Saving Mona

Chapter 33 🤪

Two weeks passed without any word from Mr. Lanchester and I had almost forgotten our meeting happened.

Almost.

My life had gone back to its normal routine with the additional fuss of senior year. I and Dwayne were still going on dates and we still met up with our friends whenever there was time.

Mother was still her despicable self with a new addition of crankiness especially since Abel was nowhere to be found. His disappearance wasn't a new occurrence, but mother was furious that he had escaped her radar.

Everything was going manageably well till that night when the final brick was pulled from my wobbling world.

I had just gotten back from a date with Dwayne when I first noticed the darkness of the mansion. I clapped my hands to trigger the lights and almost screamed when the lights came on. On the couch directly in my line of sight, was mother, drinking.

She raised her eyes to meet mine and took a large gulp from her tequila. She looked worse than usual. Her rumpled royal purple dress was hanging on her shoulders limply and her shoes were in different parts of the living room as if she had thrown them.

I stared at her hunched figure, appalled. Washed off mascara formed inky black streaks across her matted face and came to rest on her crimson-colored lips. Her elegantly styled hair lay untouched by the chaos that was the rest of her.

"Mother?" I whispered.

She sneered at the sound of my voice and stood up, lurching forward with a drunkard's grace.

"Mother?" I tried again.

"Why are you such a thorn in my life?" she swayed, her posture threatening to fall but at the last moment, righted herself.

Suddenly, I grew cautious and started to slowly amble out of her reach. She was drunk and from the look of things, unstable. A drunken unstable mother was an unpredictable mother. She could one-minute start balling her eyes out and apologize for being a shitty mother and the next she could be pinning all her faults on me.

"Why is it that you always try to frustrate me? I raised you, I clothed you, I fed you and yet, what do I get in return? You trying to jeopardize my hard work!"

"What's going on? What are you talking about? Is it because of Ab-father?"

I jumped, startled by the sound of a breaking bottle. I turned a horrified gaze to a seething mother.

"F**k Abel! That traitor can go to hell! After all I did for him and his family. Ungrateful people." 

I moved towards the direction of my room, determined to hide there if things went bad but before I could go far, mother caught me.

"You!" she snarled, her nails piercing deep into my skin. I wasn't sure if my shocked scream was from the pain or from mother's monstrous face. I had never seen her look so menacing before.

"You know, don't you?"

"Let me go." I pleaded, trying to wring my hand from her grip but stopped as the pain grew worse.

"You know everything. You know about Abel and Camellia, don't you? I should have never taken my eyes off you." She said bitterly.

"You're hurting me." I cried and with one last final attempt, my hand was set loose.

"Of course you do! You met him, you met her, and you met them!" she mumbled, crazed.

"I'm not a bad person you know that right? They say I'm a bad person and make me seem like one but I'm not. I really am not."