Page 23 of Poisoned Promise
Now he knows where I live.
My carefully crafted lie of a life is unravelling right before my fingertips and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
He knows I’m alive and if he knows, there’s no telling who else will find out as a result.
“Mom?”
Alex’s worried voice is like a slap to the face and it drags me right out of my panic. He stands over me with his brows twisted together and a kitchen knife in his hand.
“Alex! What are you doing with that?”
“You were scared, Mom. I was going to help you.”
“Oh honey.” Bracing myself on the couch, I climb to my feet and quickly take the knife from him. Then I pull him into a tight embrace. “I wasn’t scared. I was just… alarmed. And stressed.”
“Then why were you on the floor?”
“I slipped, that’s all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes honey, I’m sure. You don’t need to protect me like that. That’s my job, you know?”
He hums in agreement against me. “Okay. Who was that man?”
The truth catches at the back of my throat and I pull back from him, gently cupping the side of his face where the bruises from the crash darken against his pale skin. “Just someone I haven’t seen in a long time.”
“A friend?”
“No,” I reply immediately. “Just… an acquaintance. He was just here to check if I could be privately booked for some event but I told him what I tell everyone. I only book through Mary.”
It’s unclear whether Alex believes me or not given how his frown doesn’t change, but he nods slowly anyway until another knock at the door interrupts us and my heart pounds back into my throat.
This time it is the pizza.
We eat it together on the sofa under a blanket while an animated movie plays on the screen, but I’m scarcely able to concentrate on the film or anything Alex tells me.
Felix lingers in my mind and remains there like a fever, consuming all of my thoughts even when I try to sleep.
By the time I make it to work the next day, I’m worth thin from worry and Felix’s face continues to plague my thoughts. Given that Felix knows where I live, leaving Alex home didn’t feel safe so I took him to work with me; much to Mary’s excitement.
“Alex!” she exclaims as he walks through the door. “Oh you poor boy, look at your handsome face! Oh goodness, you must be struggling.”
Alex’s cheek flushes red and while he shies away from her kiss, he does let her hug him as tightly as she can.
“I’m okay,” Alex mumbles, looking anywhere but at her. “The medicine is really strong.”
“Head on through to the back and get yourself something to eat,” Mary insists.
“You don’t mind him being here?” I ask while shrugging off my coat and hanging it up. “I didn’t want to leave him home alone again. And school is out of the question.”
“You never need a reason to bring him,” Mary beams at me, but after a moment her brows furrow. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
Coffee in hand, Mary and I step out into the back alley where trash piles up on one corner and the faint stink of piss lingers in the air.
Mary draws her shawl around her bony shoulders and studies me with a sharp eye. “Something happened.”
“Yeah.” I sigh deeply.
