Among the Heather (The Highlands, #2)

“I’m processing,” I replied quietly. “I honestly expected this to turn into an argument.”

“My first instinct was to yell at you and hang up … but I am trying to be better. I’m not a perfect person or parent. I know that. But I am trying to be more involved and to listen.”

“Okay.” Her uncharacteristic reasonableness made me brave. “And we appreciate that, Mamma. But if you can hear a little more truth, I have something else to say.”

She sucked in a breath. “All right.”

“Allegra and I aren’t kids anymore. We have grown-up lives. Decisions to make. You have to accept that sometimes the decisions we make won’t be about you … but that doesn’t mean we don’t love you. Because we do love you.”

She sniffled again, and I knew she was crying by the shakiness of her words. “Okay. I will try to see it that way. I just … I want to spend more time with you girls. I’m trying.” What she obviously still wasn’t getting was that it wasn’t that it was too late, but we had our own lives now to prioritize, the way she’d prioritized her life over us.

“We’ll all just try.” I finally settled on diplomacy.

“Sì. We’ll try. And no more coccolona or comments about your weight. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“I love you, Aria. You know this, sì?”

An ache flared across my chest. “I love you, too, Mamma.” For better and for worse.

We chatted until I arrived in the city. After hanging up with Mamma’s promise to come to Ardnoch soon, I felt so much lighter. My relationship with my mother would never be perfect, but I’d finally stood up to her and the world didn’t end.

She was shockingly contrite about the whole thing.

All this time, I’d been afraid to tell her to back off.

It was true what they said. Fear of the thing was often worse than the thing itself. Now I just had to hope that she stuck to her promise to stop commenting on my body.

I was just nearing the parking lot when my phone rang again. Seeing Walker’s name I answered immediately.

“Aria, where are you?”

The fact that Walker had used my first name alerted me. I tensed. “Just about to stop in at the solicitors’ office in Inverness. Why?”

“Turn around and head back to the estate. Don’t get out of the car.”

“Why? What’s going on?” I got into a different lane at the next roundabout so I could turn myself around.

“North received another letter at his hotel, and whoever is sending them is in his room with him right now. I’ve got hotel security heading up to him. But you were implicated in the last letter, so I need you back at the estate.”

Fear coated my palms in slick sweat. “The person threatening North is in his hotel room? Right now?”

“Aye, but security is on their way. Just come home. I’ll update when I know more.”

“Walker—” My voice shook. “Please don’t let anything happen to him.”

“He’ll be fine.”

He had to be. North had to be okay. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Breathe,” Walker coaxed. “Just breathe in and out.”

“He better be okay,” I murmured, tears thickening my throat. If anything ever happened to North, I realized it would change me forever.

He’d already changed me forever.





Thirty-One


NORTH





Barbara’s eyes narrowed as I crossed the room to stand before her. “Dae ye ken who ah am?”

“You’re Darren’s mum.” I stuck my hands in my pockets not quite knowing what to do. She’d always been a small woman, and even when we’d been kids, her face had a rough haggardness that suggested a difficult life. It was worse now, her skin etched with wrinkles. She looked much older than her years. Her hair had thinned to a wispiness, and she’d scraped it back into a ponytail, her scalp visible in patches all over her head. Dressed in a housekeeper’s uniform, I understood how she’d made it this far to my suite.

“You’ve been sending the letters.”

“Aye.” Her hatred seeped from her pores.

“Why?”

“Tae fuck wi’ ye.”

“You’ve been following me? Found out where I lived?”

She nodded. “Ah leaked the story tae the press and thought, finally, ye were gettin’ whit ye deserved. Ah even stayed in Ardnoch, jist tae make sure ye were miserable. But then someone posted that lying video online aboot ma Darren, and ye started tae get yer career back.”

I stiffened, rage simmering in my gut. “Did you drive that Defender into me and Aria?”

Barbara lifted her chin. “Ah did.”

“You could have killed Aria,” I seethed.

“Aye, and ye’d be hurtin’ like ah’ve been hurtin’ fur years!” she screeched so sharply, I flinched. “Couldnae believe it when ah saw ye oan TV. The laddie that pit ma laddie away, no only livin’ his life but gettin’ fuckin’ famous. How’s that fair?”

“I didn’t put Darren away,” I told her calmly. “His actions did.”

She stood up, her hands clenched at her sides. “Ma Darren wis jist a wee boy.”

“Who your partner abused so fucking badly, Darren became nothing but anger, and he inflicted that anger on others.”

Her eyes brightened. “That’s no true.”

“It is true.” My guilt gave way to reality as I remembered hiding in Darren’s closet when Barbara’s boyfriend came home drunk. Barbara was in the living room, watching TV. I remembered being terrified as her boyfriend beat on Darren while she did nothing. And then sick to my stomach when I realized he was sexually abusing him too. I’d found a baseball bat in Darren’s closet and burst out of there to stop him. It didn’t matter that I’d helped my friend. I’d seen his shame. Darren spiraled from that moment on, his misdeeds growing darker, and our friendship splintered.

I wasn’t to blame. The events leading up to Gil MacDonald’s death had started long before that night. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew what he was doing to Darren, and you didn’t stop it.”

“Ah dunno whit yer talkin’ aboot. Am here tae face ye fur puttin’ ma wee laddie away. You betrayed him an’ he died in prison because o’ you.”

“I did betray him,” I admitted. “I betrayed him because it was the right thing to do for an innocent man who was killed in the most horrific way.”

Barbara’s lips trembled with her fury.

But I continued, “But you betrayed Darren, too, long before I ever did. We wouldn’t have even been there that night if you had just protected him.”

“Ahhhh!” she screamed, her face contorted and mottled as she pulled a knife out of the inner pocket of her jacket and flew at me.

I only had a second to register the weapon and lean back, swiping my hand up to bat away the knife. Pain flared down the center of my palm where it cut me open, but I didn’t have time to think about it because she slashed at me again. I stumbled back, dodging her enraged stabs and swipes as I tried to find my feet.