Red_Roses_and_Black_Dahlias_-_Macy_T

“No.” I shook my head and bit my lip, evading his gaze. “Just a feeling.”
Maddox looked at me for the longest time without saying anything before
nodding silently. He grabbed my arm gently and ushered me towards the car.
“Come on. There’s nothing to save here, let’s go home.”
It’s insane how quickly children get used to new environments. It had
been two weeks since the disastrous funeral and our house burning down,
both me and Valentina had gone back to school. She said people in her class
were not being mean to her anymore, and thank God for that because now
nothing was keeping me from fighting those little shits on her behalf. No
election season, no bookclub ladies to impress on mom’s behalf, nothing. For
the first time in forever, my life was blissfully empty of social expectations.
Today was Saturday, I was home alone with Valentina, she was playing
with her new dolls Andrea—Maddox’ sister, gifted her when she came to
visit us on Wednesday. I was chilling and binging TV while stuffing my face
full of Corn Nuts, something I hadn’t been able to do in a long, long time.
Maddox was working. He promised he’d be home for dinner so that we
could all eat together, but I knew things were strenuous at work. Ever since
the fire took place, Chief Pierson had been breathing down their necks to rule
the case as a burglary gone wrong. A part of me was pissed, because my
testimony proved that it wasn’t, and making it a cold case would just mean
they were disregarding me and what I had endured during this night of hell.
Another part of me was just tired though. I just wanted everything to fall
back in place, I just wanted to put what was one of the worst nights of my life
behind us and finally live.
Life had been surprisingly good lately. Living with Maddox was like
having a family again. The domesticity of it was giving us the stability we’ve
so painfully obviously lacked growing up. I’d never seen Valentina so happy.
She actually made a friend in Maddox's niece on Wednesday and kept on
***