The Stranger Behind My Orgasm

Chapter 258: DUST TO DUST

Finnegan

If Mother were at this funeral she would have been insulted. It was insultingly small.

I stood under a bright sunny sky and watched the sunrays gleam on the polished mahogany of her casket.

It had rained during my father’s funeral as though the sky itself was in mourning but here the only person weeping was Victoria. The rest of us were simply here to get through it and put it behind us.

I stood between Angel and River while Abigail sat on Angel’s other side. I had them flown in to pay their respects because crazy or not, Gina Wolfe was Angel’s grandmother and she deserved that much.

My daughter wore the expression of someone who had somewhere considerably better to be.

Henry, Arthur and Eric attended too and the priest droned on about ashes and dust and a life well lived.

Mother had left a violent legacy behind I still didn’t fully understand why.

Money? Power? Some wound none of us ever got close enough to see?

Abigail reached behind Angel and squeezed my arm gently. She hadn’t left my side since the hospital and had handled the funeral arrangements and the legal notifications and the reporters without being asked to do any of it.

I didn’t know what I would have done without her standing beside me through all of this.

Across the grave Victoria sniffled dramatically and pressed a handkerchief to her suspiciously dry eyes.

I scanned the grounds even though I already knew he wasn’t there. Devin was nowhere to be found and the police had turned up absolutely nothing since that night at the docks.

"Earth to earth," the priest intoned and I watched them lower my mother into the ground and waited for grief to come and find me. It didn’t.

When the service ended and the priest had gone I saw Arthur and Eric off and thanked them for making the trip and when I turned back I found my daughter standing beside Victoria with the woman whispering furiously into her ear.

"How are Angel’s ears not bleeding from all that poison?" Henry muttered beside me.

"Angel," I called and crossed the wet grass toward them.

Victoria’s head snapped up immediately and her eyes narrowed and she stepped deliberately in front of Angel. "We’re leaving and Angel is staying with me. How could you send her away to another country without consulting me first?"

She hadn’t paid Angel a moment of genuine attention in years and now she wanted to perform the devoted mother at a graveside.

"I told you not to use Angel for your games."

"I’m her mother. What exactly is wrong with my daughter staying with me?"

"I don’t have time for this," I said tightly. Behind me Abigail and River had quietly closed the distance. "Let her go now—"

"Actually Dad, I could stay with Mom for a few days."

I stared at my daughter. For the first time in fourteen years Angel had genuinely left me without a single word to say. "What?"

"I want to stay with Mom," she rushed out, looping her arm with her mom’s to my surprise.

My brows furrowed in bewilderment.

"Just for a few days. Just until things settle down a little. Mom needs me, you have Abigail." Her lips pressed in a thin pout that had me more surprised than I was.

If Abigail’s hand hadn’t settled warm against my back in that moment I might have genuinely believed I was having some kind of episode.

I couldn’t pull my eyes from Angel’s face. My daughter. My little girl. The one person I had poured everything into protecting from all of this mess.

"She also needs a defibrillator but you don’t see us handing her one of those," Henry said under his breath beside me.

"Good to see you’re still reliably on his side as always, Henry," Victoria said with a bitter edge.

"Angel, no," I heard myself say. "You can’t stay with her. You know exactly what she’s like and what she’s capable of."

"She’s my mother," Angel said and folded her arms with a pout. "You don’t get to decide absolutely everything, Dad."

"Now you’re finally coming to your senses like a good girl," Victoria smiled warmly and wrapped her arms around Angel and her eyes met mine deliberately over my daughter’s head.

"Come on, baby. Let’s go home."

"Angel," I said again, hating how powerless my own voice sounded.

"I’ll be fine, Dad." She beamed at me and gave a small wave. "Abby, please take care of my dad for me. See you both in a few days."

I wanted to go after them. I wanted to pull Angel back and make her truly see what Victoria was and what she had always been and make her understand the kind of woman she was willingly walking off with.

But my feet wouldn’t move and I stood there on the wet grass and watched my daughter disappear with her mother and felt something cold settle in my chest.

"Did I do something wrong?" I turned back to River and Abigail. "Is this her being angry that I sent her to Switzerland without more notice?"

River shook her head slowly. "She wasn’t angry. Yes, she was sad and worried about you both constantly but this is completely new to me too."

A headache pressed hard and insistent between my eyes and I reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose and pulled in a long breath and tried to think clearly.

Angel had never once chosen to be with her mother in fourteen years of living. Not once. What was I supposed to do now, chase after her and physically drag her away from Victoria?

Legally I couldn’t touch that. Not yet and not without a fight I wasn’t prepared to have today on top of a burial.

I barely had time to sit with any of it because my phone started buzzing repeatedly in my jacket pocket.

I ignored it and kept my eyes fixed on the direction Victoria and Angel had gone when Abigail frowned beside me and pulled her own phone from her purse. I watched the color leave her face in real time.

"Finn," she said quietly. "Finn, we need to go. Right now."

"What is it?"

"Your mother’s house." Her blue eyes were wide with alarm. "It’s on fire. The security company just sent the alert and the fire department is already on the way but the housekeeper is still inside the building."

Martha.

"Damn it." I took Abigail’s hand firmly and moved toward the car.

"I’ll follow Angel," River said immediately, already moving. "You two go. I have her."

"I’ll go with River," Henry added without hesitation. "Between the two of us we’ve got it covered. Go, Finn."

"Thank you both. I mean it," I said over my shoulder as Abigail and I reached the car where Connor was already behind the wheel and waiting.

This had Devin written all over it. Which meant he was still in the city and still burning everything down on his way out.