“I’m sorry, but I had to be honest with you,” he whispered, and forced himself to his feet, despite the sorrow weighing him down like concrete. The walk to the door felt like he was going to face a firing squad, though in reality, he already had.

Chapter Eight

MONDAY MORNING, AFTER another sleepless night, Roni headed into the studio two hours before it opened. “Broken” by Seether and Amy Lee blared through the room, where she was trying to stop the hurricane of anguish that had been storming through her all weekend. Sweat beaded her brow as she threw herself into every move, trying to obliterate visions of Quincy as a young teen following his mother into the very places Roni feared, images of the man she’d already come to care for drugged out and living in squalor, and battered and bruised when he’d tried to save the babies. Her vision blurred with tears as haunting sounds of the kids she’d already grown to care for crying echoed in her ears.

The music silenced abruptly. “I thought I’d find you here.”

Roni whirled around. Between the blur of tears and the torment in her heart, she couldn’t even try to cover up what she was going through. Angela’s face blanched.

“Ohmygod. What happened?” Angela hurried over and threw her arms around Roni, breaking open the dam that had held in her sobs. “You were on cloud nine when we talked Saturday. Did Quincy do something? Is that why you avoided my calls yesterday?”

Roni tried to talk, but all that came out were more sobs.

“I will kill him. I swear to God—”

Roni pushed from her arms, shaking her head and gulping air to calm herself down. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“Then why are you crying? I haven’t seen you like this since your grandmother died. And why didn’t you take my calls yesterday?”

Roni grabbed a towel from the table and pressed it against her eyes to dry her tears. “I couldn’t talk about it. I wasn’t ready, but I can’t dance it out, either.”

“That’s what I’m here for. You don’t have to dance things out. Talk to me. Did something happen with Quincy?”

Roni told her all the sordid details Quincy had shared. When she finished, her heart was lodged in her throat and she was completely depleted. She leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor. “I can’t stop seeing him as a kid with all that awful stuff going on around him, following Truman around because he was his everything and having to kill that guy to save his mother.” More tears slipped down her cheeks.

“It’s horrible. Every bit of it.”

Roni swiped at her tears. “He must have been terrified from the time he was old enough to know what fear was right up until he got clean.”

“I can’t imagine living like that.”

“It’s like the universe was against him from day one. I just wish…I’m just so sad, Ang.”