AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re back.” That was all I could bring myself to say, my eyes focusing on the slightly darker freckle in the center of his throat.
His fingers started to fit between mine, but whatever words were coming from his mouth were drowned out by the screaming inside my skull. I yanked my hand free, holding it to my chest like I’d been wounded.
“Don’t touch me,” I practically hissed. “Don’t you ever touch me.”
Angry beyond measure, humiliated in a way I never thought possible, disappointed down to my very core, I rushed inside and away from the man who’d caused it all.
Not even giving me a second to breathe, my mother began to wail. “Oh, Yael, your father—”
Crocodile tears spilled down her beautiful, filler-enhanced cheekbones. She paced my tiny living room, intermittently running a finger along surfaces to check for dust and wringing her hands out to punctuate her sobbing.
The screaming that had started in my head couldn’t be held in any longer. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” I flew into my mother’s face, feeling crazed and out of my mind. “I don’t want to hear about my own father’s affairs. I do not want you barging into my life without a care for the havoc you wreak. I’m sick of it. You don’t even see me standing here with a broken heart. You don’t see me!”
I waved my hands in her face, only to be slapped down—literally. She knocked my hands aside and grabbed my jaw, squishing my cheeks and lips.
“Calm down right now.” She jerked my face around as if that would calm me. “I will not be spoken to this way. Have some respect, young lady.”
Her hold on me was bruising, but I was so upset, the pain barely registered. “You don’t get to tell me to calm down. I have lived with your hysterics for years. I am yourdaughter, and I need my mother. Don’t you see I’m broken? Don’t you?”
Her hand vibrated, her perfect nostrils flaring. “That is enough. I truly believed I raised you better than this. I thought you were a compassionate young woman, but it’s clear I made the same mistake with you that I did with your brother. Hopefully he raises Simone better, but that’s doubtful.”
“You don’t get to say her name.” I’d been holding myself back, allowing my mother to touch me, hurt me, bruise me, but bringing up the love of my life, my angel on earth, was a bridge too far. I flung my arm up, breaking free of her at the same time my front door banged open. We both whipped around to find Alex storming into my apartment.
Before anyone could utter a word, he put himself between my mother and me, protecting me with his body.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a hushed voice, wild seas lashing in his eyes.
“She isn’t,” my mother answered from behind him. “She started screaming at me for no reason. Oh, Yael, are you on drugs? How could you let this happen?”
Alex’s shoulders tensed. “You should leave, Mrs. Aronson. You’re the one who’s upsetting her.”
Mother sniffed. “How dare you.” She bumped into him, slithering her way around him to get to me. “Are you going to let him speak to me this way?”
“Go.” I squared my shoulders and crossed my arms in a battle stance. “I don’t want to see or hear from you until you’re prepared to act like a real mother. If Dad cheats or yells or calls you names, please leave. Stay safe. But do not come back here.”
Her perfect face puckered then crumpled, like she was just realizing exactly how serious the situation was. She reached for me, but Alex moved to block her again, growling when she attempted to get around him. Finally, she gave up and walked swiftly to the door, her head high.
“I’m worried for you, Yael. It has to be Moses’s influence. That boy never—”
My shoe hit the door beside her, cutting off whatever vitriol she’d been about to spout. I was the only one allowed to talk shit about my brother. No one else.
“Get out!” I yelled.
With a final sneer, she exited my apartment with a flourish, banging the door shut behind her.
For a minute, Alex and I simply stood there. I stared at my shoe on the floor, and Alex stared at me. My heart calmed as the seconds ticked by, but I knew once the silence was broken, it would ratchet back up once more.
“How’s Brian?” I asked.
“Better.” He sighed. “He and I hired an assistant who happens to have medical training. He also has an Apple watch he can use to call if he needs help. It took a lot to convince him, but Mo helped. He helped a lot.”
“I would have helped.” I still couldn’t look at him. It hurt to be so near. This was why I had always stayed away. I knew if I ever gave in and something went wrong, I’d never be able to bear being around him again.
“I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter now. We’ve both moved on.”
“No.” He bent forward, bringing his face into my line of vision. “I just came home today. I knocked, but you weren’t here.”
