Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
“You’re lying,” she hisses, grabbing my hair so hard my scalp burns making me whimper. “Your skirt is torn, you’ve mud all over your back. You’ve been with a boy!”
“What?” I shriek, tears filling my eyes. “No! Mee-maw! No!”
“Don’t you lie to me, little girl. I can always tell when you lie! You’re as terrible at it as your mother was and still is. Look at the state of you. How will any man respect you now? You’re a child and already you’re fornicating with Satan.” She drags me into the hall, ignoring my begs and pleads for her to let me go. “You’re a dirty, dirty girl. You will be punished. You will not be like your mother!”
“NO PLEASE I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” I scream as she drags me up the stairs. My mee-maw is old but she is strong. Not that I dare fight her back, she’s my mee-maw. “Please, Mee-maw. Please. I didn’t do anything.”
“You’ll not be allowed to venture out with that girl. I’ll be telling her whore of a mother what she’s been teaching you! I knew I shouldn’t have let you play with her. Girls without fathers are a menace to society.”
She throws me into my bedroom, making me stumble on the rug.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sob, tears flowing freely now. “Please, Mee-maw. I didn’t do anything.”
“Your virginity is your virtue. It is for your husband! God has willed it!”
“Mee-maw, noooo,” I screech, twisting out of her grasp when she yanks down my skirt. “Please no! Please. I swear, I didn’t do anything. I fell over. That’s all. We were playing!”
She hits the back of my bare thigh with her hard-bottom slipper and the sting makes me scream.
“STOP CRYING!” she bellows at me, hitting me again, her hand tangled in my hair once more. She whips that slipper through the air and I lift my leg as she brings it down on my other thigh. I take about five hits before I drop to the floor and grip my discarded skirt, holding it against my chest. She stops hitting me and just breathes heavy as though the exertion was too much.
With a whimper she moves to the wall and leans against it.
“How could you shame us like this? We took you in so you wouldn’t go into care and this is how you shame your family?”
I hiccup and look at my mee-maw who now looks so sad and frail despite her youth and usual strength.
“I’m sorry, Mee-maw,” I whisper because I don’t want her to be sad. I don’t want her to be hurt by my actions. “Are you okay?”
“My heart,” she whispers, clutching her chest. “I can’t take the same heartache your mother put me through. I need you to be the good one. I need you to be everything she wasn’t. I want you to be a young lady I can be proud of.”
“I’ll try, Mee-maw,” I breathe, wiping my eyes on my arm. “I’ll be good.”
“You’re never to see that girl again. You’ll only befriend the people I choose; do you understand?” She levels me with a cold look that I daren’t argue with. Though I open my mouth, ready to tell her that I don’t want to lose my only real friend, and instead close it and nod.
“Okay, Mee-maw. I promise.”
“Good girl.” She holds out her hand and I rise and move to her side, limping on my hurt leg, rear and thighs swollen from the beating. I hug her and sob into her side, accepting her comfort and warmth. She kisses my head. “I love you very, very much.”
“I love you too, Mee-maw.”
26 years old
“Found the stray just outta town,” Ren calls when he drops down from the truck. “One of our own. Though she’ll deny it till she’s purple in the face.”
Rolling my eyes, I push open the door after spying a coffee machine, one of those fancy vending types, and climb down, taking Ren’s hand because my heels aren’t fit for this sort of drop.
“Atta girl.” He winks at me and catches my eyes when I look around the mess of broken bikes and cars and the few men working on them. “He’s probably at your mee-maw’s wake.”
“I wasn’t looking for him,” I lie and pull my hand free of his dry grip.
“Damn… is that you, Imogen Hardy?” a man with red hair and freckles calls. I used to go to school with him too but I don’t remember his name. “You know Kane almost had us all convinced you were dead or somethin’.”
That makes my heart beat a wild thump, sending a jolt of adrenaline through my already tense body.
“Don’t leer,” Ren snaps. “Get back to work.” He dips his head and grins at me. “Coffee?”
“I can get my own.”
“You sure? Got some of those fancy pod things in the office if you’d rather one of those. Truth be told don’t know when that coffee machine there was last cleaned.”