Corruption - Leigh Lennon Page 0,34
gave her as a wedding gift. Trying to tell my mother the internet is a much easier method means nothing to her. And when I try to explain that medicine has come a long way since the book has been published, this, too, is useless.
Opening up the index and flipping to the page for broken noses, she peers at a picture of one, then turns to me for comparison. “I think we should go to the doctor to be sure, sweetheart.”
She has her hand on my arm, rubbing it up and down. This is the affection of a mother for her child. In these too few moments, I swear she secretly apologizes for the life she has allowed for me. But like my mother’s mother, she, too, was similar—staying with a man who ruled with an iron fist, yet with my grandma, my grandfather was abusive. My dad is simply a jerk and a bully, so I guess in my mom’s eyes, it’s progress.
“The pain would be excruciating. It really would. Anyway, I need to get my chores done as Dad asked so I can get to work.”
I pull away from her and need a few seconds to myself. I’ve not had a chance to think about Drake or Maddox. And it’s all I want to do, even if it’s over cleaning baseboards and scrubbing the toilets.
“Hold up, honey, I think maybe you should stay home from work today.”
Dear Lord, I love my mother. I’m angered by her willingness to settle, but at the end of the day, when I leave this house, it’ll kill me to walk away from her. And if I do it without my father’s blessing, which is most likely, she’ll be forbidden from seeing me. If she had more children, it wouldn’t be as hard; she’d still miss me, but she’d have more kids to mother. And she’d not be losing her only child when she was lucky to have me, and in it, she always said she was the most blessed.
“I don’t think Dad will approve, and it wouldn’t make a great impression on my new boss if I were to call out my second day.”
She gives me a slight nod of her head. “I guess you’re right. But please be careful, honey. I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to you.” And there it is, the evidence of how me leaving will destroy her.
I make my way to my room, passing my dad in the hallway. “Juliana Faith.” In his words is his command to stop. “What in the world happened to your face?” He seems concerned for my welfare at this moment, and in it, he’s the man who would carry me in from one of my bike spills with my skinned up knees, holding me as I cried in his shoulders. In his warm embrace was all the healing I needed, but we’re way past this point.
“I was walking out of Tori’s room, and she pushed the door open, not aware I was behind it.”
He tips my chin up a tad and then over to the side to get a better view with the little light streaming in. “Oh, sweetheart, that looks like it hurts.”
Here is my compassionate dad who I’ve missed for a long time.
“But you will have to suck it up and make your shift at the dairy farm.”
And here is the man I’ve come to accept for the past several years.
“Yes, sir, I was planning on going in. It wouldn’t make a great impression if I called in on my second day.”
And when I wanted to be mad at my dad, the oddest thing happened. “But you should rest until then. Your chores can wait a day.” He shows me kindness and consideration.
I’m confused, and my compassion for the warden is softened, but only for a second. “And be sure you get home. Enough galivanting with your friend for a while. I think Tori is a bad influence on you.”
It’s all I get and my heart sinks because Tori is my one excuse to make it to the club and to Maddox.
It was Maddox, he was the first person on my mind when my dad dropped the bomb about being basically grounded from my best friend. It must have made it back to him that Tori has a boyfriend who doesn’t go to church. In Roger Atkins’ mind, it does indeed make her a bad influence.
There are several texts from Drake, but I don’t respond to him. He