Only Ten Years - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I spent what seemed like hours in the bathroom, gagging into the toilet. I’d made Liam and Ashley uncomfortable, but I felt sick too. I got home and collapsed onto the bed.

The next morning, my mom called. ‘Jane, you haven’t been home for dinner in ages.”

I checked the date and said okay. A stranger opened the door.

“Jane, this is your Uncle Bill,” my mom announced.

I sighed. My mom’s new boyfriend. Unlike all her other high–class boyfriends, Bill looked like a regular guy. At the dinner table, my mom kept piling food on my plate.

“Bill has a son who just graduated from college. Maybe he could help you at your company.”

Even though I was expecting this, I still felt a pang in my chest.

“I quit.” I said.

My mom put down her chopsticks.

“Go buy some fruit and beg for his forgiveness. Liam isn’t one to hold a grudge.”

Clang!

I dropped my chopsticks onto the floor. My mom started crying, hiding her face on Bill’s shoulder. “This girl has always been stubborn, always messing with things and throwing tantrums. It’s not like I had it easy being a single mom.”

Bill wrapped his arms around her. Promised her she wasn’t alone. Promised her she wasn’t alone.

“Yeah, everything’s always your fault,” I sneered, and walked away. My entire childhood had been a series of being ignored and bullied.

I was the bargaining chip my mom used to keep my father around. Her endless attempts to cling to him made my father’s wife mad. My mom had to move us from one city to the next. No one ever welcomed us. People were always trying to take advantage.

I did everything I could to protect us, to keep us safe. And I was treated like a crazy, fatherless child.

“We need a man around the house or we’ll get hurt,” my mom always said.

She’d always count on men to save her, and there’d always be new men coming and going. I was twelve the day I came home and saw a drunk man beating her. The woman on the floor was the only family I had.

I fought the man with all my strength. He pulled out a knife. I felt relieved, like it could finally end. But my mom threw herself in front of me, wrapping me in her arms as the knife drew blood.

I knew then we were doomed to fight each other.