Chapter 14: The Voicemail

A shadow fell across the study floor.

My mother stood in the doorway in her pale robe, with one hand over her mouth.

She looked at Rhett in the broken table.

She looked at Perry's bloody shirt.

She looked at me.

"Is he dead?" she whispered.

"No," I said. "He's breathing. He'll wake up angry."

"Then we can't be here."

She crossed the carpet, put her arm under Perry's shoulder, and lifted him to his feet with a strength I had never seen in her.

"Come with me. Both of you. Now."

"Mom, where..."

"My sitting room. Walk."

We went down the dim corridor, three people moving as softly as we could.

Perry breathed through his teeth, and I held his belt.

My mother's sitting room was at the end of the west hall.

She locked the door behind us and turned on one small lamp.

I had not been inside it since I was twelve.

The same blue sofa stood there, and the same sewing box sat on the table with the lid shut.

She pushed Perry onto the sofa and tore open his shirt.

His whole left side was already purple.

"Two ribs, maybe three," she said. "You have to see a doctor."

"No doctor," Perry said.

"I know. Hold still."

She wet a cloth in the little sink and pressed it to his nose.

The cloth trembled against his skin.

I stood by the door and watched my mother take care of my brother, and I was so angry I could not speak.

"Why now?" I said at last.

She did not look up.

"Why are you helping us now? You stood in that garden and told me you didn't know. You kept making dinner."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Threw Me Away at Twelve, So I Came Home Undefeated from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.