As she crushed me to her, I let myself smile, knowing that my mother would never again say anything mean to me or hit me again. Because she was gone forever.
And that is the reel that plays over and over in my head when I least expect it, until I wonder if it really happened, or if I made the whole thing up in order to justify why I haven’t heard from my mother in all these years.
But it doesn’t matter anymore if that actually happened or not. Because my life is about to begin again. Today is the day I will finally meet you and convince you to give me back my son.
49
Annie slammed the laptop shut, her thoughts in turmoil. Serena had killed her mother? Annie gave an involuntary shiver and looked around. Her ears perked up when she suddenly felt that familiar sensation of being watched. She listened, eyes scanning the cul-de-sac for any movement. But she was alone. Was she only imagining it, or were there eyes on her?
She could hear the helicopter above, as the rescue mission for Serena continued. Behind her, Marley yawned and Annie reached a hand back to rub his head. She had to be imagining it. Because all those other times she’d thought someone was watching her, it had been Serena. But Serena was still missing, somewhere in the water. Even though they’d been told that the victim was assumed alive for at least three days, Annie was sure Serena had drowned. Just like her mother.
Blowing out a breath, Annie got out of the passenger side, clutching the laptop to her chest. Without consciously realizing it, she’d decided to take it before letting the police know about Serena’s car. She tightened her grip on it, let Marley out of the back seat, and waded back to their property. She placed the laptop on one of the chairs on the lanai before opening the door.
“There you are,” Brody said, from where he was playing cars with Finn on the floor. “We were just going to look for you.”
She smiled at them. “Can you get me a dry towel?” The one she’d used earlier was crumpled on the floor of the lanai.
She waited outside until Brody brought one over, and then she wiped off her legs and feet before toweling Marley off. Carefully, she wrapped the laptop in the towel and went inside.
Marley walked over to Brody and flopped down, turning his belly up. Brody scratched his belly and Finn giggled. He flipped over too, stomach up.
“Me too, Daddy,” Finn said. “Rub my belly too.”
Brody reached out and tickled Finn on the stomach, causing him to break out in peals of giggles. Brody looked up and met Annie’s eyes. They smiled at each other, even as she wondered at the resilience of children. Finn didn’t appear troubled by the previous night’s events. He was laughing and playing. She hoped that meant his nightmares wouldn’t intensify.
She took the laptop into the bedroom and buried it at the bottom of one of her drawers. For some reason, she didn’t want to tell Brody about it yet. Maybe she never would. She had to think about it, decide what to do with the information in the laptop.
As much havoc as Serena had wreaked in their lives, she’d also made Annie see how blessed she was. She would do anything for Finn. He was her world, even if she’d been too mired in depression the last few years to see it. She pushed aside that small nugget of doubt that had been planted when Serena said Finn wasn’t Annie’s son. She was Finn’s mother, and now she would do everything she could to help him get over the trauma of Lindsay’s death and what had happened last night.
And if that nugget kept pushing through, whispering that if Finn was really Serena’s child, he’d have inherited her DNA too, Annie would push it away. She looked out into the living room at her son’s smiling face. He was just an innocent little boy.
A few nights after the storm, Brody and Annie walked by the water at Kalapaki Beach, holding hands. They’d just had dinner at Duke’s, where Sam had comped them drinks. It’d been so nice to have dinner out, just the two of them. Annie had missed that. The familiarity of splitting their meals because they both loved food and wanted to try everything and being able to just relax and talk without worrying about Finn. Annie had vowed to stop drinking so much and mixing wine with sleeping pills, but she’d let herself have just one glass with dinner.
“I’ve missed this.” Brody’s deep voice made Annie look up at him. He stopped in the sand and she halted next to him.
“I was just thinking the same thing.” She smiled at him. “I’m so sorry for how I’ve been acting.”
Brody held up a hand. “No more apologizing. I’m just glad you and Finn are okay. And Marley too.” They’d taken Marley to the vet the day after Serena disappeared and been relieved that he had no serious injuries. “Let’s just move forward, okay?”
Annie nodded. The police had told them yesterday they were no longer searching for a live person. They’d still look, hoping to find her body, but too many days had gone by. The news had hit Annie like a punch in the stomach. She’d known Serena was most likely gone, but she hadn’t realized that, in the back of her mind, she’d been still holding out hope. Serena had been sick, but there was a woman in there that Annie had really connected with.
As soon as she’d gotten off the phone with the police, she’d driven up to Kealia Beach with Marley, just the two of them. They’d sat in the sand for most of the day, gazing out at the ocean and the surfers bobbing in the waves. Brody had let her go, and his trust in her that she’d come back was what finally pushed Annie to realize she wanted help in feeling better.
She’d made an appointment to see a therapist for next week, and had even taken Finn to his appointment yesterday after her solitary day on the beach. She’d come back calmer. What had happened with Serena had scared her. She was ready to start living again, to be Brody’s wife and Finn’s mother. This was her family. She would do anything for them, fight anyone for them.
Determined to do just that, she squeezed Brody’s hand. “Let’s put in an offer for the house in the Wailua Homesteads by Sleeping Giant.”
Brody’s eyes lit up. “Really? You liked it?”
“Yes.” Annie squeezed his hand again. “This is our new beginning. The one thing Serena made me realize was how much you and Finn and my family mean to me.”
Brody’s face darkened for a moment. “My heart still stops every time I think about that night and what she’d been doing to our family all these years.”
“We don’t have to worry about her anymore.” Or her crazy idea that Finn is her son. “She’s gone. Finn loves going to preschool with Leila, and I’m going to start looking for a job. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I’m going to look.”
“That’s great.” He smiled at her.
“And someone told me about an adult ballet class down in Kalaheo. I think it might be good for me to dance again.” Annie stared out at the ocean, watching the waves crash gently at the shore. “Just for myself. I don’t think I want to teach, but I miss dancing. Moving.” She turned back to him. “You know?”
He nodded. “I do. It was such a big part of your life. It was your outlet. And then you just stopped. It might make you feel better to dance again.”