Free This Heart of Mine by Brenda Novak Page A

breakfast yesterday morning at Just Like Mom’s. Why? Is that the reason you’re here? Did someone tell you about that?”
    “No. But I’m surprised
you
didn’t.”
    “This is the first time I’ve seen you. Did you want me to file a report?”
    She perched on the edge of his couch. “That would’ve been nice. You’re not the only one who has a stake in this, you know.”
    “Where’s Dad?” he asked.
    “On his way to the golf course with his friends.”
    “He was willing to miss the ‘Phoenix’ talk?”
    “He’d miss my funeral for a good golf game.”
    Riley couldn’t help chuckling.
    “So?” she said.
    “So, what?”
    “How did she act?”
    They were back to the nitty-gritty details of his first visit with Phoenix. “She was very...polite.”
    “Of course! She wants to impress you.”
    “She wants to know her son, Mom. She’s made that clear, wouldn’t you say?”
    “That’s what she’d like us to believe, but she hoped to get you before, and I’m sure she’d be thrilled to land you now. You remember how fixated she was on you.” She picked a piece of lint off her slacks. “You wouldn’t want to start something like that up again, would you?”
    Even that aspect of Phoenix’s actions had been exaggerated over the years. “She deserves the chance to prove she’s changed.”
    “What are the odds she changed for the better
in prison
?” his mother responded.
    “Don’t make it sound like that’s impossible. Otherwise, why would we let anyone out?”
    “Because there aren’t enough cells to keep all the murderers locked up. But I didn’t come here to debate the penal system. I was hoping to get you to reconsider being so flexible. She’s probably seen things you and I can only imagine. Who knows what kind of people she met in that place? I don’t want her to become a negative influence on Jacob after all we’ve done to raise him right.”
    Riley’s temper was beginning to chafe. “Mom, Jacob’s sixteen. Almost an adult. We can’t protect him forever.”
    “He’s at a very impressionable age!”
    “Still, we need to trust in who he is. It’s up to him to decide whether he wants his mother in his life.”
    “But he doesn’t know what’s best.”
    “Neither do
we
! That’s the thing!”
    “We have a lot more to base our decision on than he does.”
    With a sigh, Riley slouched into the chair opposite her. “I’m not so sure. I’ve been wondering if we were wrong to keep them apart. It hurt Phoenix deeply, and I honestly don’t think she’s all that bad.”
    His mother’s eyes widened. “Maybe you need to talk to Lori Mansfield’s family, to be reminded of how much they’ve suffered from losing their beautiful daughter.”
    “I’m sympathetic to the Mansfields. I know you and Corinne are close friends, that her happiness is important to you. But they’re not the only ones who’ve suffered. And if Phoenix has been telling the truth about the events of that day, her punishment was completely unjustified. I’d hate to add to that.”
    His mother got to her feet. “Now you believe she’s innocent?”
    “There’s nothing to prove her guilt
or
her innocence.”
    “Then look at the facts. That’s what they convicted her on, isn’t it? She was jealous when you started seeing Lori. So she tried to take her out of the picture. It was Phoenix’s car that ran her down, and Phoenix was behind the wheel. There was even a witness inside the vehicle!”
    Who might have been lying, but he could tell the argument was only going to escalate if they continued talking about this. “We don’t know exactly what happened,” he insisted.
    “What’s gotten into you?” she asked. “Just last week you were wishing along with the rest of us that Phoenix would go
somewhere
else.”
    That was before he’d met her for breakfast, before last night. Both encounters had had a profound effect on him. It was much easier to malign someone who wasn’t around. Now that he’d