Page 107 of Holding Ground

CHAPTER

FORTY-FIVE

Emelia

When I first open my eyes, it takes me a moment to get my bearings, which is weird because I’m in my condo in Boston. This should feel like home.

But when I arrived yesterday and first stepped into the place, it felt anything but. There was no little girl running up to greet me and wrapping her arms around me. There wasn’t the hottest man alive who saves his smiles just for me, standing across the room and looking like he wanted to undress me. Slowly.

There was just a dim room and the noise of a bustling city outside, rather than the chirping of birds and the sound of the wind through the trees.

Maybe I did the wrong thing running away. Probably. But I couldn’t stand to face Elliott after he confessed his feelings to me, knowing what I know. That age-old urge to bolt rose up inside me, and I ran with it—literally.

Except before, running always felt like a relief, like freedom. But it doesn’t anymore. At least not when I’m running from Elliott and Baylor.

I want to tell Elliott everything, but I’m scared of his reaction. What if he doesn’t believe me? What if he thinks this was all part of some master plan? That I’m not good enough for him or his daughter? That what he thought of me to begin with was correct?

My plan today is to go into the office and gather the evidence I need to prove that the developer I’m working for has ulterior motives. Not that I think the people of Echo Lake won’t believe me, but I want to prove my innocence—that I had no idea what was going on. And there are documents I can only access in the office to do so.

There’s something else I need to do while I’m there too. As difficult as it is to do, it’s the right thing.

My phone rings from my nightstand, and I pull it off the charger and look at the screen. It’s my mom.

“Pretty early there for you to be calling me, isn’t it?”

I hear her blow out a breath. “Your father has this new thing he’s trying every morning. He’s making protein smoothies, and I think he found the loudest blender imaginable to do it. Wakes me up every morning.”

Even though she’s complaining about my dad, I can still hear the love in her voice.

I’m able to muster up a chuckle. “Sounds like you need to sleep with earplugs.”

“I already do. You have no idea how much your dad snores now.”

Something about hearing my mom’s voice through the phone brings tears to my eyes, and I have to press my lips together to keep them from falling.

“Sweetheart, what’s going on?”

“Why do you think something’s going on?” Even I can hear the watery note to my voice. I hit the button on my screen to change our call to speakerphone and toss it gently on the mattress beside me.

“A mother knows when something is wrong with one of her children, even when they don’t want her to. Now, what’s going on?”

The tears come then. Everything I’ve been holding back. All the emotions I’ve been trying to keep on lockdown since I put Echo Lake in my rearview mirror.

“I think I made a mistake.” Lying flat on my back and staring up at the ceiling, I rub the heels of my hands on my eyes in an attempt to stem the tears.

“Start at the beginning.”

“I fell in love with my landlord and his daughter.”

There’s a slight pause before my mom speaks. “That sounds like the end, sweetheart.”

A half sob, half laugh leaves my mouth.

“Now tell me all of it so I can help.”

And I do. She listens without interrupting as I tell her about Elliott and the kind of man he is and why I fell for him. As I tell her about Baylor and what a ray of sunshine she is in my life. About Kate and how I felt seeing her at the kitchen table with the two of them. And finally, about my job, and how guilty I feel for being a part of a plan to damage the town, even if I didn’t know it.

“Well, that’s certainly a lot.”