48. Wren
“What was that?” Her voice stops me in my tracks as I run through the quad toward… I’m not even sure where I’m going; I just know I need to get away.
“Did you think you could make a fool of me? You’ve made me a laughingstock!” Her hand snaps out before I can form enough thought to brace myself, and I stagger back from the force, my own hand flying up to cover my now hot cheek. The tears I’d been holding back come pouring out.
“None of that! I didn’t raise a baby. You don’t get to act out and have no consequences."
“It wasn’t my…” Her fingers grip my face, squeezing my cheeks so that I can’t speak as she yanks me toward her so that we're nearly nose to nose.
“I knew letting you come here was a bad idea. You weren’t meant for nice things. I always knew you would fuck it up, too busy being a whore like your mother, but that ends now. We’re leaving!”
“What? No!” My words are muffled by her grip on my face, but it’s enough for her to hear.
Her fingernails dig into my face as she presses impossibly closer. So close that I can smell the cigarettes on her hot breath, and it takes everything in me not to gag.
“What did you say?” She waits, giving me a chance to repeat myself. I don’t.
Nothing I can say will help me; nothing ever does.
She drops her hold on my face in favor of my arm, her fake nails digging into my arm as she drags me back down the path toward the main building.
“My things,” I squeak out as I look back at the dorm in the distance, but if she hears me, she ignores me.
I bite my lip as I feel the panic build; my only photo of Jordan is in my bag, and my new camera.
A tear slips down my face at the thought of Julian, of leaving him, or any of them, really.
I pull back, making her nails drag down my arm, and I hiss at the sting but ignore it otherwise, which is just as well because Auntie drops her hold as she spins around to face me, backhanding me as she goes.
Her ring, our family ring that was to be mine, catches my cheekbone, and I feel the blood that wells from it almost instantly, even as I hit the ground, barely catching myself, my face inches from the pavement.
She doesn’t give me a moment to breathe, doesn’t seem to give a damn about the few people that linger around as she fists my hair, yanking my head back so that we're eye to eye.
“We are leaving, and you will never leave my side again. I knew this was a mistake, you ungrateful little bitch. I gave up my whole life for you, to raise you and your bratty-ass brother, and this is the thanks I get. You weren’t worth the money,” she spits in my face as the tears continue rolling down my face, but they have nothing to do with her or her hurtful words.
No, I don’t care what she thinks about me, but I do believe I’m doomed to her forever; this hell I’ll have to endure… alone.
I swallow past the lump in my throat from the sob I bite back, unwilling to let her have more from me. She’ll revel in my sadness, and I’d much rather choke on it.
Maybe that’s what I should do, join Jordan.
It’s tempting, I won’t lie; it’s also not the first time I’ve had the thought.
It is the first time I’ve known I could never go through with it. Not when I think of Julian, Felix, and even Dimitri, and I know I could never put them through that.