Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I walk into my apartment, because I know she’ll be there.
She’s made herself way too comfortable in the last few weeks, socialising, not wanting to go back to her own home. My father returned to work, but she has yet to leave. It’s time she does. I need my space back, but mostly, I need to get all this pain off my chest. I don’t usually talk much, I don’t say what I feel, but today has taught me that nobody will have your back, so you have to learn to cover yourself.
I’m going to start doing that.
In all areas of my life.
She’s standing in the kitchen, on the phone, when I walk in. She turns and stares at me, and shakes her head. In disappointment? I don’t know. She told Caiden about Malakai, she started this war, so now she can take responsibility for her actions. She’s probably on that phone right now, gossiping about it. I walk past her and down the hall, into the spare bedroom. I pick up her suitcase, I pack her clothes and her bathroom things, and I walk out, putting it on the ground.
Her eyes get wide.
She hangs up the phone.
“What is the meaning of this, Amalie?”
I don’t give her much more of a chance to speak after that, because my voice and my tone is a force to be reckoned with, even she must realise that interrupting me would do her no good.
“I’m going to say what I have to say, and then you’re going to take your things, leave my apartment, and go home.”
I don’t flinch, back down, or soften when I say the next words.
“First of all, you should know I love you. I’ll always love you, because you’re my mother, but you don’t belong here anymore. You don’t belong near me. The thing about bringing a child into this world, is that you’re supposed to love and protect them through everything. You didn’t do that for me. I needed you after that accident, but your social status and your own selfish needs got in the way. You chose that, over your own daughter, who was in agony. Then, you continued to fill me with guilt when you knew, you knew, I was already drowning in it. You didn’t support me, and you didn’t love me like you should have. I deserved that from you, at the very least.”
I take a deep breath. Her face is blank.
“But what’s worse, is allowing that to happen,” I point at the newspaper she was obviously reading. “You told him about Malakai, you fed the weakest parts of him knowing he’d react. You publicly humiliated me. It may not have been directly, but you as good as wrote that article, because you knew exactly what would happen when you ran to him. That is not the actions of a mother that loves her child, or even has respect for her child. You don’t deserve me, not while you’re like this. Daddy loves you, but sometimes I wonder why. Maybe he sees something I don’t, all the same, I am done being treated poorly.”
Her mouth opens to say something, but I raise a hand.
“I’m your daughter, and I have wanted so long to just feel like you love me enough, just as I am. But you don’t. I deserve you to. So, I’m going to start doing what’s best for me. I’m going to turn around now, and walk out. I want you gone when I get back. I said it before, and I meant it, I love you. If you want to be in my life, I hope you take in these words, and you find a way to give me what I need. If not, well, I guess I never ever mattered as much as I should have.”
With that, I turn and walk out of my apartment.
For the first time, I don’t cry.
I don’t break down.
I don’t feel guilt.
I did the right thing. I did what was best for me.
It’s about damned time.
-12-
MALAKAI
Anger.
Rage.
Horror.
I stare at the picture in front of me, of the man that claims he’s Amalie’s boyfriend, a man that claims she caused an accident and ruined his life. A man that is stuck at home, crippled and broken, while she’s out blending with bikers and going on tour. A good three quarters of my body is rebelling against the idea, there is just no way she could be so cold. No way.
I couldn’t have read her that wrong.
She’s so fucking sweet, so fucking pure, how in the hell is it possible that all this time she has been running around behind her boyfriend’s back, leaving him in a carer’s hands while she carries on with her life? It doesn’t seem right, but if it isn’t, then why the fuck didn’t she just say that to me? Why, when I looked her in the eyes, and asked her if it was real, did she not simply say no?