Page 149 of My Dark Prince
After we finished eating, we moved to the couch, flipping through new releases on Netflix. My phone buzzed on the table. I peered on the screen and caught an unknown number with a Florida area code.
Shit.
Not them.
My pulse thrummed between my ears.Theylived there these days. Fitting that they’d found themselves in Florida. Perhaps acclimatizing to the heat before they headed down to hell.
Of course, they’d never bothered to reach out. I hadn’t heard from them in fifteen years. Why would they call now?
They didn’t even have my number. Not the new one and not the one before it.
Sebastian and I exchanged glances. He knew about my situation.
“No one knows your number.” He nodded as the phone stopped buzzing, then immediately started up again with the second call. “If someone’s calling you, they really want to reach you.”
I fisted the device with my clammy palm, sliding my finger across the screen. “Hello?”
I hated that I sounded so breathless. Hated that a seed of hope sprouted inside me, convinced it might be her. The woman who turned her back on me.
“Briar Rose?”
I wanted to break down in tears.
It sounded like her but older. It struck me that I couldn’t confirm it for the simple reason that I hadn’t heard her voice in so long.
The phone fell from my grasp. Seb moved it to the table and pressed the speaker button, patting my shoulder in support.
“Oh, honey, is that you? Have I finally found you?”
Mother.
No, not mother. She didn’t deserve that title. Philomena Auer.
My blood ran cold inside my veins. It was her. How did she get my number? I knew Seb could read my panic all over my face. I practically vibrated with it.
I didn’t reply, but that didn’t stop her from rushing to explain, probably sensing that I wanted to hang up.
“I ran a search on one of those online website things. Just yesterday, I found this number attached to your name. I just wanted to tell you congratulations.”
I tried and failed to untangle the mess in my head. Congratulations? What for? Since she left me, I’d graduated, found a job, got promoted, achieved career milestone after career milestone. None of these feats had made me worthy of her attention. Why now?
It took me a full ten seconds to find my voice. “Can you be more specific? Life has been a theme park of successes and occasions worth celebrating since you kicked me out of your lives.”
Sebastian nodded, giving me the thumbs up. He liked my answer.
You can do it, Briar. This is nothing.Theyare nothing.
A small flutter batted around inside my chest. I was dealing with it. Facing the trauma head-on. It seemed to be the theme of my life the past two weeks. Colliding with people who have let me down.
“Briar Rose,please.” Philomena barked out a fake laugh, one I knew too well from the parties she dragged me to as her decoration. “Sarcasm is so unbecoming.”
The fucking nerve.
“It’s Briar now. And luckily, I didn’t grow up to be a well-behaved woman. I’m a strong one, though, and I don’t take motherly advice from women who have never been mothers.”
Sebastian’s hand shot to his mouth. He stifled his laughter, snatched up his phone, and shot me a text. It came through a second later.
Seb vB:Hello? 9-1-1? I would like to report a MURDER.
