The Queen Reborn: Claiming What's Mine novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: The Tin
Pearl's room was on the fourth floor, with a window over the parking lot and a plastic bracelet on her wrist.
She sat up against the pillows with the sooty tin in her lap, and she looked at Brent Maddox in the doorway for a long time.
"You've got a nerve," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," Brent said.
"Sit down before you fall down."
He sat on the chair by the wall.
Ronan stayed at the door with his arms crossed, and Cora stood at the foot of the bed.
She had decided on the stairs that she would say it once, in the plainest words she had, and watch his face.
"This time, on Monday night, someone cut the front brake line on my car in a steakhouse parking lot," she said. "They cut it nearly through, so it would hold for a mile and then fail."
Brent looked up.
"The mechanic has photographs. The mechanic has the car."
"Cora..."
"Your mother invited me to dinner on Sunday. When I left, she told me to take the river road home. It's the road with the long bend above the water."
All the color left his face.
She watched it go, from the forehead down.
"The bend," he said. "The bend over the river."
"You know it."
"Mother never let me go near it." He stared at his hands. "She said nobody should ever take that road in the rain."
"She told me to take it in the dark."
Brent stood up, and sat down again.
His whole body had begun to tremble, and he gripped his knees to hold it still.
"She wouldn't," he said. "She's my mother. She sits on three charity boards. She bakes."
"Brent."
"She wouldn't."
"Why would she?" Brent said.
"I don't know yet," Cora said. "I'm going to find out."
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