her next. I might have stood there and taken him hitting on me, but I’d kill him if he touched her.
“This is all your fault,” he shouted at her. “If you could have actually kept the other one instead of killing it, maybe he would have been worth a damn! Instead, all you gave me was this.” He waved a disgusted hand in my direction. “You two deserve each other.” He stomped away and slammed the front door so hard that it bounced open and closed repeatedly before staying open, the sunlight streaming in.
My mom ran to my side. “Mac, are you okay? I’m so sorry.” She started crying.
“What was he talking about? What other one?” I asked, still clearly in shock.
“I was pregnant when you were ten. I lost the baby. He’s never forgiven me,” she explained.
I hadn’t known that.
Why the hell hadn’t I ever known that?
This family was filled with secrets, and we were so damn dysfunctional because of it.
“I’m sorry that happened, Mom. I never knew.”
She walked to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack before handing it to me. “We never told you.”
I thought back to my childhood and remembered when things had started to change. Every ounce of happiness seemed to get sucked out of the house all at once, but I never knew why. Mom cried a lot. Dad started spending all of his time at the office. I guessed that was when it all happened.
I held the ice pack to the side of my face and winced. “Has he ever done this to you?” I asked, and she shook her head rapidly.
“No. Never,” she said.
I believed her. DD had never even threatened to hit me before, which was why I was still so horrified by what had just occurred. And as much as it killed me, I had to go.
“I can’t stay here, Mom.”
“I know,” she said, her body shaking. “Hold on.” She put up a finger and disappeared upstairs before coming back with something in her hand. She shoved a wad of cash into my palm and closed my fingers around it. “You know he’ll cut off your card. I don’t want you left with nothing. It’s all I have right now.”
Opening my palm, I looked at it, the stack of bills. There had to be at least five thousand dollars there. I could tell from the weight and the thickness. “Mom, I don’t need all this. Keep some. Keep half. More than half.”
“No. It’s okay. I have more in a private account your father doesn’t know about. That’s just all the cash I have on hand,” she explained. “I want you to take it. And go. You need to be gone before he gets back.” She sounded downright terrified.
“I can’t just leave you here.” I started to get nervous at the thought.
Now that DD had crossed the line into physical violence, what was going to stop him from doing it again? To her?
“You can, and you will.” She sounded so firm and strong. “Right now. Get your things, then take your car, and go. I’ll call you later. Don’t worry about me. I’ll take care of myself.”
I shook my head. I was unwilling to leave. “Come with me.”
“It will only make things worse,” she explained, but it sounded like some sort of sick justification for staying.
I tried to blink the tears away, but it only made them fall instead. I felt sick to my stomach, not knowing what the right answer was or what I should do. All I wanted was to get the hell away from this house and never look back, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of abandoning her.
“Should I call the cops?”
“No,” she answered so fast. “No cops.”
I knew that calling them would only make DD even angrier and that she would pay for it, but doing nothing felt so wrong.
“Mac, look at me,” she insisted, and I did as she’d asked. “Go get your things and pack up your car. Get on the road before he comes back. I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”
That admission woke me up. “I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to you,” I said as she followed me up to my room to help me pack my crap.
“Listen to me.” She grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face her. “None of this is your fault. And nothing will happen to me. I need you to go. I need you to trust me.”
Filling two duffel bags with everything