I’m not that scared, weak, abused boy I once was. I’m a grown man who’s trying to heal from the shit she broke me with.
And she’s not getting anywhere near Maisie. Over my dead fucking body.
“Oh, you think ’cause you’re famous and got a li’l money that you’re above me?” Tara snarls, her cagey demeanor shifting from fake, doting mother to therealher in a single breath. “All high-and-fucking-mighty?”
I laugh.
I actually fucking laugh at her.
I shake my head. “Money and fame have nothing to do with me being above you. Get the fuck out of here before I call the cops.”
I don’t miss the way her gaze widens when I mention the cops. I’m sure she’s still out on parole, or probation at the very least, after her latest prison stint. How she convinced them to let her out, that she’s capable of being a functioning, contributing person in society, is beyond me.
I knew she got out recently. I got the notification on my phone, something I’d set up long ago. Because as much as I wastrying to forget she ever existed, I still felt better knowing she was locked away. So if she ever got out, I wanted to know. I just never imagined that she’d fucking somehowfindme.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I blow out an exhale, realizing that she might just be desperate enough not to let the threat deter her.
That makes her even more fucking dangerous. The shit she’d done to me in the past was proof of that. I didn’t need any more than that.
And that makes her a big problem, because she’s not just going to go away, scurry back to whatever trap house she came from.
“Baby, I want you to go inside,” I say, never taking my eyes off Tara.
I don’t trust her for a single goddamn second.
“What?” Maisie cries, and her fingers tighten around my arms, nails biting into my skin. “Wilder,no, I’m not lea?—”
I shoot her a pleading glance, one I hope is enough to convince her. “I’m okay, but Ineedyou to go inside and wait for me, okay?”
I know that she wants to argue. She wants to fight me with everything inside of her, I can feel it.
But she doesn’t.
For once, I’m thankful that she doesn’t fight me. Not here. Not with this.
I feel her hand fall away from me, and she steps back before she hesitates for a moment, Tara smirking as she watches.
My fists clench at my sides, and I’m fighting to control my anger, stop from flying off the handle and giving her what I’m sure is exactly what she wants.
“Go, baby. I’m right behind you,” I say to Maisie.
After another moment of indecision, I watch out of the corner of my eye as Maisie walks past me toward the apartmentbuilding entrance, taking a path that is as far as she can possibly get from Tara.
I’m ready to move at any fucking second if she so much as looks at Maisie the wrong way, but she doesn’t. She keeps her glassy eyes on me now, her pupils blown so wide they’re black.
Eyes that have always been an unfortunate mirror to my own, eyes that now are just… justdead. Like there’s nothing left in them.
But I can’t find it inside to feel sorry for her. I mourned losing this woman when I was still a child, and there’s not a single part of me now left that wants shit to do with her.
Only once I know Maisie is safe inside, when I see her walk into the apartment building and the door close behind her, do I speak.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I want you to get the fuck out of here and never come back. You and I both know there is no reconciliation to be had, so take your bullshit lies and fuck off, Tara. I mean it. If you ever come here again, if you ever fuckinglookat her again, I’ll have you put away for good. I’ll give them every fucking cent I have to make sure they put you somewhere that treats child abusers the way that they deserve. Do you fucking understand what I’m saying to you?” The angry, venomous words spill out of me in a rush.
She flinches back an inch, her jittery gaze darting around us because she can’t hold eye contact. She’s too fucking strung out.
Finally, she looks at me, the corner of her lips curling into a half sneer, half smile, the skin busted and cracked. “You can threaten me all you want, baby, but you know your mama that you seem to think is so beneath you is a lot smarter than you’d think.” Her tongue darts out, and she slides it over her teeth before she grins, big and proud this time. “I’ll be seeing you, sweetheart. Real soon.”
