AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I smiled and sipped from my milkshake. We had left Macon city limits and were nestled up in that same mountain spa that we’d gone to last time. Upon arriving, we had our toes painted and our faces massaged, and now we were at the restaurant, drinking milkshakes, something they didn’t actually serve here at the restaurant, but the cook took pity when he found out there was a ten-year-old asking.
“We’re okay. Your dad knows where we are. I texted him.”
She seemed to immediately relax when I said that.
“Today was sort of crazy…” I started, trying to coax her to talk. But I had already decided if she didn’t, it would be fine.
Her hair was braided today into two symmetrical lines, her blue eyes full of sorrow and an old sadness that if I had looked more carefully, I would have realized was there long before this.
“What happened, Maddy?”
She let out a little sigh and played with the condensation on her cup.
“My mom wasn’t always this bad…actually, I don’t know, maybe she was.” She shrugged her little shoulder, looking off to the side.
“I remember when I was Mila’s age, she told Aunt Julie she hoped her next kid would have blonde hair because it would be prettier. She talked about Seraph and me like we were ugly or something because we had dark hair. She would talk about dying our hair when we were young…see if she could get us in any beauty pageants. That was way before she started doing the drugs, too.”
She took a break to sip her milkshake, but my heart was in my throat as she watched the table and continued.
“I tried to find the good in her. I tried to love her. That’s why I went with her that day. Why after all the bad stuff, I agreed to go. She begged my dad to allow her to take me to my cousin’s birthday party. It was supposed to be this girls’ night thing…and Lacey wanted to take me.”
I didn’t comment on her changing her mother to Lacey in her story, but I did start to pick at my nail and kick my leg under the table as she kept talking and my nerves were running raw.
“Dad didn’t want to let me go, but eventually she wore him down. She was doing really good, whatever that meant…he just kept saying it. So she took me. No one else, and we were driving fast. She kept talking to me about the different ways we could do my hair or change my clothes to make me look prettier. I wasn’t really paying attention until she stopped for gas.
The guy took a long time to come out and pump it for us, so she ended up getting out of the car to go get him. She told me to stay put. But I watched her through the window, the whole time. She was on the phone with someone outside the store. The gas guy came and started pumping gas but she didn’t come back. She just kept talking and yelling at that person on the phone. Finally, she came back, and told me to get out and go with her into the store. I thought it was to go to the bathroom or something.”
Maddy’s eyes started to water as her cheeks turned red. I reached over and rubbed her hand.
“Hey. If this is too hard, you don’t have to talk about it.”
Her little face lifted, as tears fell from her dark lashes.
“I want you to know. I feel safe with you.”
My heart melted, but my gut still twisted as I waited to hear how Lacey had hurt my girl. I didn’t want to hear it, but I wanted to help carry this burden of hers. Sharing something painful that made us vulnerable was like extending a piece of yourself to someone and them saying they would be willing to help heal it.
Maddy wet her lips, swiping at her face with her sleeve as she went on.
“She took me in the bathroom and then told me to stay there—that she had to go somewhere for a little bit. I asked her not to, but she saidhewouldn’t let her bring me, so she went anyway. She left me there, in the bathroom that had toilet paper all over the floor and smelled like pee. I ran after her as soon as she left, but she was already running to her car. I stood in the parking lot, crying, watching her drive away. I didn’t know whohewas, but he didn’t sound nice.”
Oh my God.
“Maddy,” my voice broke as I reached forward to hold onto her hand, I had to ground myself and remind myself she was okay, “How did you get home?”
“The gas station worker ran outside after me and took me back in. He gave me a bag of Chex Mix to eat while he called the police, and when I asked if I could call my daddy, he told me yes. I had memorized his number after being left at school a few times. He got to me before the police did.”
I smiled as a few tears slipped free. “Of course he did, he would move the whole world for you.”
Maddy sniffed, swiping at her face with her sleeve again.
“I used to think she wanted me—like really wanted me—but now I know she only wants herself, and I don’t ever want to be around her again.”
I shook my head. “You won’t. I promise you.”
I was going to make it my personal mission to talk to the few attorneys I had on retainer to see what could be done about blowing this parenting plan to hell. I had no idea if Liam would let me, but I was about to majorly stick my nose into his business. These girls were my business now. I loved them and would do everything within my power to protect them.
“I’m sorry you went through that, sweetie. I don’t know Lacey, or why she chose to do that, but I know you’re worth more than how she chose to reflect your value in her life. I know from my own mom that sometimes there are some parents who just don’t know how to do it right. It really just takes love, and if you don’t have that, then you get ugliness. And you, sweet girl, have had to endure too much of that.”
