sharp. “There were far worse places in that house. Places Amber had to survive in order to keep you out of harm’s way. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Some of Cassidy’s anger gives way as she processes Lilith’s words, and after a brief inner battle, she manages to whisper, “Yes.”
“And then,” Lilith goes on, her tone softening. “At the first opportunity she had to save you, she pulled the damn trigger.Shekilledherown mother; do you understand that? Because I’ll be the first to tell you that sometimes it doesn’t matter how badly someone has treated you, how long they’ve tortured you, pulling the trigger on that relationship takes some serious mental gymnastics. You don’t just do it and then go about your merry business. It sticks with you every day of your life.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” I respond.
Conrad raises his brows at me, obviously appalled that I said what I said. I raise my hands in front of me, but then Cassidy says, “You seem like a nice person.”
At first Lilith says nothing but then she chuckles and replies, “I am the nicest person you’ve ever met until I’m not.”
“And once you’re not?”
“Let the bridges I burn light my way,” she deadpans, not one iota of humor in her voice.
Cassidy smiles and I frown, somewhat confused on why this makes her happy. I consider asking because why not, but then instead decide to change the subject.
“What was Amber doing here, Cass?” I ask, my hand resting on her forearm.
“I don’t get it,” Cassidy answers, staring at her hands twisted on her lap. “She didn’t act weird or anything. She had legal documents for me to sign. She even brought two copies. Took no time at all.”
“What kind of legal document?” Conrad asks, his tone alarmed. “You know better than to sign anything without proper legal counsel.”
Cassidy looks up, glares at Conrad as she replies, “They’re right there on the counter.”
She points toward the kitchen, and Conrad immediately gets up to retrieve them. He’s already thumbing through them when he returns to his seat, falling into his chair haphazardly. “What the hell is all this?”
