All Stars Fall (Seaside Pictures #3.5)(42)

Penelope




I made it maybe seven minutes past their house when I stopped in the middle of the road and just stared at the four-way stop.

I had nowhere to go.

My shift was done.

All my stuff was currently in a house that I couldn’t live in.

And the rest of my things were at Trevor’s.

I could have gone shopping, I guess.

Headed to Dani’s.

I could have done a lot of things.

But part of me felt like I was running away from a fight.

Part of me felt like I was doing to those kids exactly what their mother had done to them.

I was leaving my job.

Leaving my job.

But Trevor hadn’t asked me to.

No, his bitch of an ex or whatever she was did.

What if something happened to the kids?

She hadn’t been parenting them for the last year. Did she know about Bella’s allergies? Or about Eric’s night terrors? Malcom’s fear of toothbrushes?

The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt, until I turned the car around, ignoring all the signs in my heart that told me I was being used and being stupid.

Because if I’d learned nothing else in the last few weeks, it was that the kids trumped all.

And I would never forgive myself if anything happened.

I pulled to the front of the house, took a few deep breaths and walked up the walkway, knocked twice, then let myself in.

Why hadn’t she locked the door?

That was what you did when you had kids!

The minute I opened the door, Eric dropped the phone in his hand and burst into tears, wrapping his little arms around me. “I’m so scared.”

“It’s going to be okay, buddy.” Terror seized my very soul as I looked around the room. The horrible woman was sprawled on the floor, her head laying on the coffee table, an empty smile on her gaping mouth. I could barely see her eyes. She squinted at me like she was looking at the sun. “What happened?”

Soon I had Bella attached to the other side of me, Malcom squeezing in next to Eric, and the woman who shall not be named laughing hysterically from the floor. Her head fell back to the table. “God, they get loud when they get older, right? Thought pizza would at least keep them occupied for a few hours.”

“Kids eat fast,” I said, ready to slap her across the face and call the police. “What’s wrong with you?”

Her head lolled to the side and then she pointed at me, her hand dropping to her side limply, as if she didn’t have the energy to lift it anymore. “You’re nothing like the women those guys date.”

My eyebrows shot up. “From where I stand, that’s a pretty nice compliment, thank you.”

“Bitch.” She tried to stand.

A soft wind could blow her over.

I knew she couldn’t hurt us, but I also knew the scars that could run deep in a kid’s mind when they saw their mom not acting normal.

So I lied.

Not for her.

For them.

“Your mom is probably catching what your dad had.” I forced a smile. “Why don’t we go upstairs and watch a movie while she sleeps it off?”

She gave another delirious laugh from her spot on the floor.

Eric put his hand in mine, while I picked up Bella, holding her on one hip. Malcom grabbed Eric’s hand, and all of us walked upstairs to shut out the rest of the world.

I locked the door.

And immediately called Drew, knowing that he would at least be with Trevor and be able to let him know.

He answered on the first ring. “Kinda busy, Penny!”

“I’m at the house,” I blurted. “Trevor’s—his wife is downstairs, high out of her mind,” I whispered into the phone. “I took the kids upstairs and the room’s locked and—” Footsteps pounded outside the door. “—someone’s coming.”

“Open the door, Penny.” Trevor’s voice sounded from the other side.

I scrambled over and unlocked the door.

Trevor bypassed me, making a beeline for his kids. “Are you okay?” He cupped Eric’s face and started examining it like he’d been in a fight. “Eric?”

Eric’s eyes filled with tears. “I was so scared, and I heard Penny. She came back, Dad.” He fell apart in his dad’s arms. “Dad, Penny came back for us.”

“Yes.” Trevor rocked Eric back and forth as Bella and Malcom surrounded them. “She did.”





Chapter Twenty-Two



Trevor




I called the police.

I asked them to be discreet.

And I watched them handcuff my ex-wife for possession. Heroin, Oxy, and a few other gems that were stuffed in her purse.

Apparently, her latest flame left her for someone else, and the minute she heard that I was recording in Seaside and had been linked somehow to Penny, she’d taken the first flight out.

To fight for her family.

Or so she said and believed.

But fighting shouldn’t include getting high in front of your kids or traumatizing them.

It didn’t include buying their love with pizza and gifts, empty promises and smiles.

I was sick.

So sick.

Her lies were like a poison. She dug her talons into everything perfect in my life and spread like a darkness I couldn’t stop.