Bad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow

Author:Rebecca Barrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It’s later, and she’s out on the patio, drinking down the water she hopes will hydrate the hangover right out of her.

“Luca?”

The call comes, tentative, and Luca looks up to see her mother approaching. She’s wearing a blue dress that trails on the ground, her hair loose, and it makes her look younger, some prairie woman walking wild. A sharp change from her usual weekday wardrobe of slick sheath dresses and heels, but those are for the office and her mom hasn’t been into work since Whitney died. Takes meetings at home, some days, but doesn’t go into the office, and Luca isn’t sure if that’s because her mom isn’t ready or because neither of her parents wants to leave her home alone.

“Hi,” Luca says, closing the book that she wasn’t really reading. “You look nice.”

Emilia waves her off as she sits, leaning her elbows on the table. “I was thinking,” she says, “it would be nice to go out for dinner tonight. Just you and me, actually in a restaurant. What do you think?”

What Luca thinks is that she had planned, tonight, to forget about everything else and spend hours learning how to kiss as good as Naomi does. But it would be nice to spend time with her mom outside the house, like they used to, before everything. “Sure,” she says, and her mom brightens. “Naomi can find something else to do, I’m sure.”

“Oh,” Emilia says, “you have plans?”

“It’s fine, we’ll just hang tomorrow.”

Her mom shakes her head. “No, no,” she says. “It’s okay. You go be with Naomi. It’s good for you to get out. Be with friends. We can do dinner another night.”

“You sure?” Luca frowns. “She won’t mind—”

“It’s okay,” her mom says again, and she reaches out to smooth Luca’s hair. She sighs, a gusty exhale. “They’re going to find the person who did this.”

The abrupt shift is jarring, but Luca keeps still as her mom plays with her hair.

“I know time keeps passing,” Emilia says, “and maybe you feel like nothing’s happening, no one’s doing anything, but they are. They’re going to find them.”

Luca nods slowly.

Are they?

Am I?

“I know,” Luca says after a moment, searching for something that her mom wants to hear, even if she doesn’t believe it exactly. “Someone’s going to pay.”

Her mom sighs again. “I don’t know about that,” she says. “What is paying? What is justice, anyway? None of it’s going to bring her back—” She stops, looks away.

“Mom?”

Emilia clears her throat and smiles brightly as she turns back to face Luca. “I have a work call in a second,” she says. “I’ll be upstairs, if you need me.” She taps her thumb against Luca’s cheek and then rises. “I love you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Luca says softly as her mom walks away, and there is something about the shape of her mom’s shoulders that makes Luca want to weep.

The stinging sensation rushes through her, but—no, not weep. Burn.

Look what someone has done to her family. Stolen her sister, broken her mother.

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