AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My mom jumped to her feet and started to pace the room angrily. She mumbled to herself, seemingly lashing out at me for not knowing where to find Trent. She always got angry with me for any and everything under the sun. It didn’t matter if it was my fault or not.
“Trent always kept up with you,” she said. “He wrote you more than he wrote me. He called you all the time. How could you not keep up with where they moved him?”
Her tone was nasty and very condescending. Trent wasn’t my child, he was hers. So, her question should have been directed toward herself, not me.
“Have you called the last place you spoke to him?” she asked. “Or have you been too busy writing your little books to care about your family and what they could be doing to him in that place?”
Her anger toward me made me lose my cool. I was fed up with her binges, fed up with her drinking, and fed up with her not being a mother. I was especially fed up with having to take over her responsibility all the time, and I let her know.
“My little books,” I mocked, “are what brought you and your son this house. My little books are what keep the lights and water on around here. If it weren’t for my little books, there’s no telling where you and Nick would be. Oh, that’s right, he’d probably be with me just like he always was.”
I stood on my feet so she could feel the wrath of my rage. I wanted her to hurt the same way she hurt me. My mother needed to know that her life was a mess and just because she failed at her own dreams of becoming a writer, didn’t mean I would let her undermine mine.
“I came here to make peace with you,” I said, but it seems like peace is something so far off your radar you probably don't even know how to spell it. I hope for the sake of your own sanity, you get your act together and stop living life like nothing in the world matters. You have another son who needs a stable parent just like any other child his age. Don't forget that while you’re drinking to forget everything else.”
I turned my back on my mother with the intention to turn it for good. I was tired. Tired of being the backbone of the family she created. Tired of being her punching bag, and tired of always having to be the bigger person.
I planned to go back to the cabin, pack my things and leave for home, but when I got there, all I could do was cry myself to sleep.
Chapter Eleven ~ Brayden
I did some soul searching and reflecting while Mia was gone. I realized how strange my life had become without her in it. Trent too. I missed them both dearly and it killed me not having them there. So much so, I became angry and cold toward the world. Before then I was the life of the party. I'd always been the alpha male type, but I wasn’t as cruel and ruthless as I'd become.
When I heard her come in after a long day, I wanted to ask her to sit with me for a while to talk, but she was in shambles about something. I figured she’d gotten into a fight with a friend or got some bad news from back home; whatever it was, it had her crying her eyes out until she fell asleep.
I waited until the next morning to bother her. Whenever I was in a bad mood or angry about something, it helped if people gave me time to cool down and come to my senses again. That was what I did for Mia.
I had been up all morning preparing her favorite meal as best I could with my legs wrapped in bandages. I didn’t finish cooking until around noon, which worked out best because she didn’t get out of bed until that time.
“Jesus Brayden, what the hell are you in here burning?”
She waved smoke from the air as she walked through the kitchen and headed for the coffee pot.
“I thought I'd make you breakfast,” I said. “It sounded like you had a hard night last night.”
“Wow, you heard that?”
She seemed embarrassed to know that I heard her crying her eyes out. It wasn’t the first time I'd heard Mia cry, or even saw her cry. But it was the first time I'd heard her cry since we decided we hated each other.
“Yeah,” I said. “Did something happen?”
I wheeled myself over to the table as she sat down. The large round of nachos with homemade chili and cheese was steaming and ready for her to dig in. I had a side of pickled jalapenos on the round as well. Mia was a huge fan of spicy things and extra sour cream.
“Nacho’s,” she giggled. “You know this is the key to my heart, right?”
“I remember,” I chuckled. “It took me all morning to make this.”
She looked impressed and like she wanted to dig in non-stop, but I could tell there was something holding her back. At first, I thought it was me; like maybe she thought I wanted to poison her as payback for all the fighting we did. But when she took a chip and dug in, I knew it was something else and I was determined to get it out of her.
“Have you been able to find anything out about Trent?” I asked. “I’ve made a few calls myself, but no one's called me back yet. You think I should ask Uncle Joe to make a few calls? He knows how to get shit done.”
“I was actually thinking of doing the same thing,” she said. “I know it’s a touchy subject for him because he knew the cop that was involved in the accident, but it could be worth a shot, right?
I thought it could be. Granted it had been years since the accident and Uncle Joe’s friends at the precinct turned on him because I'm his nephew, I thought he might have been able to get some information out of one of them. Maybe a rookie who didn’t really know the extent of the situation.
“It can’t hurt to ask,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about Trent a lot. Last night I pulled out the first letter he wrote me after he was housed. It made me really sit back and think about everything that happened.”
“Oh yeah?” Mia looked somewhat proud of me. “That’s good. I’m sure you’ve got things bottled in from that night that need to be released as well. I can admit that I haven’t been the most understanding toward you. I mean, you lost your best friend as well.”
