Page 3 of River
At least twenty people were in the room watching my mum with solemn faces as her shoulders bobbed up and down from her crying. Looking around, I was hoping for someone to help her, but they all stood like statues with sadness marring their faces.
“Please, I’ll do anything. I didn’t steal. I would never steal,” my mum cried and reached out for Conor.
“Don’t embarrass yourself.” Conor groaned when my mum fell to her knees and clung to his legs.
“I’ve given you everything,” she sobbed.
Conor’s face was expressionless as he reached down for my mum. She got up with loud sniffles and held on to him with both hands when he began walking.
“I’m loyal to you. I’ve always been loyal to you.”
Seeing the direction Conor was leading my mum, I ran to warn her, but they were already in the foyer when I caught up and got in front of them.
Conor didn’t let a small seven-year-old child stop him from opening the front door and pushing my mum out.
Julie’s breath hitched in her chest as she looked back at the people she’d called family for the last three years.
"How can you reject and humiliate me like this? You told me that you loved me."
I ran to her, folding my arms around her waist and crying with her.
“Please, Conor,” my mum sobbed.
He took a firm hold on the edge of the door, looking at us with utter indifference.
My mum’s begging came out in small pushes of words between her sobbing. “River didn’t do anything wrong. Let her stay, please! You promised that you wouldn’t punish her, and you said it yourself; River has the potential to do great things.”
I squeezed my arms tighter around her waist when she tried to push me off her.
“I’m begging you. Please, Conor. Don’t rob River of her future because of me.”
My mum kept pushing at me, but I didn’t want to be separated from her. Where would she go? Mum and I had been each other’s world for my whole life.
“Conor, please.” The plea came from Ciara, who had two sons with Conor and was my mum’s friend. “Won’t you please let River stay?”
I never heard him answer, but he must have agreed because suddenly, strong hands pulled at me from behind.
Kicking and screaming, I was carried back into the house.
“Nooo, I want my mummy,” I screamed and fought Ciara, who held me close to her body while making shushing sounds.
“Don’t come back,” Conor ordered my mum as I reached my arm out for her.
“Muuum!!!”
My mum stood right outside the door, watching me with a grimace of pain and tears springing from her eyes. “It’s gonna be fine, my butterfly. Just remember that I lov…”
Bang!Conor slammed the door and turned to us all. “Enough with this drama. Dinner is getting cold.”
