branded (phantoms mc #2)

three: in which she feels that her body is kinda ghost's town

"My heart is a ghost town" -Adam Lambert, Ghost Town

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Everyone thought that Dana Lopez was bat-ѕhit crazy.

Sitting across from her, trying not to look like I wasn't five seconds away from tearing my own hair out, I could see why they'd think that. They didn't know any better.

Donovan Women's Correctional was a joke—a fenced-off matchbox, to be honest—and since Donovan County was about thirty miles east of Sallow, I was in a bad mood from the drive. The visitation room was a poorly ventilated closet with iron chairs, a skinny redhead Barbie doll for a prison guard, and happy families pretending that they weren't in a room with criminals.

Dana looked like she was a little kid going on a school field trip, the way she was bouncing up and down as she was led to the place where I was sitting. I almost didn't recognize her—I mean, it had been nearly twenty years since I'd last seen her—but there was no denying that the tall, curvy woman in an orange jumpsuit was the woman who'd birthed me.

She sat across from me, looking around her at the other visiting friends and families, before finally focusing almond-shaped eyes on me. Her salt-and-pepper hair was cut in a pixie cut that emphasized her high cheekbones and relatively smooth olive-skinned face. For a woman in her late fifties—in prison, no less—she looked great. I scanned her face, noting how there was eyeliner that lined her muddy brown eyes, how her dark eyebrows had been carefully plucked.

"Lina?" She was grinning, leaning forward to squint at me. "Dios, it is you!"

"Yeah, Dana. It's me," I muttered, bitterness lacing my words. It wasn't her fault that she was here, that she was like this, but I couldn't stop myself from feeling the pain of motherless little Catalina Thomas from my past.

Dana narrowed her eyes at me. "You're older."

"That's what happens when time passes."

Her smile returned, and the corners of her eyes crinkled. "How is school? You getting good grades?"

"I left school years ago."

"Oh." Her eyes misted over. "Zeus... Zeus doesn't come to visit me. Doesn't answer my calls. Can you tell your daddy that I'm sorry? Look at me. Don't I look nice for him?"

I bit my lower lip. I didn't know if she genuinely didn't know, or if it was just another factual memory her disease made her conveniently forget. "Dad's dead. He divorced you long before that happened, though. Remember?"

Her eyes clouded over with confusion. "No. You're lying," she said in a small voice. She stroked her bare ring finger. I happened to know that she'd sold that ring for crack long before my father kicked her ass out. "Zeus loves me," she continued.

My father had loved her. But then she'd started shooting up and snorting whatever the hell she could get her hands on. He'd made her sign the divorce papers and kicked her out. She hadn't been in contact once the divorce went through. She'd just disappeared, left the county, and it was only two years ago when I'd heard from someone that this was her current home. For the longest time, I'd been angry at my mother, angry that she'd chosen drugs over her family. I was past caring now.

"Dana," I started, "have you heard from Camila? Has she ever been in contact with you since you got locked up? Maybe sent you a letter?"

Dana's eyes brightened up. One second she was down, the next, up like a kite. "Cami! How's Cami?"