Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 102708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
At least it happened sooner rather than later. Although time never mattered when you believed in someone. They could hurt you in a day, just as they could hurt you in five years. The only difference was the memories acquired over that time.
I didn’t sleep a wink, and by the time I arrived at the house, it was around noon. Placing my hand on the doorknob, I halted before walking back into my broken home. Melody once again took the hammer, smashing it into a million pieces.
Call it intuition.
The air pressure was changing.
The calm before the storm.
Flipping on the light as I walked in, I threw my keys on the entry table, making my way into the kitchen. Within seconds, I saw Melody in our backyard. She was placing G.I. Joe figurines on the steps that led to the porch.
“I knew it,” I whispered to myself.
The gut feeling I had for years that she was the one behind the random shit we’d find in our backyard was true all along. This woman knew no bounds, no respect, no damn remorse.
I wasn’t sure if it was the smile on Melody’s face as she placed the toys around the backyard, or if it was remembering the heartbroken expression on Isla’s face when the clock struck midnight, but the little bit of restraint I had left broke right along with my last nerve and mercy for her.
With one foot in front of the other, I stormed out there. This caused her to lose her footing, stumbling back to remain upright from the impact of my looming presence.
She raised her hands in front of her in a surrendering gesture. “Julius, I’m so sorr—”
“This is how it’s going to go down,” I gritted through a clenched jaw, close to her face. Fueling the rage that lived deep in my core. “You’re going to listen to everything I have to say, whether you want to or not. I’m done playing your little games of when it’s convenient for you to keep your meaningless promises.”
“Julius—”
“I told you! I warned you to stay away from us, but you couldn’t listen, and you did what you wanted, like you always do, and now you have to deal with my wrath for what you put Isla through last night. Do you have any idea how much you hurt her? How much she believed in you? Trusted in what you had to say. How can you keep doing this to people you claim to care about? What the hell are you made of, Melody? Because I know you don’t have a heart.”
“I’m still your mothe—”
Without warning, I lifted her in the air and threw her over my shoulder as if she weighed nothing, before rushing back into the house. We weren’t doing this outside, and I knew she’d try to run from me the second it became too hard. She’d do anything to avoid what she knew was coming from me. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d take off, but it would be the last, except this time, she wasn’t going to leave without hearing everything I had to say.
This would be the first and last time I’d say it to her. After this, I’d be through with her. No more.
I was done.
Finished.
Game fucking over.
I was putting an end to it all.
“Julius, put me down!” she ordered. “What are you doing?!”
I didn't falter. “Not a problem!” I slammed her ass down onto the kitchen island stool before crouching down to lean in close to her face. Close enough, she could feel the venom from my tongue.
Glaring deep into her vacant eyes for the first time in years, I looked past her demons, needing to see the real woman staring back at me. I needed to feel her on every inch of my skin. It was the only way I’d be able to get rid of her.
The mother I once wanted was in my mind, buried under all the pain. Hidden behind all the happy memories that had become my worst nightmares.
Escaping, be back in ten, that became seven years.
The cold, brutal realization hit me right then and there. At the end of the day, she’d always be my mother, the woman who gave me life.
“Do you even care?” I asked, needing to hear the truth. “Do you have any idea how hard it’s been to see you? Or how bad it hurts that I’m looking at you right now, and I have no idea who this woman is staring back at me? She’s not my mother,” I confessed, leaning back on the heels of my boots, shaking my head.
Her eyes quickly glazed over. My words hit her hard, breaking through the facade that everything was perfect. Last night was my last straw. She couldn’t do that to Isla and get away with it. Not on my watch.