Hidden Gods, Second Endings Book 4

Chapter 1

The hanger slid with the sharp rasp of metal on metal as I shoved another handful of clothes to the side.

Ugh, nothing in here was right. Did I own anything that had a glimmer of style, or even trendy fashion to it? The fabric was worn. I may not have a lot of money for new clothes, that wasn't my issue. Without a waistline in sight, everything was vaguely sack-like and covered in floral print in an attempt at being pretty. Everything was frumpy.

'You dressed like this all the time?' I asked. The words were in my head, just as it seemed the presence of Addison Rouche was. Her fashion sense came from a combination of economics, comfort, and lack of self-confidence. I blamed her mother.

I lifted one dress, a shapeless potato sack of a garment with bell sleeves. Addy must have thought it fancy at one point, considering it was a daring glowing magenta with darker tiger like stripes. It looked like the kind of thing someone trying to hide their figure would wear.

The entire wardrobe was full of clothes that hid this body under a tarp. My closet looked like it belonged to a middle-aged woman.

"How old am I?" I asked the woman sitting in the middle of my bed. She flipped through a photo album as I searched for anything I might be able to salvage before I took the entire lot down to the thrift store and completely replaced all of my clothes.

I took one look at the person who was my mother, and realization dawned. These clothes looked exactly like the things Kristen wore. And she had the kind of domineering personality to run her opinion rough-shod over her daughter.

'Twenty- six,' the apparition of Addy said nanoseconds before her mother answered.

"You're twenty-six, Addy."

I grumbled low in my chest. "Please don't call me that."

Kristen sniffed. "But it's your name."

"My name is Addison," I choked out. "I accept that, but I am not Addy. Addy didn't come out of the water. I did."

Just over three months earlier, while on vacation in Hawaii, there had been an accident and Addy had drowned. When the Coast Guard had resuscitated the body I was there, not Addison.

'I did, too, come out of the water.'

'A month ago, Addy. You left me alone in residence for two months.'

My name is Mancey Heartlove, and once upon a time I was the sweetheart of Hollywood.

"Why do you say such hurtful things?"

It took me a second to regroup. Balancing the two conversations was a challenge when one of us wasn't aware there was a third person in the room. I sat on the bed next to Kristen, the magenta tiger striped dress still in my grasp. "I'm not saying it to be hurtful."

"You're punishing your father and I for trying to save your marriage." She held open the album and showed me a page of photos. "You were so happy."

The picture showed a couple that were practically total opposites. The man looked old and boney. He was long and thin, with a wispy mustache and small eyes. He looked like a weasel. A dirty trucker cap hid his mangy hair. The woman had a sweetheart shaped face with a short nose, big eyes, and thick, dark hair that hung to her shoulders. She was young and plump. It was a picture of Addy and her ex, Tyler.

In the picture, Addy wasn't smiling. She grimaced through too much makeup. The man next to her didn't have his arm lovingly draped over her shoulders, no, he had a grip on the back of her neck like he was trying to control a dog, or scruff a cat. What the photo didn't show were the bruises.