Henderson said firmly.

“Your mother was all alone, working long shifts for next to nothing, and Patrick used custody of you to control her.”

Lucas shut the little locket with a soft click and looked up at our old house.

“She kept me as close as she safely could, Cassie,” Lucas whispered.

“I had serious health problems and trauma after the factory accident, so she put up a wall of protection the only way she knew.”

The memory of my mother’s feverish hospital room suddenly came crashing through my mind like a tidal wave.