Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(99)

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Saturday, at ten fifteen, Della sat in the dining hall watching everyone visit on parents’ day. The voices of all the campers and their parents bounced around the huge room and echoed down from the rafters. Della tried not to let her emotions leak out into the crowd—too many faes around—but honestly, she really wanted to go find someplace quiet and cry.

Damian Bond had nothing. They were back to square one.

She’d come home last night and stared at the ceiling for half the night, feeling useless and angry. Feeling alone. She missed Chase. She wanted to help Natasha and Liam. Save them. Give them a chance at life.

She wanted her mom to call her.

No, she wanted her parents to show up. Where were they?

The doors to the dining hall swished open. Della looked up, expecting it to be them. Wrong. It was Derek’s mom. Della watched as she smiled at Derek who sat at a table toward the back of the dining hall with Jenny.

Della looked around. Kylie and Lucas and her mom sat chatting about selling her house. Lucas must be getting used to Kylie’s mom, because he actually looked comfortable instead of miserable, like he usually did when Kylie forced him to spend time with her mom.

Miranda was playing the part of the good witch, sitting and listening to her mom talk about the upcoming competitions.

Della pulled out her phone to check the time. Her parents were fifteen minutes late. Strange. Her dad didn’t do late.

Then again, maybe he wasn’t coming today. He’d missed one out of three parent visits lately. But her mom and her sister, Marla, were usually on time, too. The sooner they got here, the quicker they could leave. Or at least it felt that way.

Glancing at her phone, she debated calling her mom then decided against it. Looking back up, she saw Holiday and Burnett studying her with empathy.

Oh, friggin’ hell, the last thing she wanted was for everyone to start feeling sorry for her. She was fine. Her family would show up. Her mom never missed parents’ day.

All of a sudden, Burnett’s phone rang. This far away, Della couldn’t hear the person on the line, but Burnett didn’t look happy.

Probably FRU business. Was it about Natasha and Liam? She tilted her head to the side and heard him whisper to Holiday, “I need to take this in the office.”

Della watched him walk out. Her need to know bit deep, but she accepted there wasn’t a dang thing she could do. If it was news on Natasha and Liam, he would tell her. And if it was about them, it was probably bad news.

Ten minutes later, Della’s phone rang. Glancing at the number, Della’s breath caught. Her sister, Marla, never called her.

“What’s up?” She shot up, and dodged tables in the dining hall to move away to have a private conversation.

“Hey.” Marla’s voice sounded small. “Uh, Mom asked me to call you and tell you we weren’t going to make it today.”

“Okay,” Della said, fighting the pinch in her heart and walking outside. “Is something wrong?” Or have you guys just decided to give up on me?

“Hold on a second,” Marla said quietly.

Della continued toward the woods, a spot she knew where several large trees created a little alcove. She heard her sister on the move, too. Then she heard the door close.

“Sorry. I just wanted to go in my bedroom in case Dad was listening.”

Yeah, you wouldn’t want Dad to know you were talking to me. Della’s mood stood on the verge of sliding down the slippery slope of self-pity when Marla spoke again. “Something’s going on, Della. I don’t know what it is, but it’s bad. Can you come home?”

Home? Uh, no! “What? What’s happening?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. They won’t tell me anything.”

“Are they fighting?” Della asked. Her parents weren’t perpetual fighters, they actually loved each other, but they’d had a couple of fights. And Della had hated that tension she’d felt during those times.

“Not really. Mom’s just so upset. Every time I see her, she’s got tears in her eyes. And Dad is acting strange. He didn’t come home until after ten last night. And when he did get home, he took Mom in his office and they stayed in there forever talking.” She paused. “You don’t think Dad’s got a girlfriend, do you?”

Della’s mouth dropped open. “No.”

Then it hit her. The reason her parents were upset. “Has dad talked to Aunt Miao?”

“I don’t know,” Marla said. “Why?”

“Nothing,” Della said, and closed her eyes. Shit! She’d done it again. Disappointed her dad, caused her mom more heartache.

“I want you to come home. I need you. I don’t like this ‘only kid’ shit.”

Since when did her sister say shit? “I can’t, Marla.” She bit down on her lip, but her throat felt tight hearing her sister’s request. While it felt so good knowing she was finally being missed, it felt equally bad knowing she could never go home. Never. Ever.

“Where is Mom?” Della swallowed a lump of pain down her throat.

“She left. Said she was going to the grocery store. Mom never shops on Saturday mornings.”

“I’ll call her,” Della said, but her stomach knotted thinking what her mom would say about Della going against her dad’s wishes and seeing her aunt.