Page 48 of Devious Knight

I asked him once if he would ever remarry and he flat out said no. I know my mother was his soulmate and losing her still affects him.

We talk for an hour before we say goodbye.

I decide on an early night because I’ve had so little sleep from going to the studio early every morning to work on my sculpture.

Now that it’s done I can sleep in and hopefully rid Kade from my mind.

I need all the clarity I can get for my interview tomorrow, but when my head touches my pillow, sleep doesn’t come.

Kade doesn’t haunt me tonight. Instead it’s the ghost of my mother. Memories of her fill my mind. Memories of that dreadful night.

From time to time this happens and I imagine my mother stuck in limbo, waiting for me to find the truth so she can cross over in peace to the other side.

I toss and turn, and still I can’t sleep.

I keep remembering everything that happened that night. How I knew she was in trouble and that something terrible was going to happen.

I wasn’t supposed to be with her. That was an accident.

She’d just come home from work when she got a phone call. That would have come from that asshole Parker Federov. I was in my room doing my homework and she was downstairs, but I could hear the panic in her raised voice. Then she came running upstairs and told me we had to leave because we were in danger.

Dad was away on business, so we had to take care of ourselves.

We got in her car and drove to the warehouse on the docks. I tried to ask my mother what was going on but she kept saying she’d tell me when we were safe.

Everything changed once we got to the warehouse and realized someone had followed us there. A man with a gun—the man who killed her.

I still remember the look of defeat in Mom’s eyes. I saw it the moment she accepted that we couldn’t escape. Not we, just her. The man hadn’t seen me, so Mom told me to hide.

“Hide and don’t come out, no matter what you see or hear,” she said.

And that was it. That was the last thing she said to me. I watched her die from my hiding place and in my twelve-year-old mind, I knew that I couldn’t do anything to help her.

I also knew that if I did, the man—and the other guy with him—would have killed me, too, and her sacrifice would have been for nothing.

I carry the story in my heart every day. The events of that night are never far from my mind even though people know me for my sunny personality.

They don’t know that I smile most when I’m missing my mother. Happiness is how I remember.

Mom always told me the world is different when you put a smile on your face. She said that it was the times when I was feeling most sad that I should laugh and love the ones I loved just a little more than I already did.

That was my mom’s wisdom and what she was like herself. No wonder my father never got over her. There is no one like her.

Memories, bad and good, spin through my mind like a carousel. Eventually I drift off to sleep. But the last thing I see in my mind when the memories stop spinning is Kade’s face and his haunting words come back to me.

All of them.

“My lord,” I acknowledge the Chancellor and bow my head respectfully.

“Welcome, Isabelle. Come in and take a seat.” Chancellor Potalov smiles at me and points to the chair in front of his glossy walnut desk.

I walk into his office and sit, admiring the old books on the shelves, the scent of polished mahogany, and wallpapered walls lined with evidence of a life dedicated to scholarly pursuits.

With his white, wispy hair, finely-tailored suit, and meticulously groomed beard, Chancellor Potalov has always reminded me of what I imagine to be a good version of President Snow in The Hunger Games.

“Thank you so much for your time, my lord.” I smile back, feeling better than I thought I would, given the fact that I had very little sleep. “I’m really grateful that you were able to fit me in, with your upcoming retirement.”

“Of course. I felt I was the best person to conduct your interview. I also don’t think your mother would forgive me if I didn’t try to fit you in.”