The Runaway Viper (Viper #2) by Kirsty-Anne Still

he?”
    “No, he brought them to me,” she announces and again the same sad smile graces her lips. “You looked so beautiful and happy, Sweetheart,” she speaks sadly, her hand going to her heart. “I wish I’d have been there.”
    “Mrs. Gilbert, one day I will make sure you are there,” Jace intercepts, extending his hand out to take my mother’s so he can greet her properly. “Jace Mason.” He takes her hand, only to kiss it like a true gentleman. “It’s lovely to finally meet you. I’ve been trying to get Joely back to you for quite some time.”
    “Mom,” I break into the moment, “I’m done running.” I don’t know if it’s enough to warrant me a place back in the family fold, but I need to be here, I need to look for some forgiveness.
    “Then you stop,” she murmurs at me, in her motherly tone. She ushers us in, ready to start anew with me in their life along with Jace.
    I’m led into the house and now I’m reminded of the time change. The house has been decorated, showing how Carrie and I are no longer living here. This is a home for my parents, one for them to grow old in.
    My mother clearly notices my attention flickering all over. “Your room is still the same as when you left for college. Your father and I couldn’t bring ourselves to change anything in there without your say so.”
    “Okay,” I whisper, not sure I’m ready to go back to that accumulation of memorabilia of a past I ran from. I look around, wondering who else is home. I want to see them, get the first meetings over with.
    “Your father’s at work right now,” my mother interrupts my thoughts. “He’s home early on Thursdays. You picked a good day.” She glances at her watch and smiles. “He’ll be home real soon.”
    I nod and look at Jace who silently prompts me. “Mom,” I call out to grasp her attention. “Can we discuss the past four years?” I ask her. She stops puttering around in the kitchen and I find myself guided to the same dining table we spent most every meal at.
    “Where do you want to begin?” she asks as she settles opposite us. I can see she’s still in shock I’m here, but I know her, she’ll deal with that later.
    “Where I ended up,” I state coolly. I know my mother will be the easiest to speak to. “I work in an exclusive gentlemen’s club, Mom,” I start to say and the nerves erupt in a frenzy upon me. “I’ve done stuff I’m ashamed of, but I don’t let it define me.” I stare at her, ready for an outburst, but I can see she is just out to listen to me. Not judge. “I have been made to do things I never dreamed I would do, but that life I was given saved me. I fell down in New York and a lady helped me. She gave me a home, money, a job. Jace is the reason I got out.”
    I’m met with silence again so continue.
    “Please do not think I am a whore or anything. I’m not. I don’t pride myself on that job. I’ve worked hard to maintain playing the piano. I met Jace and he saved me far more than I thought necessary. Please don’t think any less of me for that small piece of my life.”
    “I think you’ve come out of this a stronger woman,” my mother praises me. “You aren’t the girl who survived that crash. You aren’t even the same girl you were before. You’re stronger willed, driven. You’re everything I hoped you’d become as a result of that crash. I just didn’t expect this.”
    I smile gratefully, but it falls the moment I hear the door open and brace myself for the new person about to come into the room.
    “Honey, I’m home!” I hear my dad’s baritone voice yell out, and I smile wistfully. He still greets my mother with the same, cheesy greeting he always did.
    “I’m in the kitchen!”
    I feel my eyes water. They haven’t changed at all, and I feel like it’s all a distant memory when I sat at the breakfast bar with a laptop writing a paper, Cassie and Spencer studying upstairs, Mom cooking, Dad at work. I look down at my hands, wringing