Chapter 2

Maeve didn’t hand me the potion as soon as I arrived. She checked my ID, asked where I was staying, and made sure I had money to live on.

I showed her my hotel reservation and the savings from my paid placement. Dad had never taken much interest in that money. It had seemed too small to matter to him; it was enough to keep me out of his house.

“One hundred and twenty thousand dollars for every memory of your relationship with Luke as your brother.” Maeve put the paperwork in front of me. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. Before picking up the bottle, I recorded a video on my phone. “My name is Nora. I’m twenty-two. Luke Reed is my adoptive brother. I’m doing this because he agreed the life we shared was a debt I needed to pay.”

On the screen, I stopped for a few seconds, trying to get the rest out without breaking down. “If you don’t remember him afterward, you don’t have to make yourself feel bad about it. I’m the one choosing this. I know what it means.”

The potion was bitter. As I swallowed the last of it, I could still see Luke turning toward me in the moonlight. He’d always been faster, but he used to stop at the bends and wait. I tried to hold on to the dark patch of fur along his neck.

Then I was picturing a trail I’d never walked down.

Maeve showed me a photograph and asked if I recognized the man. I studied his face, then checked the name in the notes she’d laid on the desk. “Luke Reed.”

Saying it meant nothing to me. I looked at the picture again, waiting for some sense of recognition, even an impression that I’d seen him before. There was only a face and the name I’d read beside it.

The $120,000 went straight into Ivy’s account. I saved the receipt and went back to the house for my identification documents. A tall man stood on the porch, frowning as I got out of the car.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone? Mom wants you home for dinner.”

The scar at his eyebrow matched the description I’d written down. This was Luke. “I was taking care of something.”

He reached for my bag, and I moved it out of his reach. His hand hung there before he lowered it. “Still pissed at me? I told you we’d go running again once Ivy’s doing better.”

I wasn’t sure what he expected me to say, so I told him he didn’t need to take me.

He watched me walk inside and followed when I opened the cabinet by the door. “Your water bottle’s in the kitchen. What are you looking for in there?”

“My passport.”

“What do you need that for?”

“I might need it later.”

I didn’t mention Riverbend. Leah had just confirmed that she’d hold the position for me and that a staff room was available. I could start on Monday.

Luke leaned against the cabinet while I put my documents away. “You used to grab my sleeve whenever someone upset you. How long are you going to keep up this act?”

I closed the drawer and looked at him. “I don’t want to hold on to you.”

He pressed his lips together, apparently waiting for something else. I walked past him and went to Mom’s sitting room.

She and Ivy were looking over the seating plan for the celebration. Mom beckoned me closer. “The money came through. See? Giving a little wasn’t so terrible, was it?”

I still remembered her, and that made it hurt in a way Luke’s questions hadn’t. During my first shift, I’d bitten myself because of the pain. Mom had wrapped her jacket around my shaking wolf and stayed with me on the bathroom floor all night. She’d said I didn’t have to be as brave as the other young wolves.

“Mom, did you read the information about the potion?”

“I asked your father. He has it under control.” She set aside the seating plan. “Ivy wants your old suite. It’s closer to my room. Could you get your things packed tonight?”

“I gave up my training slot. I canceled my birthday party. Now you want my room?”

“It’s a different bedroom, Nora. Do you have to keep score over everything?”

I’d thought the first payment might make her stop and ask what they were doing to me. Instead, she’d called it giving a little and asked for my room.

Even then, I wanted her to notice I was hurting. I remembered her jacket around my shaking body, her voice telling me she wouldn’t leave. I kept waiting for that mother to look up from the seating plan.

Luke’s words on the porch hadn’t made me want to stay. Hers still could.

I didn’t want to keep coming back for comfort she was no longer willing to give me.

“I won’t move in.” Ivy lowered her eyes. “Please don’t sell any more memories because of me. People will think I made you.”

She didn’t reach for her phone or offer to send the money back.

“There’s no need to get a guest room ready,” I said. “I’ll move out.”

Mom finally put down what she was holding. “Don’t threaten me with running away.”

“I’m telling you what I’m doing.”

I packed my bag and called Leah to accept the job. That evening, Dad summoned me to his study. He didn’t ask where I was going. He wanted to know when the second payment would arrive.

I laid a printed agreement on his desk. “Put it in writing. This is the full amount you’ve demanded, and once you receive it, you won’t make another claim for raising me.”

He glanced at the page.

“I’m not paying for permission to leave,” I said. “But you’re not going to call me ungrateful afterward and send me another bill. Sign it, or there won’t be another payment.”

He read it twice and gave a short laugh. “You really think you could walk away from us?”

“Are you signing?”

He did. He even called Mom in to witness it. She was so sure I was sulking that she barely looked at me as she added her name. Neither of them asked why I’d wanted their promises in writing.

The following day, I sat across from Maeve again. For $280,000, I sold the memories of my mother tending my cuts, helping me through my shifts, and holding me through all those long nights.

When the potion had taken effect, I opened my phone and found thousands of messages I’d sent to a number I no longer recognized. In the most recent one, I’d tried to explain what I was losing. Her reply told me what to wear to the celebration.

I saved the conversation and extended my hotel reservation through the day I planned to leave.

Paying them wasn’t going to bring my family back. I wasn’t staying to find out how much more they’d ask for.