Page 135 of My Best Bet

She scoffed. “How would I know how to do that?”

“You had it messed with, whatever.Youdid it, didn’t you?”

She pursed her lips.

I sucked in a shocked breath. I stumbled back, feeling like my legs were taken out. The world was spinning around me and I was about to be sick. “Oh my God. Oh my God, Mom.”

“Don’t look so surprised,” she hissed at me, her face transforming into a snarl.

“How could you? How could you do that?”

Her jaw set. “She’s not good enough for you! She never was!”

“What the fuck, Mom?” The person I was staring at, she looked like my mother, she smelled like Chanel No. 5 like my mother, but the mother I knew wouldn’t have ever done that… She wouldn't have… tried to kill a person.

Maybe I didn’t know her. Maybe I never knew her at all. My heart cracked. My face cracked. “You’re insane, Mom.”

“You made me act insane,” she snapped in a shrill voice. “None of these women you’ve brought around have ever been good enough! I raised you to be the perfect husband and you’re going to waste that on some… some… tramp?” she shrieked. “Not on my watch. I thought Stella was bad enough,” she snorted, “now you go running back to that little bitch?”

Oh God, Stella. My friend. Lucy’s mother.

She had so much love in her, so much love to give the world, and my mother just… She just…

I couldn’t even say it. I was going to throw up.

“What did you do?” I croaked out. My mind raced as I stood there on that porch, piecing together what she said with everything that happened in the past. “You did it all those years ago too, didn’t you?” She tampered with… witheverything. Mer saw it immediately. And I defended her.Oh God.My knees buckled. I was going to lose it.

“Of course I did!” she shrilled. She pointed a finger at my chest. “I did what had to be done so you didn’t waste your potential. You need to focus on hockey and Lucy, that’s it, and you’re fucking up the both of them!” Her eyes went crazed. “You don’t need anyone else.Iam right here for you!”

“Mom…” I backed up.

“Oh don’t be so pathetic. I eliminated your distractions. You’re welcome!” she shouted at me.

A siren wailed in the distance, she thought nothing of it. Of course she didn’t, because she got away with it six years ago.

I sat there blinking at her, watching my reality shift in front of me. I thought she was an innocent woman. She thought she was above the law. She thought she was above everyone.

Blue lights flashed behind us and reflected on her face. Cop cars raced to a stop on her front lawn.

That’s when it finally dawned on her.

Her eyes flamed and she pointed a vicious finger at my face. “You ungrateful little shit,” she swore at me, and she continued swearing at me and screaming threats, but I stumbled away, stuck in a haze.

Johnny, who’d been on his phone the whole time, strode straight toward the cops to answer questions.

Stumbling to the side of the house, I held the brick and promptly threw up on the lawn.

A couple minutes later, Johnny patted me on the back. “There there, buddy. Johnny’s gonna get you some therapy.”

46.Mer - Together

My eyes blinked open to see the bright hospital ceiling and anxiety wrapped around my heart like a tight fist. I was afraid to move, afraid to find out my knee wouldn’t work again.

I laid there paralyzed by fear.

But as the seconds ticked by, familiar voices filled my ears, and the terror threatening to drown me slightly eased.

“She’s up! She’s up!” Lucy was immediately at my side, trying to jump up on the bed to see me.

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