"I don't know Gabby, it was bizarre. She just shut me down." I looked down at the brunette who was sprawled across my bed, painting my toenails candy apple red.

My mom had come to me about twenty minutes after the incident and said she was leaving to go to work. She said she wouldn't be back for a few hours. I think she was just still angry with me and was using work as an excuse to leave. I had tried to ask her again about the letter before she left and she ignored my questions. She was acting so strange about this.

"Well, I'm glad you called me." She said, putting the brush back in and shaking the polish again for the hundredth time.

"Why would my mom have known anyone who was in jail?" I sat admiring her skilled way of getting the polish on in just the right spot. Gabby said she had a lot of time on her hands when she was getting clean and painting her nails became an obsession. She was really good at it. She must have had a lot of practice.

"Do you think your Mom was like a prostitute or something? You did say you found a lot of nasty things in her underwear drawer. Maybe she was hustling on the side, got in with a bad crowd with people who had all night orgies, and had to change her name." Gabby blew on my toes.

"Yeah, no. My Dad would never let that happen. I've seen him threaten to beat up the guy at the drive-thru for asking her if she wanted ketchup for her fries. He is very territorial." I said, shaking Gabby's way too elaborate suggestion away.

"Maybe that's how they got together in the first place. He found her on a street corner and paid her twenty bucks to do the nasty in an alley." Gabby made a slurping noise.

"That's disgusting," I said, sticking my tongue out. I did not need her to create new mental images to add to the terrible ones I already had after seeing the nipple clamps.

"Hey, do you have anything to drink?" Gabby asked, looking up at me after she finished painting the last toe.

"We have water and gobs of sugary drinks? What will it be?"

"Sugary drinks, please." She said, smiling. "Don't mess up your nails or I'll kill you!"

I went downstairs and grabbed a drink for Gabby. On my way back up, she hollered back down that she was starving. I turned back around and rummaged through the pantry for a few minutes. I pulled out a bag of chips and a box of snack cakes. I wasn't quite sure what she liked, but hopefully, these would work.

When I got back upstairs, she was standing next to my dresser staring at a picture of my family.

"Are these your parents?" She asked, picking the picture frame up.

"Yeah, that was taken not long before I ran away." I walked over and looked over her shoulder.

"Who's the little cutie?" She asked, pointing to my brother.

"That annoying little creature is my little brother, Jax."

"He looks just like your Dad." She said, turning to me.

"Yeah, Millers have strong genetics." I shrugged.

"Your Dad is so hot." She said, holding up the frame and waved it around. "Why is he with your Mom? She's kind of, eh."

I took a weird offense to that. My mom was not beneath my dad by any means. In fact, I felt like it was the other way around. My dad was lucky to have her in his life. His moodiness and temper were legendary. My mom was the only woman on the planet who could put up with his shenanigans.

I had to admit, it wasn't the best picture of my mom, but she was still way above average.  She actually looked like she was only about five or six years older than me.   I secretly hoped I would age as gracefully as she did.

"You're lucky you look like him. Could you imagine looking like her?" She said, huffing.

"I think my Mom is very pretty."

She tossed the frame face down on the dresser nonchalantly, which irritated me. What was Gabby's deal today? She seemed a little testy; maybe she was struggling with herself. I had been there enough times to know what that felt like. I was about to ask her if she wanted to talk about whatever was bothering her when Jax's head popped around the corner.

I hadn't even seen that little armpit stain since I got out. My parents agreed to let him go with his girlfriend's family to their lake house and he must have just gotten back in town. He had been too busy with his new little girlfriend to even bother to welcome his big sister home before he left.

The jerk didn't even make me a handmade sign in crayon to welcome me home.  Some little brother he was.

"Look who decided to finally come home. Where the hell have you been?" I said, smiling back at the kid I barely recognized in the doorway. He had to have grown at least ten inches since I left. He was just as tall as my Dad now, maybe taller. I had to do a double-take to make sure it was really him.

"I was busy skiing with lawn gnomes in the Swiss Alps." He said with a little half-smile creeping over his face. He pushed his hair back off his head and walked across the room to wrap me in a hug.

Who was this man-sized boy and what had he done with my socially awkward little brother?

"Did you find a Yeti?" I asked, squeezing him tighter.

"No, but I became friends with this really nice mountain goat. He convinced me to buy some lederhosen and sing that 'So Long, Farewell' song from 'The Sound of Music'."

"You are one messed up little dude," I said, trying to hold back my happy tears.

"Who the duck is this?" He asked, pointing over at Gabby.

"Duck? Really?" I asked, laughing.

"Hey, I'm trying to be better." He winked.

"Whatever you say. Jax, this is my friend, Gabby. I met her at my group." I answered.

"Hey, Gabs," Jax said, waving at her.

Gabby's eyes lit up as she stood there silently gawking at him. She needed to close her mouth. Jax may look like a man on the outside, but he was still a little boy in every other way possible.

My tinglers were up; I had the big sister protective feelies. I didn't think she knew she was staring at him like she was a predator and he was her prey. I had to cut her some slack. She didn't realize he was only sixteen. Jax could easily pass for someone in his early twenties.

I decided I should probably get her to leave soon anyway so I could spend a little time with Jax to catch up. I had missed him a lot. I wanted to be around his annoyingness for a while longer. I needed time with him so he could remind me why we couldn't stand each other.

"Hey Gabby, my mom is on her way home from work soon. She is a little strange about me having company right now. Is it cool if we hang out some other time?" I lied smoothly to her.

"Sure, no problem. I've got some stuff to do anyway." She grabbed her bag from the chair and crossed the room to hug me. She stepped away quickly and then wrapped her arms around Jax. Jax stood there looking confused.

Gabby was a hugger. Who knew?

She let him go and left the room, waving at both of us.

"So, you actually have a real girlfriend. Not like something you created in a science lab, right?" I smiled up at him.

He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of a beautiful short, curvy girl hugging him. She had straight dark hair with large dark eyes and olive skin.

"Jax, she's gorgeous. No wonder Mom is so freaked out." He gave me a sheepish smile and glanced down at the picture again before sticking it in his pocket. The boy was hooked.

We sat down on my bed and spent the next two hours picking at each other before my Mom got home. It had been forever since Jax and I did anything like this. In fact, I'm not sure if we had ever even done this before.

I laughed so hard at his weirdness as he excitedly explained his new obsession with some video game with dragons in it.  He was explaining every detail of the plotline as I sat there drinking it in.

I never knew feeling normal could feel so good. I liked where I was right now. I was glad I was here still. Even though I felt torn about the way I got back to this point, this was the way everything was supposed to be.

Jax scurried out the door without saying goodbye when his phone rang. He was cooing over the phone in a lovey-dovey voice as he walked out the door. The girlfriend was calling to check in on him. Innocent teenage love was so cute. I could just pinch his little cheeks.

My alarm went off on my phone. It was time to renew the chemical baby gate inside my head.

"2 for the ups, 1 for the downs, and 1 to turn me into a circus clown." I opened my mouth and swallowed after saying my pill mantra. It was my strange sanity check that I came up with to make sure I was taking the right meds. Hiding my pain with a bad attempt at humor was the extra push I needed to cope at this point. Otherwise, I would be a blubbering mess screaming into my pillows.

About an hour later, I randomly started thinking about the letter in my Mom's room again. It was so unlike her to react like she did.

What about that letter had her so worried?

There had to be so much more I was missing. I had to stop myself from going to grab it to read it again. At least I was able to read the name on the letter before she snatched it from me.

Obviously, my Mom wasn't going to tell me. Was that why my Uncle had asked her if she talked to a lawyer? There was something she was hiding from me and the too curious portion of my brain was going to figure out what it was.

I debated trying to look up the name on the internet but shut that down when I remembered how unreliable the information on the web was. Why look up shady information when I had my own personal line to crime records?

Even if the relationship between Cam and I was strained at the moment, he still would offer to help me. He owed it to me after what he pulled the night I went back to his place.

Cam would find something. He was really good at this type of thing.

I picked up my phone and sent a quick text.

Me: Hey Cam. You busy?

Cameron: No, what's up?

Me: Can I come over tonight?

Cameron: Door's open.

Me: You better be wearing clothes.

Cameron: No promises.

I rolled my eyes. I swore if he was naked when I walked in, I was going to strangle him.

After I found the third tattoo, of course.