Page 42 of His Kidnapped Irish Mafia Virgin

I looked at the rest of the messages on my phone, mostly from people I didn’t talk to much. I skipped past those quickly. I didn’t want to talk to them.

Then I saw a name that made me freeze. Mom. I hadn’t talked to her in a long time.Every call felt like we were arguing. After I left home for good, we’d just stopped talking. It was easier that way. I turned off the phone and put it back on the bed. The room was quiet again. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I could hear Liam and Paddy talking downstairs.

It should have made me feel safe. It should have reminded me that there were people who wanted to protect me. It just reminded me that I was never really alone. Someone was always watching me. Someone was always waiting for something bad to happen.

That thought made my stomach hurt.

Then my phone rang. It was a call from an unknown number. I stopped breathing. The ringing was loud. It wouldn’t stop. For a second, I just stared at the phone as it kept ringing in my hand.

Each time it vibrated, I felt a wave of fear in my chest. I looked at the number on the screen for a while, hoping it would stop ringing before I had to do something about it, but it just kept on ringing. It was like the person on the other end knew I was looking at the phone.

I took a breath and answered the phone. For a moment, nobody said anything. I could hear someone breathing on the other end of the line. The silence felt long, and my stomach started to feel tight. Then I heard my mother’s voice.

“Nora, is that you? Please tell me I finally got the number right. I’ve been trying to call you for weeks! I was starting to think something bad had happened to you.”

My mother’s voice sounded different. It was softer, and it sounded like she’d been crying. It still brought back a lot of memories. For a moment, I wasn’t in Liam’s bedroom anymore. I was back in our house, standing in the kitchen with my mother. I was sixteen again, and she was pretending not to see the bruises on my arm. I held the phone tighter.

“What do you want, Mom?”

My mother didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she spoke again.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me, Nora. I know I don’t deserve to call you after everything that happened but I didn’t know who else to call. I was worried something bad had happened to you.”

I laughed, but it was not a happy sound. “That’s funny, Mom. You’re worried about me now? Where were you when I was begging you to help me? Where were you when I told you I couldn’t stay in that house anymore?”

There was a long moment of silence. I thought she’d hung up. When she spoke again, her voice sounded really sad.

“Nora, please don’t talk to me like that. I know I made mistakes. I know I failed you, but I always loved you. I’ve thought about you every day since you left.”

I closed my eyes, feeling venom rise in my throat. “The problem is, Mom, that love wasn’t what I needed from you. I needed you to protect me. I needed you to believe me when I said I was scared. You just kept telling me to be patient and forgive him.”

My mother’s breathing sounded really uneven. “I was scared too, Nora. I was trying to survive, and I made a lot of bad choices. I see that now.”

Her words should have meant something to me, but they didn’t. “If you called to say sorry, Mom, it’s too late. If you called to tell me you miss me, I don’t know what you want me to do about it. So tell me the truth, Mom. Why are you calling me now?”

The silence that followed was really uncomfortable. When my mother finally spoke again, her voice was shaking.

“Because I’m scared. I’m really scared. I don’t know who else to ask for help.”

I sat upright immediately, every muscle in my body tightening as her words settled over me. “Scared of what? Tell me exactly what’s happening, because I’m too tired to play guessing games with you.”

My mother’s breathing shook through the speaker. “It’s your stepfather, Nora. He’s not the same. I know that sounds impossible because you already remember him as a bad person, but things have become unbearable here. He’s angry all the time now, and I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”

I laughed bitterly. “You don’t get to call me and suddenly describe him as dangerous, like I haven’t spent years telling you exactly that. I warned you. I begged you to listen to me, and every time you chose to defend him instead of protecting me.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I know, and I deserve every word you’re saying. But please listen to me now, because I wouldn’t be calling you if I had any other choice. He has become unpredictable, Nora. He disappears for hours without telling me where he’s going, and when he comes back, he’s furious about things that make no sense. He talks to people I don’t know, whispers on the phone when he thinks I can’t hear him, and then accuses me of spying on him when I ask simple questions.”

My grip tightened around the phone as a cold feeling began to spread through my chest. “Who has he been talking to?”

“I don’t know. That’s what frightens me. There are men coming to the house sometimes, men I’ve never seen before, and they don’t stay long enough for me to understand what they want. They speak quietly with him outside, and when I ask who they are, he tells me to mind my own business. Yesterday he grabbed my arm so hard I thought he was going to break it, and he said things are going to change soon whether I like it or not.”

I stood up and began pacing the room. “Why are you telling me this now? Why call me after months of silence? Why not call the police if you’re really afraid?”

She let out a shaky breath. “Because I don’t trust the police to protect me from him. You know how he is, Nora. He can be charming when he wants to be, and people believe him because he knows exactly what to say. I’ve tried to leave before, but he always finds a way to pull me back. This time feels different. This time I’m afraid he won’t let me leave at all.”

Her voice cracked on the last sentence, and despite everything, despite all the anger I carried toward her, I felt my heart twist painfully.

“Mom...”