shit. She had to talk the cops into not taking me to jail for smoking pot. She was just saving her own ass since she was the one who supplied me with it. But she made a big scene. “That was the final straw,” she said.
We walk in the house and she slams the front door behind me. “What the fuck were you thinking?” she demands.
I ignore her and keep walking toward my room. Wanting to get away from her.
“Hey!” Phillip, her boyfriend, steps out of their room and into the hallway in front of me. “Your mother asked you a question.” His dark brown eyes stare down at me.
I ignore him and go to step around him. He reaches up, grabbing my backpack, and yanks me backward. I trip over my feet and fall on my ass. Before I can recover, he pulls me up and throws me into the wall, causing my books to dig into my back. Then his hand comes up, and he slaps me across the face.
I slap him back. It’s not the first time he’s put his hands on me. But I prefer this kind over the soft and gentle kind he attempts when my mother isn’t around.
“You ungrateful bitch!” he yells in my face. “Without us, you would have nothing.”
“You would have nothing if not for me!” I scream. “I don’t see you working for anything. My father gave my mother and me all this. What the fuck do you give us?”
He hits me again. So hard that it knocks me to my knees. I taste blood and get up, running to my room. I slam my door and lock it.
I lean up against it as angry tears sting my eyes. I can still hear them in the hallway. “Send that bitch to her dad’s,” he snarls.
“He never wanted her before. Why the hell would he want her now? She is nothing but trouble,” she growls.
“We have to do something. I can’t take her in this place with us any longer,” he tells her.
There’s a long pause. Then she says, “I’ll call Celeste. That stupid bitch will want her.”
The first tear falls down my cheek. I run over to my window, yank it up, and jump through it, wanting to get the fuck out of here.
Three weeks later, I was on a plane to Oregon.
My life wasn’t a good one. And honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised when my mother dropped me like a bad habit for her boyfriend. But I still thought she would fight for me. Want me. But she didn’t; all she needed was him. She stood by and let him hit me. Touch me.
But now it’s clear they have a hidden agenda. She wants me to get access to his money and send it to her. Fuck no! If she wants his money, she can call and ask for it. She’s never been shy about asking before.
Cole slows the car down, and I realize we are pulling into a driveway. And I’m instantly on alert once I realize it’s not my father’s. “Where are we?” I ask as panic bubbles up my throat.
“Shelby’s,” he answers and shuts the car off, getting out.
I follow him up to the front door. He enters without even knocking.
“Shelby?” he calls out.
“In here,” a woman’s soft voice says.
I follow much slower as I’m taking in my surroundings. The house is nothing like my father’s. It’s much smaller, homier. Smells of coconut.
We round a corner and walk into a kitchen. A beautiful blond sits at the table. She looks up at him, smiling warmly, her crystal blue eyes soft. She stands and walks right to him. He hugs her, and it makes me think they have something going on.
“This is Austin.” He gestures to me without looking my way. “She needs stitches.”
My eyes widen. That’s why we’re here? Stitches?
Her eyes widen as well. “Oh, my, what happened?” she asks, concern in her words.
“He took a knife to my forearm,” I say, lifting my chin.
“He what?” Her wide eyes snap to his. “Cole …?”
“Just stitch her up so we can go. I need to get home,” he snaps.
She closes her mouth and then walks over to me. “May I see it?”
I remove my red cardigan and lift my right hand in the air to show her my forearm. It’s covered in blood from when he broke it open earlier.
She gasps. “Cole Reynolds. Why the hell would you do this to her?” she demands.
We both look at