Chapter 1 -Jade:She’s Gone
I felt completely and utterly exhausted; work had done my head in today. We were working on a case for one of the biggest hospitals in New York. A patient had filed a malpractice suit and was coming after not just the doctor but the entire hospital.
I was up to my neck in research papers and had gone through about 18 hours of video footage from the hospital. I was exhausted, but I still loved what I did. My goal was to make partner in the next few years. I was living the life I had always dreamt of, and I couldn’t have been happier.
I walked into the bedroom of my new apartment. I’d had to downsize after Tash and Riley moved out. I missed them like crazy, but they had finally gotten their happy ever after. Riley finally had his dad and Tash finally got her fairytale ending.
I put my phone on the charger and went to the kitchen to pour myself a much-deserved glass of wine. I had worked hard all week and now I was finally, rewarding myself.
When I had set out to study law, I knew that law school would kick my ass. I thought after all the long study nights and countless coffees later, it would be smooth sailing from then on. Boy had I been wrong. There was no smooth sailing for me at all. The workload had intensified, but man I loved what I did.
I had worked hard to build a life for myself in New York. I’d had to completely reinvent myself from the person that I once was. I was proud of myself. I had come so far and had made it out of the dark pit that I had once been in. I was grateful that I had made it out when I did.
I was about to pour myself a glass when I heard my phone’s incessant buzzing.
“I swear if it’s Damien asking for a favor, I’m going to kill his ass,” I grumbled as I made my way to my bedroom.
I picked up my phone and unlocked it to see 32 missed calls from my brother Ethan, 10 missed calls from Tash, and 22 messages from Ethan. My heart sank to the floor. Immediately, I dialed his number and waited.
He picked up on the first ring.
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying your phone for hours, Jade,” was the first thing he said to me.
“I was working on a big case, so I put it on silent. I didn’t even hear it ring. Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“I’m fine. I just…” I heard him let out a shaky breath. “You need to come home, Jade.”
My heart stopped. Home. I was home. New York was my home.
“You know me and Riverroad don’t mix, E. If you want me to visit, we can meet in Shacklewood, but I’m not coming back to Riverroad. I told you this before.”
“Jade, you need to come home.” He sniffed. “It’s Mom.”
Of course it was her. She had probably slithered her way back into Ethan’s good graces and taken advantage of his niceness. It was so like her. She was manipulative and a liar. She had probably cried those usual crocodile tears of hers.
“No.” I stood my ground, “I don’t care if she is okay with you, I am not coming to see that woman.”
“Jade, you don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t understand, Ethan. She does this all the time to us. She says that she’s clean, and then she gives us false hope. Then the next thing you know, she is face down in the dirt, high as a kite. I’m not doing it anymore. I’m tired. She is a grown-ass woman, and she needs to stop abusing the drugs.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. I had to pull it away from my ear to make sure that he was still there. I heard him let out a shaky breath before he spoke again.
“Mom’s dead.”
It took me three seconds to fully register what he had just said.
One. What did he mean she was dead?
Two. How could she be dead? I saw her two months ago, and she said she was clean.
Three. She couldn’t be dead. She had survived so much. There was no way she was dead.
Time stood still at that moment. I felt like my entire world had been ripped right from under me, and I was teleported into a dark abyss.
“Jade, are you there?” Ethan’s voice came through the receiver, but it sounded distant. This was the last thing I had been expecting to happen tonight.
“How?” My voice was barely above a whisper, but I knew that he had heard me.