Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,22

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“Mia, seriously,” she says exasperated. “This might be the house you grew up in, but make no mistake, that witch still owns it. Neither one of us is safe. While we’re under her roof, which is basically like being under her thumb.”

She’s right. Of course, she’s right.

But how do I explain? How do I demand answers from her when my life flipped upside down the day I saw Courtney with my father and truths came out? My life’s been a lie. I’ve been nothing but my father’s puppet since I was four so what’s Courtney’s manipulations now in the grand scheme of things?

“What do you want from me?” I snap. “What do you want me to say?”

“Mia…”

“If anything, you should be the one doing all the talking right now,” I say, my voice rising. “How could you let me live like that? How could you allow me, as my own biological mother, to be raised by that man? Used as his puppet?”

As soon as I say that I watch as her face grows pale, her eyes widening with horror.

“Oh God,” she whispers seemingly broken by that revelation.

Everything in me comes to a screeching halt at the confirmation in her eyes.

“So, it’s all true, huh?” I mutter woodenly, my heart beating in slow motion.

I was hoping—no, I was praying—that he lied, that he was just trying to fuck with me, forcing ne into his sick, twisted plan to hurt the Fitzgerald family but no. The truth is right there.

“Oh God,” she whispers again, covering her mouth with a trembling palm. “You… you know?”

“What exactly am I supposed to know, Nicky?” I mock. “Should I know that I’ve been believing since I was four-years-old that my name is Mia when my legal, birth name is Amy?”

“Oh no…”

“Should I know that you let that man make me believe that Nancy was my mother while you stood by and signed me away only for that man to break me and now, years later you come in and strip away everything I thought I knew like this?”

“Oh Mia, listen to me…”

“How about we talk about how you knew all of this but still let it happen?”

“It wasn’t like that!” she defends, frustration etched on her beautiful face. “It wasn’t like that at all.”

“What was it like then, Nicky?” I whisper. “Because we’ve been here for two weeks. Sure, we don’t belong here, but you’ve been as tight-lipped as a professional instead of talking to me about everything! And now you want answers?”

“Mia, I—”

“If you wanted to talk, like really talk, you could’ve come clean than let me wander from room to room of this ghost house, wondering why me,” I seethe, turning around to look at her and she reels back when she sees the look on my face. “How about you tell me why you let everything that happened to me, happen?”

“Mia…”

“Yes, that. Let’s start with my name! You’re the one who named me Amy, didn’t you?” I whisper, my body trembling.

Nicky’s eyes flood with tears but she doesn’t look away as she nods.

“Yes. I did.”

“So how did I become this?” I snap.

Tears start running down her beautiful face. I stand there stoically, pretending like I’m not a shudder away from folding into a ball and crying myself a river I’d gladly drown in.

“I tried,” she whispers brokenly. “In those first days and weeks, I tried to help you remember me, but each time I did, Nathan would find out somehow and when he did, he’d…” she trails off, her body now shaking like a leaf in a storm. In my mind, I see her lying on the floor, palming her cheek the day she told me to run. Did Nathan hurt her even then too?

“What did he do?” I whisper.

“Well, let’s just say that jerk has always had a penchant for violence. But I wanted to brave it out for you, even if it meant suffering, at least then I’d be close to my baby girl.”

“So, what happened?”

“The violence in that house… it was too much, even for you. You were a sensitive kid then and even more so now. When Nathan would… well, you could somehow feel it. You’d scream in the middle of the night and then one night, he made you sit there and watch as he ‘taught me a lesson’.” A lone tear trails down her beautiful face. “Well, let’s just say there’s no way I was going to let that jerk teach you that it’s okay to hit