“My uncle… he was the DA.”
I reel back, my eyes widening. “What—”
“I didn’t understand why he was helping put me away for longer instead of helping me get out… at least I didn’t until he came to see me a year before I was let out.”
She shakes her head, closing her eyes again as another tear tracks down her cheek before she lets her head drop back to my chest.
She stays silent, not saying another word, but her body is tense. I can tell she’s thinking of the past, remembering what happened, and as much as I want to push her for more information, I decide that she’s told me enough for now.
I feel her body relaxing again after about an hour, and when I look down at her half an hour later, I see she’s fallen asleep.
My mind spins and my fingers itch to be able to press against the keys of my keyboard, begging me to search for information on her uncle. My eyes wander over to my computer, and as I’m about to get up, she stirs, moving her body closer to mine.
I look down at her, my finger trailing over her forehead and down her button nose, skimming over the smattering of freckles that dot the bridge. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her, but right now, I want to bask in the feeling of her lying with me.
I can find out more tomorrow, nothing will happen to her between then and now—not with me by her side.
I lean back, lifting my legs up onto the sofa as I pull her fully on top of me, closing my eyes and listening as her heart thumps against mine, matching its beat and thumping as one.
I shuffle along with the line of prisoners as we all make our way to the visiting rooms. Although this is a first for me. In the four years that I’ve been locked up, not once have I had a visitor, not unless you count the psychiatrist or the parole board.
A sound blares before one of the officers opens a white gate with the paint peeling off it. We all file through and to the next gate where we go through the same process. We’re all searched and then allowed into the main room where all of the visitors wait.
I come to a stop, watching as they all see their families, not able to hug or touch them but having to show with only their facial expressions and body language how much they’ve missed each other.
My gaze lands on a man dressed in a suit, his dark-brown hair preened to perfection. I can’t stop the breath that catches in my chest at the sight of him.
The man who should have helped me instead of putting me away.
His lips lift up into a smirk before he stands slowly, his gaze not moving from mine as I shuffle forward.
“Alexis.” His deep voice has me shivering—not in a good way, but in a bad way… a very bad way.
“Uncle Aaron,” I reply, my voice low as I slowly lower down into the plastic seat at the same time as him.
He stares at me for several seconds, his fingers thrumming on the table. “I’ve come to inform you that your gran has died.”
My eyes widen, a sob bubbling up and overtaking as I let it out, instant tears streaming down my face. “W-what?”
He rolls his eyes, clearly unaffected by my reaction but I don’t care because she’s all that I had—all either of us had. “I’ve only come to tell you as a courtesy.” He leans back in the chair, his lips lifting up into a sneer. “And to tell you that her will is null and void. You won’t be getting a single dollar.”
“A… what? I don’t want her money!” A guard walks closer at my raised voice, but Uncle Aaron raises his hand, telling him silently to stay where he is.
“Don’t be so absurd, of course you wanted it.”
I tilt my head to the side, watching him and every little movement that he makes as something occurs to me. “Is that why?”
I wipe the tears off my cheeks, deciding that I won’t allow him to watch me grieve for the woman that I loved and he hated. The woman who was there for me no matter what, who took me in and loved me as her own child.
“Why, what?” he asks, his brow raised. He knows exactly what I’m talking about.
“Why you did all of this? Why you wouldn’t let Gran come and see me?”
He chuckles, standing up and pulling on the cuffs of his expensive jacket, ignoring me as he walks away before turning back and winking.
I shoot up, my eyes springing open as I start to panic. I can’t be back there, anywhere but there.
A moan coming from beneath me has my attention snapping down to the person it came from.