Blake Pierce - Once Forsaken

“Oh, look!” she said. “‘AFFORDABLE LUXURY’! Let’s go in for a look!”

Inside the store, April pounced on a rack of jeans and jackets, pulling out things to try on.

“I guess I could use some new jeans myself,” Riley said.

April rolled her eyes.

“Oh, Mom, not mom jeans, please!”

“Well, I can’t wear what you wear. I’ve got to be able move around without worrying that my clothes are going to burst or fly off. No wardrobe malfunctions for me, thank you.”

April laughed. “A pair of slacks, you mean! Good luck finding anything like that here.”

Riley looked around at the available jeans. They were all extremely skinny, low-waisted, and artificially ragged.

Riley sighed. She knew of a couple of stores elsewhere in the mall where she could buy something more her style. But she’d have to endure all kinds of teasing and nagging from April.

“I’ll look for mine another time,” Riley said.

April grabbed a bundle of jeans and went to the changing room. When she came out, she was wearing the kind of jeans that Riley loathed—skin-tight, ripped in places, with the navel fully in view.

Riley shook her head.

“You might want to try mom jeans yourself,” she said. “They’d be a lot more comfortable. But then, being comfortable isn’t your thing, is it?”

“Nope,” April said, turning and looking at her jeans in a mirror. “I’m getting these. I’ll go try on the others.”

April returned to the changing room several times. She always came back with jeans that Riley hated but knew better than to forbid her from buying. It really wasn’t worth a battle, and she knew she’d lose one way or another.

As April posed in the mirror, Riley realized that her daughter was almost as tall as she was, and the T-shirt she was wearing revealed a well-developed figure. With her dark hair and hazel eyes, April’s resemblance to Riley was striking. Of course, April’s hair didn’t show the streaks of gray that had appeared in Riley’s. But even so …

She’s becoming a woman, Riley thought.

She couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the idea.

Was April growing up too fast?

She’d certainly been through a lot just during the last year. She’d been taken captive twice. One of those times she’d been kept in the dark by a sadist with a blowtorch. She’d also had to fight off a killer in their own home. Worst of all, an abusive boyfriend had drugged her and tried to sell her for sex.

Riley knew that it was all too much for a fifteen-year-old to have had to deal with. She felt guilty that her own work had put April and other people she loved in mortal danger.

And now here April was, looking remarkably mature despite her efforts to look and act like a normal teenager. April seemed to be over the worst of her PTSD. But what kinds of fears and anxieties still troubled her deep down? Would she ever really get over them?

Riley paid for April’s new clothes and wandered out onto the mall balcony. The confidence in April’s walk made Riley feel less worried. Things were getting better, after all. She knew that right then Ryan was moving some of his own things into her townhouse. And both April and Jilly were doing well in school.

Riley was about to suggest that they find a place to eat when April’s phone buzzed. April abruptly walked away to take the call. Riley felt a flash of dismay. Sometimes that cell phone seemed to be a living thing that demanded all of April’s attention.

“Hey, what’s up?” April asked the caller.

Suddenly April’s knees wobbled, and she sat down on a bench. Her face went pale, and her happy expression collapsed into pain. Tears began to roll down her face. Alarmed, Riley rushed over to her and sat down beside her.

“Oh my God!” April exclaimed. “How could—why—I can’t—”

Riley felt a jolt of alarm.

What had happened?

Was someone hurt or in danger?

Was it Jilly, Ryan, Gabriela?

No, someone would surely have called Riley with such news, not April.

“I’m so, so sorry,” April said over and over again.

Finally, she ended the call.

“Who was it?” Riley asked anxiously.

“It was Tiffany,” April said in a stunned, quiet voice.

Riley recognized the name. Tiffany Pennington was April’s best friend these days. Riley had met her a couple of times.

“What’s the matter?” Riley asked.

April looked at Riley with an expression of grief and horror.

“Tiffany’s sister is dead,” April said.

April looked as though she couldn’t believe her own words.

Then in a choked voice she added, “They say it was suicide.”

Over dinner that evening, April tried to tell her family what little she knew about Lois’s death. But her own words sounded strange and alien to her, like someone else was speaking.

It doesn’t seem real, she kept thinking.

April had met Lois several times while visiting Tiffany. She remembered the last time clearly. Lois been smiling and happy, full of tales about being away at school. It was just impossible to believe that she was dead.

Death wasn’t a complete stranger to April. She knew that her mom had faced death and had actually killed when working on FBI cases. But those had been bad guys, and they’d had to be stopped. April had even helped her mother fight and kill a sadistic murderer after he had taken April captive. She also knew that her grandfather had died four months ago, but she hadn’t seen him in a long time and they had never been close.

But this death was more real to her, and it made no sense at all. Somehow it didn’t even seem possible.

As April talked, she saw that her family was also confused and distressed. Her mom reached over and took her hand. Gabriela crossed herself and murmured a prayer in Spanish. Jilly’s mouth hung open with horror.

April tried to remember everything that Tiffany had told her when they had talked again that afternoon. She had explained that yesterday morning Tiffany and her mom and dad had found Lois’s body hanging in their garage. The police thought it looked like suicide. In fact, everybody was acting like it had been suicide. Like that was all settled.

Everybody but Tiffany, who kept saying she didn’t think so.

April’s father shuddered when she finished telling them everything she could think of.

“I know the Penningtons,” he said. “Lester’s a financial manager for a construction company. Not exactly wealthy, but comfortably well off. They’ve always seemed like a stable, happy family. Why would Lois do such a thing?”

April had been asking herself that very question all day.

“Tiffany says nobody knows,” April said. “Lois was in her first year at Byars College. She was kind of stressed out about it, but even so …”

Dad shook his head sympathetically.

“Well, maybe that explains it,” he said. “Byars is a tough school. Even tougher to get into than Georgetown. And very expensive. I’m surprised the family could afford it.”

April drew a deep sigh and said nothing. She thought that Lois had been on scholarships, but she didn’t say so. She didn’t feel like talking about it. She didn’t feel like eating, either. Gabriela had fixed one of her specialties, a seafood soup called tapado that April normally loved. But so far she hadn’t taken a spoonful of it.

Everybody was quiet for a few moments.

Then Jilly said, “She didn’t kill herself.”

Startled, April stared across at Jilly. Everybody else was looking at Jilly, too. The younger teen had crossed her arms and was looking very serious.

“What?” April asked.

“Lois didn’t kill herself,” Jilly said.