Chapter 1
He’d been expecting the glares that followed him as he moved through the crowded, seedy bar, flanked by two other officers. Just in case.
But if they only knew the news he had come to deliver...
Maybe they wouldn’t have hated him so much.
He scanned the crowd, eyes settling on FP Jones, predictably front and center in his throne like chair. Directly beside him, beer in hard, blue eyes hard. Cold. Was the very reason for the drop in.
FP spared her a glance and sighed. “Little lost, aren’t you, Keller?”
“FP,” Tom tipped his head in a nod. “I’m actually here to see Penny, if you don’t mind.”
He could feel the hate radiating off of her. The hurt. Resentment.
And there wasn’t a single part of him that would have blamed her for any of it.
He’d messed up. He hadn’t listened. He had protected the wrong person.
The Serpent leader’s arm extended in front of the young woman protectively. “I’m not sure that’s such a good-”
“We found her!” He blurted out.
Penny’s hands, splayed across the sticky table top, began to shake.
“W… What?” She whispered.
“We found Betty, Penny,” Sheriff Keller repeated. “And if you’d let me… I would be honored to be the one to bring her home to you.”
***
She had never been more scared than the day she gave birth to her daughter.
She was alone, newly eighteen, newly single. Newly orphaned. Between the contractions and the looks from snooty older bitches that didn’t support, or just simply didn’t understand single, teenage motherhood, she’d had enough time to think.
Maybe she needed Hal.
Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this.
Maybe her daughter deserved better.
But then, after all the encouragement from well-meaning nurses, and one final, painful push, she’d heard it.
Elizabeth’s first cry.
And suddenly, she wasn’t alone in the world anymore. She had a purpose. A reason.
Something that was hers, and hers alone.
Hal was in and out of Betty’s life so much, Penny had once worried it would give her daughter whiplash. He only wanted to be a father when it was convenient for him. When he could show off to his prideful family, his flashy friends, and his demanding clients. He’d work a mask for them all, playing the part of the loving, doting father, but when the curtains fell, all Betty had ever gotten from him were bruised that took weeks to heal, and the emotional trauma of watching her father beat her mother.
Calls to the police and a social worker kept him away for weeks at a time, but as a member of the most influential family in Riverdale, he was easily able to convince everyone that he had cleaned up his act, and the vicious cycle would just start all over again.
The final straw was her daughter, barely three years old, taking a hit intended for Penny.
With her cheek still swelling, her little girl bravely told the judge that Hal had never been her father.
I only need my mommy.
Those words played in her head on a loop.
Oh Betty, she often thought, as she lay in her bed late at night, unable to sleep. I’m sorry.
But sorry would never be enough.
Penny had failed. Miserably. She had failed the only thing that ever mattered to her.
But fate… the damn thing hadn’t given up on her yet.
“W-What?” Penny whispered.
She felt FP’s hand clamp down on her arm as she staggered to her feet. She would have gladly taken a swing at him had she not been held back.
“If you’re joking, Keller...”
Penny didn’t trail off to let the threat sink in. She was no longer able to speak.
Elizabeth was... alive.
She was coming home.
***
Penny thrashed in his hold, but he didn’t relent, even as his mind raced.
Betty... was... alive?
FP felt dazed.
He tried to remember the last time he’d seen the little girl with wonky blonde curls and bright green eyes, too smart for her own good at times. Too funny. Too sweet.
Too… good for this world.
It must have been one or two days before Hal took her from the front yard of their boxy little, two-bedroom, one-bath house. The kids hardly went a day without seeing one another, their bonds so tightly woven, at times it almost made him jealous to know that nothing would ever break them apart.
“I need to sit down,” Penny mumbled, even though she had just stood up.
FP lowered her back down into her chair, hands on her shoulders, just in case.
“I wouldn’t joke about something like this, Penny,” Tom vowed, bowing his head. “Will you let me bring her home?”