Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(83)

calling things off. Then deleted it.

Text breakups were tacky. Tempting, but tacky. She finally wrote one and hit send: What time do you get off?

The three dots appeared on her phone, dancing on the screen. Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. The text finally appeared.

Ten.

Why had that taken ten minutes to type one word? It hit then. Did he know that she intended to break up with him?

Before she chickened out, she sent: Can you come by?

The dots started dancing again. His reply finally came.

Ok.

Della must have said something to Shawn about the flowers. Frankly, now that she considered it, she’d be surprised if the vampire hadn’t said

something.

Shawn had to know Della would tell Miranda.

Was he sweating bullets? Miranda, the Angry Miranda thought, good. Guilty Miranda thought he shouldn’t feel bad because she was going to make

him feel worse.

Guilty Miranda also reminded her that she’d kissed Perry twice while being with Shawn.

Angry Miranda reminded her that she hadn’t bought Perry anything and … Why hadn’t Shawn bought Miranda flowers when she’d been in the

hospital?

Coward Miranda—yeah she had that side of her, too—actually considered just telling him it was over and letting him assume it was all on him.

Honest Miranda—she wasn’t all bad—knew she couldn’t do that. He deserved the truth.

Not that she believed the old adage that the truth would set you free.

Sometimes the truth was sharp and jagged and could gut you.

Take her mom and Miranda’s argument for example.

With that thought, she pushed Shawn concerns aside and tried to call her mom again. Still no answer. No text this time, either.

Miranda kept hearing the spiteful words she’d tossed out. She kept seeing the look on her mom’s face when they made a direct hit right to her

pride, to her heart.

Yes, those words had been true, but … Miranda had used the truth as a weapon. And that wasn’t right.

Anxious now about her mom, she called her dad. Not to dump her problems on him, but to assure herself she still had one parent who loved her.

They commiserated over their concern for Tabitha. When she went to tell him the new information, he informed her he already knew. Burnett had

been calling him with updates every few hours. No doubt her father had demanded it. And Burnett had indulged him—probably because Burnett was

a father, too.

Still, she’d have to thank Burnett later—indulging people wasn’t the vampire’s norm.

“How’s your mom?” her dad asked, opening up the can of worms she’d tried to cap.

Guilt had her heart swelling up in her throat. “Uh, I called her several times and all I got was a text saying she’d call later.”

“That’s not like her.” Concern rang in his voice.

Don’t tell him. Don’t tell him. “She’s mad at me. She hates me.” The words fell out.

“No, hon’, she’s mad at me.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I’m on her shit list, too.” Miranda gave him the short version.

“Miranda! How could you say that? You have no right to—”

Her chest ached with regret. “I know … I was angry.”

With his next breath, her father said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blame you. It’s not your fault. Your mom … can be difficult. But you

know, I never told her I was married. I lied. I did this to her. I should have handled things differently. From the very beginning, I …

screwed up.”

Her father’s quick defense of her mom spoke volumes and even eased the parents-breaking-up heaviness in her chest.

Maybe her parents weren’t finished. Then she wondered … would it be fair to help things along? It wouldn’t take much. She could probably do

it with just …

It fell out. “Should you call her or better yet go check on her? I mean, I hurt her and she’s alone and … I’m worried.” It wasn’t a lie,

but she recognized a ploy when she played one.

Was that wrong?

Maybe? Probably. Hadn’t she gotten angry at her mom for wanting to do the same thing? She waited for the you’ve-done-wrong feeling to hit.

No hit.

Heck, with everything so wrong in her life, maybe her moral compass was on the fritz. Nothing felt right.

Except Perry.

He was the one thing that felt right.

“Bloody hell. I’m sorry,” his father said, bringing Miranda out of her mental stupor. “My business phone is ringing. Let me go. I’ll call

you after I see your mom.”

He hung up.

And his last words hung in the air. Bloody hell. Bloody hell. She stood there with the phone in her hand, connecting some mental dots that

should’ve connected immediately.

Her father was from England. Ms. Wales was from England. Could they … somehow come from the same family lineage?





Chapter Twenty-four

Perry pulled out his phone to check the time. It was almost nine when Burnett parked the large white utility van in front of the yellow

Victorian house on Jackson Street. They weren’t completely sure it was Jax’s house, but when Burnett went through city records and discovered