“Come over to meet my mom,” he said out of nowhere.

The laughter bubbled from my sore throat. It wasn’t happiness, but embarrassment diluted with anxiety. I rubbed my hands together to warm up from the water, slapping my palms over my face to keep him oblivious to my blushing cheeks. “Aw, I didn’t know we were getting serious. And this, after you refused to take me to prom when we were actually dating.”

He rolled his eyes before shooting me a serious look. “Prom is lame, and we were never really together. We were fucking exclusively until your daddy issues came out in full force. Anyway, I think my mom could help you.”

“Help me with what?” I nearly snorted. I was beyond help. I was about to fuck over two people to save one I loved.

“With your family situation.” Bane didn’t know everything, but he knew enough. Getting assistance from an outsider was tempting, but I’d never met Bane’s mother before, and even though I knew she was a hotshot with all kinds of connections, I didn’t trust adults. Real adults. The ones who ran the world I lived in. “I appreciate the offer, but I got it covered.” I walked over to the driver’s side of my car and swung the door open, sliding into the Audi. I could still smell Vicious’—the previous owner—scent in my car, and he reminded me of Trent. Of his sharp posture and formidable frown. Bane appeared by my window and tapped the roof of my car, smirking.

“Is that why you forgot to tie your board to your roof? Look, you should at least think about it, Gidget. For what it’s worth, I think you don’t have it covered, and if you need a helping hand, you know mine is good for more than fingering.”

“Disgusting, but thank you.”

I tied my surfboard and drove away, not even bothering to make a stop at home to take a shower and change. I needed to think about what I was going to do with my mother. I needed to come up with a plan for that flash drive. But most of all—I needed to stop thinking about Trent like he wasn’t the enemy.

ATLANTA FUCKING GEORGIA.

“Are you sure?” I tap-tap-tapped my fingers on my desk, one hand cupping my cheekbone. I stared at Amanda like she was delivering me a stillborn, and not the fucking news I’d been waiting for, for years. In a way, she was. This information was useless, futile, dead weight. She sat across from me, looking every inch the professional private investigator—dressed smart, but not too sophisticated, in a white blouse and a pair of black cigar pants—and nodded, sliding a manila file across my desk.

“Positive. She lives in a nice apartment building in Buckhead, an upscale area in Atlanta. She has a Chihuahua. No husband. No children. As far as I am aware, she doesn’t work. Not sure where the money comes from. I can look deeper into it, of course, but that would entail flying out to Atlanta. You will need to cover the ticket, hotel, plus the hourly rate. Or I could connect you with a colleague who works there. He could find out all the data that you need.”

If there was a fucking guideline as to what to feel, about the Val thing and in general, I’d buy the shit out of it and order extra copies. For the first time in years, it looked like things were picking up. My parents and I took Luna to her weekly sign language classes. We all made an effort, and she actually started communicating with us. Luna had Camila, whom she liked, and Sonya, whom she absolutely adored. And, somewhere in-between, Edie Van Der Zee had managed to make my daughter smile, laugh, shop for clothes, and go to Disneyland. It seemed like I was on the brink of a breakthrough, and rocking the boat felt like a wild Vegas bet. When I’d started my hunt after Val, the situation had been different. I was sitting alone in Chicago with a one-year-old baby in my arms. I still remembered the moment I decided to pick up my phone and call my best friend Dean, asking if his lawyer dad knew of a good PI I could trust. I was staring at the city from my penthouse, Luna chewing my arm with her new pointy teeth between pleading cries for her mother.

I was angry.

I was frantic.

I was desperate.

I was vengeful.

…And I realized that now, I was no longer any of those things.

Or perhaps I was, but not enough to screw up everything I’d achieved in the last few months. Luna came first, and it didn’t look like her mother was interested in claiming her. If anything, it seemed like Val had found a new fat wallet to leech off of.