Chapter 2

Mom pushed through the crowd.

The moment she saw my scar, her face turned livid. “Nora Bennett! So that’s why you stayed away for years. You were out being a whore and having some bastard!”

She didn’t ask how I had been hurt or whether it had hurt. All she cared about was how much I embarrassed her.

She pointed a shaking finger in my face.

“You’ve disgraced this entire family!”

I drew a deep breath and looked at the woman who had given birth to me.

Because of the nature of my work, I rarely came home.

“Mom, I was injured on duty. Three years ago—”

“Shut up!”

She cut me off with a scream. “What kind of work injury leaves a scar on your stomach? In the exact same place as a C-section?”

Ethan jumped in, retreating several steps in disgust.

“So that year you disappeared, you were off having a bastard? That’s disgusting!”

“I even bragged to Chloe that you worked for the government. Turns out you’re just a slut!”

I looked at his twisted face, and the last trace of warmth inside me vanished.

I had worked myself to the bone to put him through college. This was what I got in return.

Seeing that she had stirred up enough trouble, Chloe started playing peacemaker.

“Please don’t be upset, Mrs. Bennett. Maybe Nora has her reasons. Maybe she was some powerful man’s mistress…”

“After all, she’s always away for work. Who knows what she really does out there?”

Mom exploded.

“You shameless little slut! No wonder you keep refusing to go on dates. You’ve been sleeping around!”

I fixed Chloe with a cold stare. “Say one more word.”

She shrank into Ethan’s arms. “Ethan, she’s scaring me. Did I say something wrong?”

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

He wrapped his arms around her and yelled at me. “Nora, you did it, and now nobody’s allowed to talk about it? Chloe trained as a nurse. You think she wouldn’t recognize it?”

“A nurse?” Mom seized on that like a lifeline. “Chloe, are you sure it’s a C-section?”

Chloe nodded firmly. “I did a clinical rotation in maternity. That’s definitely a C-section incision. A vertical one, too. They usually only do those in emergencies.”

That sent Mom into another rage.

“You shameless thing! How did I raise someone like you?”

“I should have strangled you the day you were born!”

I had heard those words all my life. They had never cut quite this deeply.

I looked at her, still hoping she might listen. “Mom, I was injured on duty.”

Chloe immediately cut in. “Ethan told me you’re some kind of civilian traffic aide, right?”

“I know traffic aides work with the police, but what kind of aide goes out on assignments all the time and doesn’t come home for a year?”

“And how would a traffic aide get a wound like that? Were you directing traffic or getting into a shootout?”

She looked me up and down with open contempt.

“Stop hiding behind your job. We’re not idiots.”

Her words poured gasoline on Mom’s anger.

Mom already thought my job was pathetic. Low pay, and it kept me from taking care of the family.

Now she was convinced the whole thing was a cover.

“How long are you going to keep lying? A knife wound?”

Her voice rose into a piercing shriek.

“What were you doing, running with gangs? Killing people? If you’d been hurt that badly, don’t you think your own mother would know?”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Of course you wouldn’t know.

Every time I called home, all you talked about was how Ethan needed money or wanted new shoes.

You never once asked whether I was tired. Whether I was hurting.

Ethan pointed at me in disgust. “So much for being busy with police work. More like you were busy servicing the cops!”

The sales associate came over, revulsion written across her face.

“Ma’am, please keep your voice down. You’re disturbing our customers.”

“And you’ll need to buy anything you’ve tried on or pay to have it dry-cleaned. It’s filthy now.”

She put special emphasis on “filthy.”

She even called mall security to have me thrown out for disrupting the store.