A Light in the Forest: A Novel by Melissa Payne

Author:Melissa Payne [Payne, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2022-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

VEGA

Joshua sat beside her, reading a text. He’d been at Eve’s for only a day, but the change from the kid she’d met at the school bus had been immediate. It reminded her of a woman her mom had helped in Albuquerque—successful, smart, accomplished, lived in a house with five bedrooms and an infinity pool in the backyard. But the woman had kept her movements small, hands fluttering around her, nervous, like she was afraid to be noticed. She’d heard about Renee through a friend. All she’d needed was some painting done in the foyer. Vega remembered how the woman had pulled at her hair; there was a bald spot, like she did it often. Vega had stayed quiet, wondered how someone with so much could be so lost. Renee had reached out, captured the woman’s shaking hand, and held it between her own. You can leave. I can help you. It was never that easy. But by the time most women came to her mother, it was a last resort. The only way out.

This woman had collapsed under her mother’s kindness. He’s going to kill me.

Her mother had nodded. Then let’s get you out.

They’d run into the woman again, months later, at a gas station outside Santa Fe; the change in her had been dramatic, like she’d been a bird who couldn’t see her cage, and now she flew anywhere she wanted. Vega clasped her hands in her lap, overcome. She wished it had been her mother’s hands that had led her away from Zach and not his fist in her stomach.

Joshua’s phone made a thump when he put it facedown on the table. Vega looked up. The boy sat with his shoulders hunched, looking smaller than before.

“You okay?” she said.

He took a sip of his soda, shrugged. “Yeah.”

Heff and Eve had gone quiet, studying the boy but neither saying anything. From behind Eve, came a drip, drip, drip that tickled Vega’s ears and made her fingers twitch. A leaky faucet. She stood, put her napkin on the table, and went over to the sink. She turned on the flow of water, then turned it off again. After looking underneath the sink—no leak there—she turned to find everyone staring at her. “It’s probably the cartridge. Pretty easy fix.”

“Add it to your list,” Eve said. “I probably have enough work in this old cabin alone to keep you in a job for decades.”

“My momma does the fixin’ at our house too,” Joshua said. Vega noticed that his plate of food was largely untouched, wondered about his text message. She wished she could help.

She rejoined the table, smiling at the boy. “Same here. I grew up watching my mom, and then one day I was doing it too.”

“Best way to learn,” Heff said, sounding genuinely interested. “Your mother must have been a pioneer.”

She was, but for Vega, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary; it had just been her childhood, and her mother was no more unusual than the next female tradesperson.

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