AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tish tosh, child. Why would I want to do that? They have the wrong person.” She leaned forward, the chains rattling angrily as she did. The sadness and desperation returned, filling her eyes. “You know me, Alina. Go out there and tell them they’ve made a mistake and take me home.” She tried to point toward the door I had entered through, but the shackles restricted her movement.
“Please,” I begged desperately. “Hire a lawyer. Get some help.” The lock on the door behind me clunked as the key was turned. The same policewoman who’d collected me from the house was standing there. “I have to go now, but please, Momma, promise me you will do what I ask. Please.”
“You have the wrong person,” she screamed at the policewoman before muttering to herself incoherently as the metal chair I was sitting on scraped on the floor. Violently, she tugged on the chains, trying to break free. “I want to go home.”
I needed to get her out of there. This was no place for her.
She was my mom.
She was all I had.
She wasn’t a murderer.
She couldn’t even bring herself to use spray on the summer flies.
* * *
The headlights from the car cast a beam of light on the front steps of our house. Sitting in the dark on the top step was Callum, his push bike lying on its side in the dust. He stood as the car came to a stop at the end of the gravel.
“Is it okay to leave you out here on your own?”
I nearly scoffed at the newfound concern of the police officer. For days, I had been on my own without so much as a flicker of worry, and now that I wasn’t alone, they were worried about me? Callum was here and waiting for me, so I wasn’t on my own.
Without answering her, I pushed the door open and climbed out. The tires crunched on the gravel as the lights retracted on the house in front of me. I was excited to see Callum. For a moment, the darkness that had been clouding my mind disappeared as if merely a fog.
“How are you?” Callum asked as he moved toward me, taking me in his arms.
“Just fine.”
* * *
I hadn’t been. How could anyone possibly be fine when their mother was locked away, refusing any help?
ChapterEight
Callum
For most of the night, I tossed and turned, unable to make peace with how I had left Alina. A sense of déjà vu engulfed me, feeling the same as I had all those years ago. She had been broken, and I had to take responsibility for my part in that.
I had ridden so hard trying to get to her. My lungs had burned that night, but I refused to give in. The rumors had been true. Her mother had been arrested for murder, and she had been left in that fucking house all alone.
I’d stayed with her, trying to tame the turmoil that had quickly become her life. I held her against my body while she cried. Held her until she’d stilled, and I thought she’d fallen asleep.
* * *
“You should go.” Her voice carried her rejection. It felt like a weight had been dropped on my chest.
“What? No. Why?”
“Silvi wouldn’t like you being here, Callum. You should go.” Her head was still buried in my chest, but her words were clear.
“I don’t think she’d care.” I felt Alina move, rising on her elbow to look at me. Even through the dark, I could see the magic in her spellbinding eyes. “She dumped me over the Christmas break.”
“Why?”
“Dunno. She met someone better, I think.”
“Well, then, she is as dumb as I thought she was. You deserve someone better than that.” She shifted, lying back down next to me, and I felt her relax.
