Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Hell, when I was in a car accident when I was sixteen and a brand-new driver, she still hadn’t come.
Dad had responded to the call, and he’d held my hand while the rest of his crew had cut me out of the truck that had been slammed into a power pole by a semi-truck that hadn’t seen me pulling out.
I’d been in the hospital for two weeks with a broken femur, and she hadn’t come up there once.
“Mom?” I called again.
That’s when I heard the small whimper.
I sighed.
Mom probably heard me open the door and not close it, and now she was worried that the outside world might get in.
Fucking shit.
I slammed the door closed and walked through the house, my lip curling as I saw all the piled dishes in the sink.
With Dad and me gone, not here to clean up after her, the house reeked.
“Mom?” I called again.
Another whimper.
I followed the soft sounds and stalled out when I got into the hallway and smelled something weird.
Coppery something.
I sniffed again. “Mom?”
The whimper was closer, but not any louder.
I turned the corner into my bedroom and stilled.
There was red splatter all over the walls.
“What…”
That’s when I saw her.
Her legs and arms were on the bed, but her head…
“Oh, god. Mom,” I croaked.
I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
She looked back at me, her head hanging backward off my bed, and stared at me through her one seeing eye.
The rest of it…
Her face…
Half her face…
Her hand reached for a gun that I hadn’t seen until now.
Her eye was pleading with me.
Get the gun…
Get the gun…
I walked over, pulled the gun away from her hand, and ignored the way my feet squelched in the carpet that was covered in blood.
Once I was sure that she couldn’t reach the gun anymore, I left the room and dialed 9-1-1.
I was sick to my stomach, and though I stayed in the room, I couldn’t look at the bed behind me.
Not that I’d ever forget what it looked like.
Half my mom’s face was just…gone.
I could see her jaw…from the inside.
I…
“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?” the dispatcher said quickly and efficiently.
“Um, this is Audric Ingram, my address is 33445 Pleasant Green Road. My mom shot herself in the face, and she’s still alive,” I said, my words tasting like sawdust on my tongue.
A whimper from behind me.
I closed my eyes tight as the 911 operator continued to ask questions.
What’s her name. Date of birth. Is the gun still in her reach. What was my dad’s name.
That one also felt like a punch to the gut.
“My dad’s name is Carter Ingram,” I said quietly. “He’s a firefighter and paramedic for Dallas Fire Department.”
I heard the sirens within minutes and listened to the dispatcher practically beg me to turn around and help my mother.
I couldn’t do it, though.
No way was I looking at her again.
I just couldn’t…
The door to the house burst open, and I knew that my father had finally arrived.
“Audric!” my dad bellowed.
I hurried to him, hanging up on the dispatcher.
Dad rounded the corner of the hall that would lead to the bedrooms, and I slammed into him.
He caught me around the shoulders and pulled me into a hug the way only dads could.
“What happened?” he rasped.
I broke down and cried, spewing every horrid detail.
CREOLE
I sat, silent, as I stared at the chaos across the street.
Something had happened to Audric Ingram’s mom.
My one-time best friend was hurting, and I couldn’t stop myself from walking outside and moving toward him.
Every ingrained instinct urged me on, telling me that I could forgive him a little bit. For now.
Six months ago, he’d left me on a bed in the middle of a party while the quarterback of our high school football team had taken my virginity…against my will.
He had walked in on the deed, and he’d laughed at the scene and closed the door.
Laughed.
He had seen the tears in my eyes, and he’d laughed.
I couldn’t ever get over him leaving me there.
What I could do, however, was make sure that he was all right.
I could go over there and see what was happening.
Even though I had a feeling it had to do with Audric’s mom.
I’d seen both Audric and his dad talking out on the lawn, so I knew that they were both okay.
Audric’s mom was a raging bitch, though.
I wasn’t too upset that it was her that was hurt.
If there was anyone on this planet that deserved to die, it would be her.
And that wasn’t just my anger at Audric talking.
I didn’t want him to have to suffer or anything.
However, Audric’s mom, Ellis, had done the unthinkable and had hidden in a corner instead of saving Audric’s little sister, Paisley, from a robbery.
Paisley and Ellis had been at the grocery store when two armed, masked robbers had walked into the building and demanded everyone empty their drawers and their pockets.