There was a noise outside the door, and it made Marta screech and jump a mile in her seat. She did look genuinely terrified, and Michael saw it in her face too.

“I have to go,” she said. “Before he finds out that I was here.”

Marta got up and hurried to the door.

“Mom,” Michael called after her as he went to the door before she left. It was the first time I’d ever heard him refer to his mother as “mom.” Usually, he called her mother, and then there was that one time he referred to her as a bitch. “You should stay here where I can protect you.”

Marta looked up at her son and put her hand on his cheek. Her eyes teared up as she spoke to him. “I know I haven’t always been the best mother to you, Michael,” she said as her voice cracked. “But I have loved you, even if I haven’t known how to show it.”

Then, she opened the door and left.

“Well, that was weird,” Adam said as Michael walked back over to sit down with us.

“What do you think she was talking about?” Julian asked. He looked at me as if I might have some clue as to what else my mother could have been up to, but I didn’t have the first idea about any of it. Apparently, my mother was much more secretive than even I knew.

“She looked scared,” Michael said as he put his head down in his hands, and I saw his shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. “Did you see her cheek?”

“Yeah, I meant to tell you about that,” I said. “I’m sorry, I forgot. My father did that to her on the day of the press release. He was furious about what you had said in front of the reporters, and when we got back to his office, he did that to Marta and then killed two of his own security guards.”

“Did he hurt you?” Michael asked as he lifted his head up quickly and looked at me with concern.

“No, and I’m not quite sure why.”

“You’re his heir,” Adam said. “That’s what filthy rich criminals always care about in the movies, right? They’re always brutal with everyone else, but super careful with the kid that’s going to continue on their legacy after they’re gone.”

“That can’t be the reason,” I said as I shook my head. “He knows I won’t associate myself with anything that he’s done. Besides, he hates me.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Adam said. “Those kind of guys are delusional as fuck. They only like to see things the way it makes sense to them in their head. Trust me on this one; I’ve watched a ton of that shit.”

“If that’s what Jack did to her just for happening to be standing next to him at that press conference, then what will he do to her if he finds out that she came here to talk to us?” Julian asked.

Michael looked over at him, and I could see that he was torn between wanting to help his mother, but also knowing better.

“She knew what she was doing when she signed up with him,” he said as he fell back into character of not caring. “My mother chose her own path. I offered her my protection, and she refused. She’s an adult.”

But I could see as Michael got up to go pour himself another drink, that there was still a part of him that was worried. It was his mother, after all.

After we had all gone to bed, I couldn’t sleep again. But this time, it wasn’t my own mind that was keeping me awake; it was Michael’s. I was worried about him, so I went to his bedroom. When I got there and pushed open the door, I could see him lying on his back with his eyes wide open, and his arms folded behind his head in a way that made his bicep muscles bulge out.

“Can I come in?” I asked.

He chuckled. “You can always come in.”

29

When I woke up in the morning and opened my eyes, the side of the bed where Michael had been lying was empty. I got up to go out into the rest of the apartment, but as soon as I saw everyone gathered in the living room and the look of unbridled fury on Michael’s face, I knew that something was wrong.

I walked toward the guys slowly. Julian was sitting down on the couch, and Adam was standing near Michael, who had his arm leaning against the wall above him. His head was tilted slightly down, and his other fist was clenched down by his side.

I was getting ready to ask what had happened, but before I even opened my mouth, Michael’s arm drew back, and his fist punched straight through the wall in front of him. My eyes widened in shock as Adam tried to calm Michael down by putting his hand on his shoulder. I didn’t say anything as I looked over at Julian, who was still sitting on the couch and saw me standing there.

“Marta was killed last night,” Julian said to me. “She’s dead.”

Oh my god. My father found out that she came here to talk to Michael, and when she went back to Lineage, he must have killed her.

I started to run to Michael, to wrap my arms around him and hold him. I knew what it felt like to lose your mother, and even if Marta was a bad one; I knew that it still hurt. But as soon as I got close to Michael, Adam put his arm up to keep me from getting any closer.

“Lisette, stay back,” Adam said.

He bridged his body between mine and Michael’s.

“What are you talking about?” I shouted at him. “It’s, Michael, he’s not going to hurt me.”

Adam didn’t budge. He seriously thought that Michael was so enraged and out of control that he might hurt me if I got too close to him. But, I didn’t care. I knew Michael wouldn’t hurt me.

“Move!” I said

And when Adam didn’t move, I shoved him out of my way.

I went up and stood beside Michael as I watched the blood gush down his arm from his bleeding fist that was sill half-stuck inside the wall.

“Adam is right,” Michael said quietly through his clenched teeth. “You should go.” His jaw shook as he spoke. “I’m not in control right now, Lisette. Stay with Adam and let me be.”

“No,” I said as I tried to gently pull his forearm out of the wall. “I’m not leaving you.”

Julian and Adam watched at a close distance in case Michael lost his temper again, and they needed to step in.

Once Michael’s hand was free from the wall, I slid my body between his and the wall and stood beneath his raised arm with my face close to his. I put my palm on his face and watched as the tears started to flow from his eyes. His shoulders tensed, and every muscle in his body looked like it was shaking.

“I am so angry,” he said as his jaw trembled, and he tried to bite down on his teeth together to keep from losing control.

“I know,” I said sadly as my own tears started to well up in my eyes for him. “And you are also so sad.”

Michael’s eyes darted between mine, and as he started to cry, I leaned forward to kiss him. I could taste the salt of his tears against my lips.

Michael, a man who had withstood everything, even the cruel mother that he now mourned, was breaking.

And I would hold him together.

Michael sat on the edge of the bed as I bandaged his hand. It was the same hand I had bandaged and stitched up for him before; he was going to have some next-level scars. He had only cried for a moment, and then he had calmed himself down enough for the other guys to let me take him into his room to get cleaned up.

“I don’t even know why I’m so upset,” he said to me quietly. “She was a horrible mother. Hell, I didn’t even like her as a person.”

“I know,” I said as I continued to clean out his cuts and wrap the gauze between his fingers. “But she was your mother.”