Chapter Eighty-Two

Ronnie finally collected himself by the time the plane landed. We quietly grabbed our things and made it to the car that was waiting for us. “You okay?” I sat in the front, next to the quiet Ronnie.

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly and his eyes shifted to the rearview mirror.

“You sure?”

“I just had the opinion of the last fifteen years of my life shattered, and I realized how toxic and shitty I have been, but yeah, I’m okay.” He wiped his face as he drove. “I never really looked at it from your mom’s side, you know.” He kept his face turned to the road, but his eyes looked at me.

“I know.” I huffed out a laugh. “Neither did I until I knew all the facts. I thought she just moved on quickly, from living with my dad and mom to living with Morgan within weeks. I was a kid.”

“But I wasn’t. I should have known your mother better than that.”

“Why didn’t you?” Lynn finally broke her silence. “You said she was your best friend. Why didn’t you actually think of her? Of Amy?”

Ronnie dropped his head for a minute. “Ego?”

“What?” We both furrowed our brows.

“I’m guessing here. But when your mom left after your dad’s spell, I was sure she would come back. She needed us. Not just to protect her, but we were her closest friends. I thought she would come back and we could work through it all once your dad found out the truth. But then Oakenfang accepted her transfer.”

“What?” I was confused. “I thought my dad wanted her to leave.”

“He did, but didn’t.” Ronnie waved his hand around back and forth. “He needed to hurt the bond, so that she was out of the way. But he thought she was going to stay in the pack, just go back to her aunt’s home, or even transfer back to her parents’ pack.”

“But she didn’t?”

“No. She sent our transfer requests to every pack. It was first come, first serve. She wanted out and didn’t care where she went. Your grandpa was in another pack and missed the request by a day. Vince accepted her first. And she went there.”

“Probably because he knew he was going to try the old law Lynn tossed out.” Ronnie’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. It groaned under the pressure. I tapped his hand and he let go, shaking out his hands.

“Probably.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Your dad is going to lose his mind. But then again, he never doubted your mother, not even for a minute. He assumed she moved on, but he still didn’t blame her. When he finds out the truth, he is going to tear his office apart.”

“Put him in the cell before you tell him,” I offered. “He will appreciate it more.”

“I don’t think I can.” Ronnie cut his eyes to me again, but I grabbed his shoulder.

“You have to. You nearly ripped the plane apart. What do you think he will do when he finds out the truth?” Ronnie shivered. “Yeah. I wasn’t going to tell you at all.”

Then why did you?

Lynn chuffed in the back. “Probably because she was tired of you always taking down about her mother when you didn’t know the entire story.”

I pointed back to Lynn and agreed. “I’m sorry.” Ronnie looked over at me. “I have been an ass for your entire life towards your mother, and that isn’t fair.”

“It’s okay.” I patted his shoulder. “I could understand why you thought that way. I even agreed, which is how I found out the truth. My mom…” I sighed. “My mom is of the mindset that she can handle it all on her own. She kept quiet and dealt with the pain of my father’s betrayal, losing her home, her pack, her family, and friends. She put it all to the side to take care of me. Even when she started chipping away at her own soul, she was okay with it, because she was saving me. But now, now I know the truth, and they need to talk to each other. They need to be honest with each other.”

“They need to stop making themselves miserable,” Ronnie interjected.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “But we need to figure out what exactly is going on. I don’t want them to get back together just to end up dead.” Ronnie nodded.

“Your father didn’t want me to tell you, but since you told me a secret, I will tell you one. Aurora and this attack are tied to the first attack back then.”

“He said he thought so.” But Ronnie was shaking his head.

“We know. Beck let that much slip,” Ronnie wiped his face. “He said that the past was coming back to bite us.”