Page 92 of Night Moves
“You still haven’t said what you did.”
“Have you ever heard of Dion Holistic cosmetics?”
“Sure.”
She exaggerated a model pose. “You’re looking at Dion herself. I started the company years ago and built a following.”
“Come on, now.” Natalie nearly scoffed at the thought. “The Nighthawk Security team did a deep dive on your background and didn’t find anything related to that.”
“Because I made sure to hide it. Kirk would’ve beaten me senseless if he found out. No wife of his was going to work. You don’t know how many times he told me that. But I would’ve gone stir crazy if all I did was change diapers.” She let out another long sigh.
“So I started with beauty and clothing tips online. Of course I used a false name. When it took off, I started charging to join my channel and got paid advertising. Then someone suggested I make my own line of cosmetics. So I did, and I got funds from an investor. It took off. I figured if I made enough money, I could take the kids and finally leave my husband.”
“You wanted to leave him?” Natalie leaned against the wall. She was tired and wanted to sit, but she wasn’t going to invite Tracey into her house. Something was very off about this woman, and Natalie didn’t trust her around the children. Far easier to get rid of her from here than the living room.
“He was a bully and abuser. Not physical. At least he only hit me a few times. But he told me how ugly I was. What a horrible mother I was. How I failed at just about everything. How I was getting old. Ugly.”
“Is that why you had the plastic surgery?”
“Yes, and this happened.” She stabbed her fingers into her lips. “I’ll get it fixed, but I only want the best of the best working on my body from now on. No more mistakes. He was so stingy he wouldn’t cough up the money for it, and I didn’t have enough for the high-priced doctors. After this surgery, I couldn’t record any videos to make more either. I was forced to re-release old ones, and followers started to get mad. End their subscriptions. People. They’re so fickle. So I had to do something drastic. Find some money.”
“And to do that you had to leave Kirk?”
“No, you fool,” she snapped. “I had a revenue source, but Kirk found out how I got the money, and he threatened to go to the police if I didn’t stop.”
“Howdidyou get the money?” Natalie’s phone rang again, and she reached for it.
“No!” Tracey shouted. “If you want to hear my story, you’ll give me your full attention.”
Natalie lifted her hands. “I’m all yours. Tell me how you came up with the cash.”
Tracey’s anger evaporated, and she smiled, her lips thinning out to almost normal levels. “Let’s just say a couple of my supporters invested in my business.”
“And now you have the money?”
“Ha! I wish.” She flashed up a hand. “But I’ll soon have what I need.”
“So, what do you want to do now?” Natalie asked. She wanted the woman to think she might have a choice so she wouldn’t be as difficult to manage. “Obviously, I can’t turn the children over to you until I review the situation with my supervisor in the morning.”
Tracey stomped her foot. “You cannot keep my children from me.”
“I am required by law to do so.” Natalie pushed off the wall and lifted her shoulders. “Hopefully I’ll have it all straightened out tomorrow.”
“But they’re my children.”
“Who you abandoned for over a month.”
“I didn’t abandon them.” She jutted out her chin. “They had their father, and I had to go. Because of him and his abusive ways.”
“Or because you wanted to fix your cosmetic surgery issue.”
“Well, both, but…” She took a long breath, her gaze traveling around the hallway as if looking for answers mounted on the walls. She jerked back her shoulders and stomped her foot again. “I won’t stand for it. And I won’t wait until morning. I’m going to take the children now, and you can’t stop me.”
Natalie grabbed her phone to dial Drake and took a stance in front of the guest room door, which was cracked open.No. Oh no.
Had Willow been listening? Natalie should’ve checked after Willow went back to bed. Natalie had listened at enough doors as a kid and knew better.
What a horrible way for Willow to hear about her parents? Natalie had been so careful around them for days but this conversation undid all her caution in minutes. She’d just been so shocked by Tracey’s appearance that she hadn’t been thinking straight.
