Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
She was quiet for so long that I thought she’d left, but then I felt her presence in the room and turned to see her sitting there, deep in thought. “Do you know that you could’ve been hurt really badly?” I guess she felt my eyes on her.
“Yeah, well, who cares?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“What is it?”
“What do you want out of life? Forget everything else for now; just answer that one thing. Is it to go back to school and finish your degree? I know you failed out last semester.”
I thought she was trying to rub it in, but there was no inflection in her voice. Then again, she’s always been a cool one. She never showed what she was feeling.
“No, I never wanted that. That was always Mom’s deal, just another way for her to force me to be like you. I was never smart, and we both know it.”
“So, what is it that you wanted to do?”
“Why do you care? It’s not like there’s any love lost between us.”
“I’m not sure myself, but I think I just realized that you were as much a victim of your mother as I was.”
She actually looked like she meant it. “So, tell me, what is it that you wanted to be?”
“A hairstylist. It was always my dream, but Helen said it wasn’t good enough.”
“Fine, you’ll go to rehab for six months, then you can go to school to get your license.”
“What? Who’s going to pay for all of that?”
“I am!”
“Why would you do that? Don’t you hate me?”
“Yes, but I think I finally realize that you weren’t to blame as much as your mother was. Take it or leave it; the longer I stay around you, the more I want to pound your face in.”
“Didn’t you already do that?” What the hell? I’m actually laughing with Alyssa. I must be really high. Maybe I died.
“Get some rest. I’ll have you signed out of here and taken to rehab. Once it’s done, you can decide where you want to study. A word of advice, if I were you, I’d get out of this town and start over somewhere else.”
She started to walk away. “Hey, how did you find me? What happened to Pete and those other guys?”
“That’s a story for another time, but I don’t think you should see him again. He’s going to be really pissed.”
She left out the door, and I slumped back against the pillows, trying to make sense of the exchange. What the hell is going on? Why would Alyssa help me? Whatever happens next, I guess I have her to thank for getting me out of whatever Pete and his friends had planned.
ALYSSA
“Where is that Pete bastard?”
“He’s being questioned somewhere.”
“Where? Didn’t you break his legs?”
“Yeah, a little pain might clear his head.”
“How did you recognize those guys?”
“That’s a story for another time; just know that they’re into some very heavy stuff. Nothing to do with what you’ve got going on here, though. By the way, while all of this was going on, your team forgot to tell you that Helen was arrested for murder.”
“Whose murder?” My first thought was of Mom or Dad, and my heart almost stopped.
“Her stepmom.”
“What? Why did she do that?”
“She didn’t, not really anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“She pushed the old lady, and she fell and hit her head. But she got up and moved around. Then after your… Helen left; she just died. She was on blood thinners, so that may have added to the brain bleed; who knows?”
“But why do they think that Helen did it?”
“Because she died not long after Helen was served at her house. She was the only other person there, and the neighbors saw her acting suspiciously. It didn’t help that she stole the old lady’s truck. Anyway, it doesn’t look like she’s going to get bail. Violence against the elderly is frowned upon, apparently, plus I’m pretty sure your husband had a hand in that.”
This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger. “Where’s Lacey?” Jackie inclined her head to a room down the hall from Mitzie’s. Apparently, she’d had to rescue all the women that were at Pete’s tonight because those men had other ideas.
I’m not sure about all the details, but I believe her when she says it’s heavy. I have enough on my plate as it is and things seem to be moving really fast since we came home. I thought I had everything under control, but I kept running into hidden shit every other step.
Like the conversation I just had with Mitzie. I don’t know why I never saw it before or how I had been so blind to the truth. For some reason, I always forgot that she was my age when everything first went down as well.
I always attributed Helen’s bullshit to her, by extension, but the truth is, she didn’t have any more control over the situation than I did. We were both victims and knowing that, I can’t in good conscience take my anger out on her.