Her head fell back in the chair and I noticed her hair was thinning to the point I could see parts of her scalp through the wispy strands. She lifted a hand like it weighed a thousand pounds and let it flutter uselessly between us. “I’m a good wife. I do what I’m told. God will reward me. Women of faith do not walk away from a marriage when it becomes difficult.”

That was my father’s poisoned rhetoric coming from her mouth. “This isn’t a difficult marriage, Mom, it’s a deadly one. You’re going to die if you stay with him.”

“He loves me. He needs me.” Her voice was thready and weak but I could hear that she believed this, really, honestly believed it.

“Mom … the only person that man loves is himself. When you love someone, you take care of them, you treasure them, and you put their happiness before your own. The only person Dad has ever taken care of is himself. If he loved you, he would be here right now forcing you to eat something. You look like a skeleton. He knows you’re wasting away and he isn’t doing a damn thing to stop it. Just like he knew what Oliver was doing to me and never stepped in to protect me.”

Her droopy gaze shifted to Wheeler and widened slightly. “You can’t be here. My husband would not approve of you being in our home. Marking your skin is a sin. You do not alter the vessel you were given by the Lord.”

“Is she for real?” He sounded flabbergasted and slightly disgusted.

I sighed. “Unfortunately, she is very real. Mom, if you come with me and work on getting better, you can be a grandma. Salem will let you see the baby and we can have the right kind of family.” I seriously doubted Salem would let this woman anywhere near her child, ever, but I was getting desperate and time was running out. “You deserve better than this. I want more for you for the rest of your life than for you to be Dad’s doormat and emotional punching bag.”

“I’m a good woman, a godly woman. The Lord will provide for me.”

I shook my head and rose to my feet. “The only thing he’s going to provide is a place in hell, next to Dad, which is where he’s going to end up for letting you kill yourself over him.”

One of Wheeler’s hands fell heavily on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’re talking in circles and she’s not listening. We’ve got to cut our losses here and go, honey.”

I vehemently shook my head in the negative and leaned down to put my hands on my mother’s frail and bony shoulders. “I can’t leave you here. I can’t leave you with him.”

Her eyes drifted closed again and she turned her face back toward the window. “This is where I belong.”

Wheeler pulled me back and wrapped an arm around my heaving chest. “She has options and she knows that now. She can call you if she changes her mind and wants out. We can drop by and visit with that sheriff and let him know what’s going on here. He seemed like he realized he royally fucked up with you and might be willing to stick his neck out to make it right.” His lips touched my ear and I shuddered as tears started to slide down my cheeks. “You can’t save someone that doesn’t want to be saved, Poppy. There are some things that can’t be salvaged because there’s been too much time and decay. You let her know she’s not alone and that’s all you can do.”

Unable to see out of the sheen of moisture that was now obscuring my gaze, I whispered a broken, “Bye, mom,” and let him pull me out of the grim and gloomy room.

We were in the hallway when I heard her softly call out, “I would love a picture of my grandbaby when it gets here. You’re a good girl, Poppy, you always were.”

I was a good girl but that wasn’t enough to get her to go with me. Sadly, I realized nothing would make her leave, but that didn’t stop me from offering one last time. “If you need me, Mom, find a way to let me know.”

Just because she was ready to give up and accept this as her horrible reality didn’t mean that I had to.

Wheeler

I was stretched out on my back underneath a seriously leaky Ford pickup truck. The guy that brought it in told me that black goo had suddenly started dripping from the rear axle. What he failed to mention was that he’d obviously been trying to tow something the wrong way and had bent and torqued the damn thing into something that looked like a modern art sculpture. I would never understand why a customer thought minimizing their part in what they fucked up would also minimize the cost of what it would take to fix. This was going to require a whole new back end and it wasn’t going to be cheap.

Swearing under my breath, I rolled out from under the truck. It was going to have to go up on a lift so I could assess the full damage and it was well into February, so the cement floor of the garage never quite warmed up and lying across it even for just a few minutes made all the bones in my back hurt. I was giving instructions to a couple of my guys to move the truck when I caught sight of a familiar head of salt-and-pepper hair. I hadn’t heard from Zak since I confirmed with him I had the Hudson in my possession and was getting ready to start work on it. I assumed he’d gone back to California and our paths wouldn’t cross again, so needless to say, I was a little surprised to see him standing in my garage looking at the now painted Hudson like it was a rare and priceless piece of art.

I cleaned my hands off on the rag that was hanging out of my back pocket and made my way over to where the older man was standing. He had his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his canvas coat and his expression was set in serious lines. The previous two times he’d been to the garage he’d had on reflective sunglasses; now he didn’t. When he turned to look at me as I approached, I faltered a step and came to a complete and total stop. Staring back at me were eyes that were the same identical, unusual pale blue as my own. Suddenly he didn’t just look familiar … he looked like family.

I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides as we stared at each other until he broke the silence. “Wanted to make my way back before the holidays so we could talk, but my wife isn’t in the best of health, so I couldn’t leave her alone.” He took his hand out of one of his pockets and rubbed the back of his neck. “You did some spectacular work with this car, kid. Looks better than some of the ones I’ve worked on.”

“Fuck the car. Who the hell are you and why are you in my garage?” I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at him. “Keep in mind if I don’t like your answers this isn’t going to go well for you.” I felt like there was a hive of angry bees buzzing under my skin. I could hear each beat of my heart between my ears and every breath I took and exhaled sounded super loud and ragged in the space between us.