Page 5 of For All It's Worth
“Listen to me!” Mom snapped. The rare show of anger cut off my words and doused the spark of panic. “You nearly died from the blood loss and hypothermia. You’ve been drinking so much lately that I’m not sure you know what day it is.”
“I’m not an alcoholic Mom, I can go without a drink.”
“I find that unlikely since you’ve had to be treated for alcohol withdrawal since you were brought in. The amount of alcohol in your system worsened the hypothermia and the bleeding from your wounds. Right now you’re lucky to be alive.”
I resisted the urge to make a caustic remark or roll my eyes. Being alive seemed to be a punishment for a long list of crimes.
Sensing I wasn’t going to win this one, I gave in. “Fine, I’ll come stay with you.” I heard the petulance in my voice and Matty winced in the corner of my eye. Sensing my mom gearing up to berate me, I changed the subject. “When can I leave here?” My tone was resigned.
She sighed and looked hesitant to share something. “A couple of days still.” There was a pause and a glance at Matty, who shrugged. “We only found out about it this morning.” Her expression was sad but turned reproving. “You’ve been here three days but weren’t able to answer any questions when they tried. Your blood alcohol level was dangerously high, which made treating you so much harder.”
My breath hitched at the realization that they hadn’t known I’d been here for so long. Had anyone noticed?
“Max?” I managed to squeeze out.
“Will is going to bring him tomorrow, sweetheart. You were asking for him earlier but only family are allowed to visit now.”
“Max is my family,” I stated firmly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matty smile. She loved Max almost as much as I did. Though she was closest to Will out of all of us, she had tried not to take sides when it had all gone down with Ethan. I did get a lecture from her, and Max too, for sleeping with my brother’s boyfriend.
Truth be told, Ethan had been a dick and I hadn’t been the only other person he’d been sleeping with, but I’d let Will blame me for it all. To him, I’d stolen Ethan. Not what actually happened but there’d been no point in saying anything different.
