The first person I see when I walk in is Madge. Her stream of curse words would put my cellmate’s colorful vocabulary to shame. But by the time I’m all the way through the door, she’s got her arms around me and is holding me tight.

  “Oh my freaking God. You’re a goddamn sight for sore eyes, Crow,” she says.

  She sounds genuinely happy to see me, even though it’s been a lifetime. People finish college in the time I’ve been gone. Shit, med students become doctors. Kids finish almost an entire primary education. The world is a very different place than it was when I left it. I can see and hear it already. But if Madge is any indication, some things didn’t change much at all.

  “Hey,” I say, tentatively at first. I’m not sure where my words are. Where my old vibe went. I used to talk a certain way to women, back when women were plentiful in my life and not carrying weapons to take my ass down if I so much as looked at them sideways.

  She’s holding me tight and rocking back and forth, but my hands are in the air. I pat her on the back until she finally releases me and looks into my face with what I think are tears in her eyes.

  “What happened to you… That whole godforsaken mess… It’s over now, Crow. And I’m going to make you a casserole to celebrate.” Her words are so unexpected. Kind. Warm. Sincere. Things I’ve had very little of and don’t really know how to respond to.

  She turns and bustles away, but Morris clamps a hand on my shoulder and tugs me close.

  “Listen, sexy,” he says to her, pouring on the charm. “I know it’s been a while since Crow enjoyed a Madge special, but our brother’s got dinner plans.” He nods at me. “Rain check that casserole.”

  He steers me away from Madge while Tiny walks past and calls out to anyone who’s around, “Hey, assholes. Crow’s home.”

  “Mammoth here?” I ask, looking around.

  Tiny shakes his head.

  “He left when he and Tamara got serious. She’s not around either, so you can stop looking around like your head’s on a swivel.”

  “I wasn’t looking for her.”

  Tiny crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow. “You told her you were going out of state to do your time in order to lure her to the prison. Don’t look me in the eye and say you weren’t making a play for her even back then.”

  I shrug. “A man’s got to try, brother.”

  “She’s off-limits. She’s happy and so is Mammoth.”

  He doesn’t need to say anything else. That ship sailed the day she showed up at the compound and I decided to be a dick to her. I drove her right into Mammoth’s arms, and he deserved her more than I did. They were right for each other.

  Within seconds, Dog and Eagle are thundering through the compound, lifting me up, arms around my chest. The hugs and the shouts and the enthusiasm surround me, and for a moment, it almost feels normal. I can remember the last time I was here, surrounded by my brothers. That was a hell of a different day. A somber farewell. The end of my life as I knew it.

  This should bring shit full circle. And yeah, the feeling of being welcomed back is good, but I know not to get too attached to it. Anything good in my life, I have to be really, really careful with.

  I know how easily it can all just disappear.

  2

  BRIDGET

  One month later…

  When I wake up, I don’t even have to open my eyes to know it’s there. The aura.

  Shit. Not today. Please, not today.

  The shimmer of color seeping around the edges of my consciousness. Like the prelude to a dream, I see a soft halo behind my eyes as I groan and clench the sheets in my hands.

  I try to relax my body and unclench my hands. Breathe deeply through my nose, into my chest, and try to release the tension I’m holding in my face. I know none of this will have any impact on what’s coming.

  Migraines can’t be coaxed, begged, or bullied away, but sometimes I can slow them down with deep breathing and paying attention to where I’m holding in stress.

  Today is a day I cannot let this slow me down. I have to get in front of the headache. This is literally my last chance, and if I screw up, I will be out of a job. Unemployed. And in even deeper financial shit than I am already.

  The morning sun is just starting to peek past the shades, so I tug the blanket over my eyes and try to tell myself I’ve got this. I’m prepared for the meeting. I’m going to be okay. I just have to take this morning one minute at a time and not let my emotions, my stress, and my pain take over.

  If only I were that powerful.

  I fold my hands over my chest and check in with my body. I’m all right. It’s just an aura. A little push behind my eyes reminding me to take it easy.

  I get out of bed slowly…very slowly. I shove aside the blankets and open my eyes, focusing on the ceiling and nothing else. Then I wiggle my toes and fingers, letting my body wake up and get the blood moving. Ever so gently, I sit up and get out of bed.

  It’s early, earlier than the alarm would get me up, but since I’m awake now, I silence my device so Mia can have a little extra sleep. Times like this, I wonder what it would be like to have a partner. Forget about the love and, hell, even the sex. Having someone to share these things with. The morning routine. The fear and the uncertainty.

  Sigh.

  Feels like a dream for other women. Not me.

  My last hot relationship, now that I think about it, was with Mia’s dad. Bryan was a man I had the good sense never to marry. I only wish I’d had a little less tequila and a lot more self-control during those few weeks I let him into my bed.

  Bryan was everything I wanted eight years ago—gorgeous, the life of the party, and horny as all hell. Back then, I was newly legal and hit the bars like any college senior would. I had a great internship, an ID that would finally get me into any bar in the state of Florida, and my whole future ahead of me.

  When Bryan ground up against me on the dance floor, his sandy blond hair over his eyes, my fate was sealed.

  Thankfully, after all the shit Mom had been through with my dad—none of it her fault—I’d never moved out. Even after Mia arrived, my mom let us live with her. And the three of us did okay for a long time. But things change.

  Everything flows and nothing stays.

  That was my momma’s favorite saying. She started saying it as a way to forgive my dad when he finally admitted he had a whole second family a couple counties over. It was the most messed-up situation, the way my mom found out.

  That saying sure was true with Bryan. He was unemployed when I met him, and when he did work, cleaning pools didn’t bring in enough to help with childcare and groceries. He flows in and out of my life, having a “boisterous uncle” type of relationship with Mia, but he never stays. He can’t be relied on to pay child support, to pick her up from school. I have sole legal custody, but that’s never stopped him from dropping in on us if he’s driving by and stealing Mia away for ice cream.

  Everything flows and nothing stays.

  Not Bryan and, sadly, not my momma either.

  When my mom was around, I didn’t worry as much about money, about childcare, or about whether or not Bryan had been around to see his daughter in months, weeks, or days.

  But since Mom’s been gone, everything has seemed darker, harder. And today’s a day that I could use her strength. Her faith in everything turning out okay.

  I walk softly down the hallway to the bathroom, moving gently because any sudden move can change this “might be a headache” to a full-on attack by my body on my brain.

  I flip on the bathroom light and squint against the intensity of the halo that lights up behind my eyelids.

  “I’ve got this,” I tell myself and shove aside the shower curtain.

  I turn on the water and decide on a shower. A bath feels like less effort, but I’m worried if I get down into the tub, it’ll be too hard for me to get up alone. I let the water splash across my belly, breasts, and gently wash my face.

  Once I start to lather my hair, it’s clear that nothing I do is going to slow this train. This migraine’s got me in its cross hairs, and I now need to outrun it.

  My hand is shaking, or maybe it just feels that way, as I turn off the water and grab a towel. I blot my face and leave my hair dripping, just a towel over my shoulders to soak up the water flowing from my long hair. Bending and wrapping my head is literally the last thing I can do. I’ll put my hair in a very loose wet bun if that’s what it takes to get out of the house today.

  “Mia…” I sigh and check the time.

  Still wrapped in my towels, I shove open her bedroom door. A mermaid nightlight glows a soft blue on her bedside table. My daughter’s bare foot sticks out from beneath the covers, and her blankets are tangled like she went ten rounds in her sleep, trying to fight her way through her dreams.

  “Baby,” I whisper to keep the volume of my voice quiet as it bounces inside my head. “Time to get up for school.”

  I stroke her leg and shove aside the mess of blankets. She lifts her eyebrows as though she’s having a tough time opening her eyes.

  “Okay, Mama,” she breathes.

  “Are your clothes all ready?” I ask.

  She nods into her pillow and then opens her eyes fully. “I picked out the glittery donut dress last night. Can I wear tights?”

  I smile. My big girl loves wearing dresses with tights, even running around in the Florida heat. But she’s seven, so I let her suffer for fashion as long as the consequences aren’t too severe. “Of course.”

  It kills me, but I don’t bend down to kiss her face, worried that anything I do to send blood to my head will speed up the arrival of the headache that’s looming. “I’m going to get dressed and make breakfast.”

  I walk into my room and pull on a pencil skirt and a plain white blouse. My wet hair is going to drip all over the work blouse, so I grab a dry towel from the hall closet and wrap it over my shoulders like a shawl.

  I head downstairs, slowly gripping the handrail like I’m ninety and not twenty-nine. At the bottom of the stairs, Mia’s backpack is ready to go, but I need to get her lunch and snacks from the fridge. I tiptoe through the quiet home, saying a prayer to the headache gods.

  “I just have to make it through the day,” I say. “Then I can come home and climb into bed.”

  I desperately want a little coffee, but making it feels like too much effort. If I leave the house a few minutes early, I can grab coffee at work after I drop off Mia. There’s a snack shop in the lobby of my building. Their coffee tastes stale, but it’s there as a last resort if I get desperate. And I am desperate. I’m already on a performance plan. A PIP, as my boss so casually likes to call it. As if a happy-sounding little acronym changes what it means.

  Performance Improvement Plan.

  I take Mia’s lunch box and snack from the fridge and set them on top of her backpack, counting the number of sick days I’ve taken in the last three months alone. My head hurts too much for math, but it’s a lot—too many. My work is exceptional when I’m in the office, but between my own headaches and Mia having a tough time adjusting to life without her grandma, it’s true. My performance could use a hell of a lot of improvement. Well, maybe not my performance, but my attendance. The real estate company I work for doesn’t have enough employees to have a whole HR department, so it’s just Jeff, the owner, and his grandfather running roughshod over my attendance record.

  “If we had a three-strike rule, you’d have been gone two or three times over, Birdie.”

  I check my phone and note the time. We need to get moving, but speed is the last thing I have working for me today.

  I head back up the stairs and stop by the bathroom, where Mia is trying to pull a brush through a particularly gnarly-looking tangle.

  “Oh God, honey. Stop.” I grab the detangling spray and saturate the knot, then take a turn with the brush, trying to work through the mess. “What did you do?” I ask, trying not to hurt her scalp as I pick at the knot. “Roll around in bed all night?”

  She nods. “I had a lot of weird dreams.”

  I grab a sparkly hair tie from the vanity drawer and pull her hair into a ballerina-style bun on the top of her head. That tangled mess in the back will require time and patience. The kind of time and patience I don’t have. Not with a morning staff meeting and the threat of a headache pounding in my skull.

  “What kinds of dreams?” I ask. I’m pretty sure I already know. The same nightmares that have made her miss school and me miss work after many sleepless nights. But I ask anyway.

  She shrugs. “You know.”

  Mia started having nightmares when my migraines came back about six months ago. I tried to hide the fact that I was struggling from her, but after too many hours in the bathroom or in bed, I had to admit the truth. It’s been a couple of months of these symptoms, and the migraines are definitely back.

  I smooth the loose tendrils of hair into her bun. “Baby,” I say, even though my Mia is a big girl of seven. “Mama gets headaches sometimes. I know they can be pretty scary, but they aren’t serious. You don’t have to be afraid. You know what to do if I get really sick.”

  She nods. “Take your phone and call one of my friends’ moms.”

  “Which one would you call first?” I ask.

  “Sophia’s.”

  I smile. “And do you know how to find Sophia’s mom in my phone?”

  She nods.

  “And what if no one answers when you call? If it’s a real emergency and you’re really scared, what do you do?”

  “Call 9-1-1.”

  “Exactly,” I say, trying to give her an overly big smile. “But you’re not going to have to do that. I feel okay, and I promise I’m going to get myself checked out by a doctor soon. We’ll see if we can’t do something to stop this altogether.” I take her sweet face in my hands, but as I bend down, I feel it. The throbbing feeling that started off shallow, like a pulse in my temple, quickly goes deep.

  The room darkens, and the halo around my vision clouds out my daughter’s face.

  Shit. Not today. Please, please, not today.

  I assure myself I’m okay, because if I start to panic, it will hit me ten times as hard and fast as it might otherwise.

  My phone starts ringing, and thankfully, I’ve got it with me. I set down the hairbrush and glare at the caller ID.

  “Good morning, Jeff,” I say, trying to keep my voice level.

  “Bridget, can you come in an hour early this morning? I looked over your projections, and I’m not comfortable with your analysis of the Q1 numbers. I’d like to…”

  I tune out my boss as the impossibility of his request hits me. In order to be at the office an hour early, I’d have to have another mother drop Mia off at school and leave for the office now. I’ve told Jeff this a thousand times over the last few months, but I’ve been so focused on keeping this job, I haven’t had the nerve to say no to anything extra he’s asked. Saying I can’t come in early is something I shouldn’t even have to do, but here I am, squeezing my eyes closed as I head down the stairs.

  “Jeff,” I say, trying to break in and interrupt him. But he’s talking about my data, and he’s talking so loud and so fast. My stomach lurches, and I reach for the handrail.

  “Bridget, I really think…” My boss’s voice echoes in my ears, the sharp edges of his tone breaking through the walls I’ve put up around my headache. His words beat at my eardrums, and I hold the phone away, trying to put some space between the sounds and the pounding that’s leveling up fast in my skull.

  I don’t even know how it happens, but before I know it, I’m stumbling. My foot catches on that same old stair with the loose carpeting I’ve been meaning to fix for months now but haven’t had the money.

  I stumble forward, grabbing the handrail, but I feel the impact of the banister against my eyebrow and forehead. After the shock of the impact passes, I realize I didn’t just stumble…I’m hurt.

  “Oh my God!” Blood drips down my face where I’ve cut my eyebrow. My white dress shirt is spotted with stains, and the red color against the clean white fabric sends my stomach into a tailspin. The towel falls from my shoulders onto the carpeted stair beneath my feet, and my wet hair drips onto my shirt, making the blood spread out.

  I drop my phone, vaguely aware of it falling over the side of the banister and hitting the tile of the first floor below.

  “Mia,” I call out weakly. I don’t want to scare her, but the fact is, I’m scared.

  The room is starting to spin, and even though my stomach is empty, I’m sure I’m going to be sick.

  I grip the wall with my left hand and cover my mouth with my right as I stumble back upstairs. Mia is in her room, struggling with her tights.

  “Mommy has to use the bathroom, honey. I’ll take you to school as soon as I’m done.”

  I shut her bedroom door. If at all possible, I don’t want her to hear this. I close the bathroom door just in time to make it to the toilet before the heaving starts. I see colors behind my eyes, and all I feel is pain.

  If Jeff’s still talking on my phone, he might realize by now that I’m not responding. I’m starting to accept that I’m not making it to work today. Mia’s not going to make it to school. I start negotiating with myself.

  You can do this. You’re okay. Don’t think about the job. Right now, just think about getting through this.

  I have to get better. I just have to.

  When the heaving subsides, I wipe my face and rinse my mouth, then knock on Mia’s bedroom door.

  “I’m ready,” she says as she rushes past me, thundering down the stairs. “I just have to put on my shoes.”

  “Honey.” My voice is weak, but with the pain, the colors, and the nausea, I can’t muster the strength to shout. “Mia…”

  But she’s already downstairs, jamming her lunch bag and snacks into her backpack. “Mom,” she calls, “can I wear these?”