AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grab my phone out of my coat pocket. The first mistake I make is not checking to see who it is. The second, is not putting the phone down when I realise who it is.
“Hello?”
“Alison, darling, it’s your mother.” I wince as soon as I hear her voice. Her words sound kind, almost loving, but it’s the bite in her tone that tells me someone is on the other end with her, listening in, and she doesn’t like it.
Probably the new husband who she doesn’t want to let see her true colours until he says, ‘I do’.
The woman in me wants to rebel and pray she has her phone on loudspeaker so he can hear me give her a piece of my mind. The other part is still a scared little girl, who only wants her mother to love her.
“Mum,” I whisper, not looking at the others in the room as I excuse myself, stepping into my bedroom for privacy.
“You haven’t called or visited. And I heard from Mrs. Dailey that you visited your father not long ago.”
I notice she doesn’t say she misses me, like most parents would. Even my father messages me to say he misses me. I get nothing from my so-called mother.
I roll my eyes. “Because that’s my home.” I pause, then smile, grinning wickedly. “And he wanted to introduce me to his new girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” she screeches, and I have to remove the phone from my ear a little, wincing.
I hear someone mumbling something to her, but then her voice carries clearer across the line. “It’s nothing, honey. Why don’t you go and get your suit ready for the party tonight and I’ll be up shortly?” I smile at her haste to assure her soon-to-be husband and get rid of him. It also doesn’t escape my notice that she leaves out what she meant.
“Mum, I have schoolwork to do. Was there something you wanted?”
“That is no way to speak to your mother,” she snaps, showing her true colours.Ah, this is the mother I know.“And what is this about a girlfriend?”
“He’s dating Low’s mum, Mel.”
“What?” she yells, before cursing up a storm. “That low life? He’s too good for someone like her. She’s probably after his money. It won’t last long. Your father will never get over me.”
He moved on ages ago, I want to say.
Her snotty attitude is beginning to get to me, so I move the conversation on.
“Mum, I really do have work to do. Is there something you want?”
She snorts. “Yes. Benjamin and I, as you know but have somewhat chosen to ignore, are getting married in a few weeks. For you not to attend would be embarrassing on my behalf, and I can’t have that. I have ordered you a dress that should be delivered to yourflatin the next few days,” she says, disgust in her tone at the word ‘flat’. She’s never liked the fact I moved here. If it were up to her, I would have gone to a ‘better’ school, one where I belonged. “I can’t have you turning up to our wedding dressed… unseemly. It will not be done.”
I roll my eyes, glad she can’t see me. I’d never hear the end of it. It still hurts that she regards and treats me the way she does. It took a long time to realise I’ll never win her love or affection. I don’t think she even knowshowto love. I give up even trying. As much as it pains me, I don’t want anything to do with her anymore. I’ll always love her; she’s my mum. But it’s not the same love Willow shares with her mum. Or the love CJ shares with his.
With a sigh, I answer, prepared for the tongue-lashing I’m going to receive. “Mum, you don’t need me there.Idon’t want to be there. I thought you would have realised that when I didn’t return your calls or messages.”
Hearing her cluck her tongue causes me to wince.
Here is goes.
“You will listen to me, young lady. You will not disrespect your mother this way. I gave birth to you, gave you life. You will attend this wedding. Benjamin won’t marry me if he thinks my own daughter hates me enough not to attend our wedding. I always knew you were good for nothing, but this is a new low, Alison.”
The hairs on my neck stand on end. I stand a little straighter, staring out the window. All my life I’ve put up with her snide remarks. I had to stand and listen to her tell me to lose weight, to wear the new range in fashion, to stand up taller, to smile more. I had to listen to her put me down, to verbally abuse me, until she found a way to psychically abuse me. Nothing that bruised, just a slap here and there. It was enough to scare me, to make me pause.
But now… enough is enough.
Even with all the bad things that have happened here at Whithall University, I’ve managed to come out of my shell. No longer do I live in my books or only socialise with Willow. I have friends, a life, a voice. Not my mum, or anyone else, will take that away from me.
“No, Mum,youlisten tomefor a change. Listen! I won’t be attending your wedding. You may have given birth to me, but you didn’t give me life. Life is friends, family, love. Life is the air I breathe when I step outside each day without having something squeezing the life out of me. Life is what I have now that you’re no longer part of it. I don’t have to listen to you anymore, and I certainly don’t want to see you. I’m a grown adult in control of my own life. If your fiancé doesn’t want to marry you because of me, then that is his prerogative. Don’t bring me into it. But then, if it’s taken him this long to realise you have no one other than him in your life, and the friends you’ve made through him, then he’s coming to his senses. Better he cut his losses now.”
I can feel the anger radiating through the phone. Her breathing is heavy, and no doubt, if I could see her, her face would be pinched tight, veins bulging to the point they look ready to burst.
Three, two, one…
