and bleeding onto the kitchen floor. I expected my mother to scream at me to clean it up, to demand I get the mop and get to work on making her floor sparkle again. All I could do was reach a hand out to grip the edge of the counter and try to remain steady, to keep myself from falling over into the puddle of blood collecting on the floor.
“Blake? Did you hear me?”
At that snappy tone, I did hear her, and I finally reacted. I curled my other hand into a fist and sent it sailing into the refrigerator door. The sound rang throughout the house and the faces of all my relatives turned to look on at the family drama about to unfold. The refrigerator contents rattled and spilled inside, and the stainless steel did nothing to cool the immediate throb that seared the side of my palm. But that all went ignored as I stared into the startled eyes of my mother.
“You didn’t fucking talk to me,” I growled through gritted teeth.
“Blake, calm—”
“You didn’t fucking talk to me!” I repeated, louder. Angrier.
Mom spread her arms wide, palms open. “Why do we have to talk to you about anything?”
I uncurled my fist and daggers shot up through my fingers to my elbow as I pointed one throbbing finger at my mother’s disbelieving face. “You didn’t say anything to me! You told me you were looking around. You told me you would keep me in the loop. But instead, you went behind my fucking back and signed the goddamn papers! How the fuck could you do this shit to me? There are other fucking options and—”
“Options?” Mom spat condescendingly. “What options?”
And I finally uttered my deepest wishes to the woman who could make them come true. “He could stay with me! He likes my place, he’s happy there, he’s—”
Her eyeroll cut me off. “You can’t be serious.”
“Yes, I’m fucking serious! I wouldn’t even ask you for anything. He’d be fine, we’d—”
“Should I remind you of why we’re in this position to begin with?”
I shook my head, blinking at the burning sensation in my eyes. “Don’t you fucking dare. I will fucking—”
“Blake,” Dad said, standing up from the table, “go home. We’ll talk about this in a couple of days after you’ve cooled—”
“Fuck you,” I shot back, now aiming my finger now toward him.
“Excuse me?” He scowled, crossing his arms.
“I said, fuck you.”
“I’m your father,” he said, as though that meant something.
“Yeah, you are, and you promised me,” I replied, as if that should’ve meant something to them, and I turned away with my throbbing hand and stormed out of the house.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
AUDREY’S MOM, Ann, a resident nurse, held my hand in both of hers as Audrey grabbed one of the beers she kept for me in her fridge. I winced at her mother’s manipulations on my fingers as she slowly studied each digit.
“Well, your fingers aren’t broken,” she declared, slowly moving her fingers to my palm, and I hissed through my teeth. “But you might’ve fractured something in here. Might just be a sprain, but you should still get it X-rayed.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to the fucking hospital.”
Ann peered at me through a pair of matronly eyes I don’t think I’d ever seen before in my life. “Well, I guess you could just leave it alone, and then we’ll see how much longer you’re able to work after your bones mend improperly.”
Groaning, I thrust my other hand through my hair. “Couldn’t I just wrap it tonight and go to the hospital tomorrow? I can’t even fucking think straight right now.” My voice cracked under the pressure of my emotions and I cleared my throat, instantly embarrassed by how fucking weak I’d become.
Audrey came over with the open bottle of beer and passed it into my good hand. As I drank, she asked her mom, “Where are your bandages? I’ll go get them.”
Ann sighed and patted my hand before laying it on the table. “Nah. I’ll go up. Be right back,” and with that, she turned and left Audrey’s apartment.
The drive from my parents’ house had been done in a blind flurry of rage and desperation. An endless string of curse words and a periodic smash of my fist into the steering wheel had been the soundtrack to my post-Thanksgiving trip back to Salem, and in a single shred of clarity, I knew I couldn’t be alone. I knew being in that dark house, alone with all