I just managed a nod.

"Shit, dude. I'm sorry. If you want my help kicking his playboy ass I got your back."

At one point that would have been exactly what I wanted, but not now. Tripp was taking care of her. He was making sure she was safe. It was all I had. I shook my head. "No. It's okay. He's keeping me updated. He's making sure she has what she needs to be free."

Grant frowned and leaned toward me. "Am I understanding you right? Your woman is off with Tripp and you're okay with this?"

"She loves me."

Grant nodded. "Yeah, she does."

"She'll be back. This hand isn't over. It can't be. I went all in."

I didn't have to explain that to Grant. He got it. He smiled and leaned back with his drink in his hand. "You got this one, Ace."

My phone rang and I pulled it out to see my mother's name on the screen. I stuck it back in my pocket. I wasn't talking to her. I was sure she was aware that the old board members had been released. She wouldn't be happy about that.

"Is Nan coming back?" I asked.

Grant held the glass to his lips a moment longer than necessary. He was stalling. I knew that move. When he finally set it down he turned his head toward me. "Yeah. She's coming back. I'm heading over to Rush's when I leave here to tell him. He needs to be prepared."

"You ask her to come back?" I asked. Grant's attraction to Nan made no sense to me. He had seen how evil she could be. He had seen her at her worst. How could he want that?

"Hell no. But she's coming. Kiro bought her a nice, big, fancy house. The light blue one that sits over the hill on the south end of the beach."

Kiro was the lead singer of Slacker Demon and Nan's father. "Damn. I like that house. How'd she get that out of him?"

"He's trying to get rid of her. She hasn't been easy to deal with. She gives him hell every chance she gets and he's pretty desperate."

"Can't say I blame him." I would have done whatever I could to get away from her, too, if I was him. Nan was dangerous when she wanted to be.

"I feel bad for her, man. She knows he bought it for her to move her as far away from him as possible. She just wants his attention."

"He's the lead singer in the biggest, most legendary rock band of our time. He ignored her for most of her life. He isn't daddy material."

Grant frowned and I could see he was dealing with something. "He has another daughter. He treats her differently. He's affectionate with her. He loves her. It's obvious. But she's not like Nan. She doesn't demand things and she's quiet. I think that's what he wants. A meek, sweet daughter. Nan will never be that."

"Another daughter? Really?" I'd never heard of Kiro having a daughter.

"Yeah. She lives with him, too. She has what Nan wants and will never get. Because Nan can't be her. She can't be what Kiro wants. It sucks for her. She's always just wanted attention. Both her parents denied her that. Rush is all she ever had and now he has Blaire and Nate. She lost him, too. I can't help but feel bad for her." He took a drink and set it down, then stood up. "I get that no one understands why I have anything to do with her, and I'll be honest: at times, I don't know either. She's all kinds of f**ked up and mean."

I nodded, because he was right about that.

Della

"I shouldn't have got you. If it hadn't been for you crying and keeping me up all night I wouldn't have been needing a nap. I wouldn't have let my little boy go to that store. It's all your fault, Della. All your fault. He knows it, too. He wanted to stay with me but I was so sleepy. So very sleepy. You wouldn't let me sleep." Mother roared and reared back and slapped me across the face. I stumbled backward and grabbed the edge of the bed before I fell down.

"If you had slept at night and let me be a good mommy to my little boy he would be alive. But you ruined everything. I didn't want another baby. Your father wanted a little girl. He said it would complete our family. You didn't complete us! You destroyed us!" I braced myself as Mother hit me again. I tried not to cry. I tried not to whimper. If I whimpered she would get angrier. I had to stay calm. I had to let her scream. She would cry soon and go to her room.

"Get on that bed and don't move. The monsters under it will get you. They will come get you for being such a bad girl. They know it's all your fault. They know what you did to me."

I never understood her when she blamed me for my brother's death---I was a baby when it happened---but I let her yell and hit me. If I fought back she only got angrier. Once she had hit me at breakfast and I didn't wake up until the middle of the night. I had been on the kitchen floor with a pillow under my head and a blanket over me. She had put two plates of food beside me.

I didn't fight back anymore. I was scared to.

"Get on that bed!" she screamed as I scrambled to do as she commanded. "Don't come out. I don't want to look at you," she said before walking away and slamming the door behind her. I heard the familiar click and I knew she'd locked me in. My door had always locked from the outside. She controlled it.

"Good night, Momma," I whispered as I pulled my knees up to my chin and rocked myself back and forth while I pretended that I had a better life. One where I could go outside and ride a bike.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling fan. I was in the guest bedroom at Braden's house. I hadn't woken up screaming. I had never dreamed of my mother and not woken up screaming with imaginary blood on my hands. Something had changed. The memory was one I'd forgotten but her words that day made sense now. I sat up and swung my legs over and stood up. I had dreamed and not screamed. I was afraid to hope, but I had never been able to do this. I opened my door and stepped out into the dark hallway. Braden would be asleep and I didn't want to wake her. But I needed to process this.