“You’d let them do this to your own mother!” she screams at me. Her words trigger me. Flashes of her throwing fits when I was little flip through my mind one after another. The way she looked at me. She hated me. I think she still does. I’ve noticed the small comments here and there that she makes. This is all fake.
“You’re not my mother.” I shake my head. “Grace has been more of a mom to me than you. Hell, Rebecca was too.” A lump forms in my throat. I don’t want to cry in front of her. She doesn’t deserve my tears.
“I’m not your mother?” She lets out a hysterical laugh. “How about we talk about how Tomas Score isn’t even your biological father.” Her words are like a punch to the gut. I don’t want to believe her, but her face is so smug it’s hard not to.
“Interpol. Open up!” a male voice shouts, banging on the door.
“I’m all you have. You can’t let them do this to me,” Heidi starts to beg. The door explodes inward as five people in blue coats and hats rush in and go straight for her. She tries to fight them, but it doesn’t work. It’s hard to hear what they are saying over her screaming. It only takes a few seconds before they have her in cuffs, leading her out of the room. One of the men stays behind.
“Emily Score?” he asks.
I nod my head. “What’s happening?”
“We’re extraditing your mother—”
“Please don’t call her that.”
The man gives me a sympathetic look. “She’s going back to the States where we’ll be handing her over to the FBI.”
“Does my family know I’m with her?” Wouldn’t they have given me a heads-up if they did? Oh God, do they think I’m a part of this? I’m not even a Score, according to my mother.
“No one knows. We did facial recognition, but it will be in the report we turn over.”
I nod. “Thanks? I think,” I mutter. Not sure what else to say. “Am I free to go?”
“You are, but we’d be more than happy to escort you back to the States if you wish.” Of course. He still thinks my father is Tomas Score.
“It’s fine. I’ll catch my own flight.” He nods as he pulls out a card, handing it to me before he heads back out the broken door.
I drop down to my knees, my whole body numb. I thought I was lost before. Now I don’t even know who I am anymore.
17
Chase
I don’t think I’ve ever been so pissed in my whole fucking life. The past three weeks have been the hardest of my life, but I was doing what Tomas asked. I thought it was the right thing to do. Emily could go and clear her mind. The only problem was he wouldn’t tell me where she was. He’d simply said “Europe and with a girlfriend.”
Fine, it gave me time to put final touches on the house I’d been building for us. There is a reason my condo is so bare. It’s not home. Not the one we’d share. I built it on the other end of the Silverstein land near the pond I know she loves. I thought she’d enjoy being close to my parents. She and Molly are growing a bond too, and our place isn’t far from the Score estate.
My resolve started to crumble over time. I’m used to having some sort of tab on her. At first, I couldn’t find much. I even pushed Molly, who acted like I was no better than the scum on the bottom of her shoe. That sent all kinds of red flags up for me. Molly is sweet to everyone. It’s in her nature. The only anger I’ve ever witnessed from her was when she was shouting at Asher.
The more I thought and put things together, the more I realized she ran to get away from me. She had doubts. Ones I put there. I hate that, but I’ll spend my life proving to her I’m never going anywhere. I’m the one person she can always count on. Hell, I was when she didn’t even know it.
There was no reason for her to drop off the map when it came to me. Or for her to disconnect her phone and so on. I will say she isn’t terrible at hiding her tracks, but when I finally cracked, I had my team start going through all the flights that left out of the area on private planes that night. A name popped up, and I knew.
Heidi Rowe. Her fucking mother. I’d bet my life Tomas has no clue the friend Emily is with is her mother. Asher definitely doesn’t know. He’d lose his mind. I didn’t need anyone to start digging on anything when I saw her name. I knew who’d been stealing funds from the Score family. I also knew there was only one reason Heidi would try to slither her way back into Emily’s life: to protect herself from the wrath that Asher will bring down on her.