idea if that was true or not. But the words seemed to soothe her precious daughter, who closed her eyes again. Hopefully she was asleep.
Or unconscious.
Rhoda hoped it was the latter, actually. She hoped that Mercy had been unaware when DJ Belmont had stopped the truck an hour into their trip, and then another hour after that. And yet another hour after that, taking his payment from Rhoda’s body.
But getting Mercy out of Eden would be worth anything Rhoda had to endure.
They were almost there. Almost to the bus stop where she’d left Gideon four years before. She leaned down to whisper in Mercy’s ear. ‘Mercy, honey. Are you awake?’ Mercy’s chin dipped in a silent nod. ‘I need you to listen to me. This is important. Find Gideon. He’ll help you.’
Mercy’s eyes opened wide, her shock apparent. ‘He can’t. He’s dead.’
‘No, baby. He’s not.’ Please let that be true. ‘He escaped. I smuggled him out that night, just like I’m getting you out now. He is alive and you need to find him.’
Emotion flashed in her daughter’s green eyes. ‘He is alive? But you said—’
‘I know what I said,’ Rhoda hissed, prepared for Mercy’s disbelief. I played the part of a grieving mother too well. Except that she hadn’t been grieving his death. She’d grieved the fact that her actions had put both of her children in danger. She’d grieved that she’d left him alone, here, at this bus stop, while he bled and suffered. ‘But you need to believe me now. He is alive. And he will help you. Find him, Mercy.’
Mercy’s nostrils flared, her eyes narrowing in anger. ‘No.’
Rhoda blinked, stunned to hear the venom in her daughter’s voice. ‘What? Why not?’
‘He’s selfish and I never want to see him again. He escaped. He lived. While we . . .’ Tears welled in Mercy’s eyes. ‘We suffered, Mama. We suffered because he was selfish.’
‘No, Mercy. He wasn’t selfish. Never that.’
‘No. I’ll be fine without him. We’ll be fine, you and me.’
Rhoda’s eyes filled with tears. Not we, my sweet girl. Just you. She wouldn’t be allowed to go with her daughter, she was certain. ‘Mercy, baby. There’s something you need to know about Gideon.’
Mercy turned her face away, clenching her eyes closed. ‘No.’
‘There was a reason he left.’ A good reason. Good enough that she’d chosen to part with her child. Her only son. Leaving him here, hoping that someone would find him. Help him.
‘I know. He didn’t want to be apprenticed. He didn’t want to work. He was lazy and selfish.’ Mercy spat the words she’d been fed by the community. By Mercy’s own ‘husband’.
Words that Rhoda had been too terrified to call what they were: evil lies. Now she was going to lose both of her children, because she was never going to be allowed to live after this latest show of defiance.
How had she let this happen? How had it come to this?
‘No, Mercy.’ Rhoda shook her head. ‘He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t selfish.’ He was attacked. He was beaten. He was all but dead. ‘He was—’
The truck abruptly stopped, and Rhoda cursed herself for putting the truth off too long. It was too late. She had so much to tell her daughter and only seconds to do so.
‘Mercedes,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘You are Mercedes Reynolds.’
Mercy’s eyes widened in confusion. ‘What?’
The driver’s door opened. DJ was coming. Seconds. You have only seconds. Choose your words wisely.
‘You are Mercedes Reynolds. Not Terrill.’
Mercy’s brow furrowed. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘My parents are Derrick and Ronnie Reynolds in Houston. Find them. They’ll take care of you.’
‘Mama?’ Mercy’s fingers clenched Rhoda’s handmade coat. ‘You’re not making sense.’
But she was making sense. For the first time since believing a stranger’s lies about paradise, she was making sense. She was making it right. No, she could never make it right. She could only tell the truth.
‘Your brother is Gideon Reynolds. You need to find him. Tell him I’m sorry. Tell him that I love him.’ Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away, not caring where they fell. ‘I love you. Always and forever.’
Mercy’s lips trembled. ‘Mama?’
‘Selena. My name is Selena Reynolds.’ Then she hissed when the back of Brother DJ’s hand connected with her jaw.
‘Silence!’ DJ thundered.
Mercy recoiled, clenching her eyes closed as she stiffened, waiting for the next blow, but DJ didn’t have a problem with Mercy so the blow never came.
Touching the tip of her tongue to her bleeding lip, Rhoda met DJ’s dark eyes and said