Seron had spent the entire night staring at his phone, his thumb hovering over the mysterious number he suspected belonged to his mother. When he finally mustered the courage to text, the reply he received was like a bucket of ice water.
Get your head together, Seron, or you will lose everything, the screen glowed.
Seron's fingers flew across the keypad. Ruby is off-limits. Do you hear me? Mother, you abandoned me for years, I can forgive that. You're using me now, I can forgive that, too. But Ruby is mine to handle. You can't harm her.
He waited all night for a response. None came. The silence felt like a death sentence.
By morning, Acacia was in high spirits, humming to herself as she touched up her makeup. She looked radiant, a sharp contrast to the dark circles under Seron's eyes. When he walked into their bedroom, his voice was thick.
"Acacia. I need you."
He didn't mean he needed to talk; he needed the familiar heat of her body to drown out the voices in his head.
