Page 52 of What If We Break?
Dad never wanted me to hate my grandparents, even if heand Emory did. He gave me—and Eden—the option to be in touch with them, but when I refused, Eden did too. He never met them anyway.
Elliot and Nova, though knowing the truth, kept saying both of them were dead. They were to our family, that was for sure.
“Please,” she begged, her voice much sadder than a moment ago. “Spare me five minutes of your time.”
I looked out of the window, finding Reece sitting in his car as he waited for me. He was on his phone, oblivious to what was happening inside the building, and oblivious to who was standing before me.
Though even if he looked, he was a tad too far away to know this was Millie, not Emory.
Mom stopped dyeing her hair ginger a few years ago because she wanted to stop damaging it. She no longer felt the need to prove to everyone that she wasn’t Millie.
Now that Mom’s hair was blonde again, their resemblance was uncanny. The length of their hair was almost the exact same.
There was one obvious difference, but even if Reece looked, he couldn’t have seen it.
Millie had a scar that went down her left eye until the middle of her cheek. It was healed, but still so obvious.
I wondered if it had always been there or happened more recently. Perhaps it was some kind of birthmark no one had ever told me about. It was a strange spot to have a scar of this size.
“I don’t know what there is to talk about,” I said when I turned my eyes back on her. “I certainly have nothing to say. And if you had an interest in me, you wouldn’t have faked your own death just to get away from me. So, no, Millie, Idon’t even have five minutes of my time to sacrifice for you. That’d be five minutes of my life wasted.”
Besides, I had places to be.
Reece and I had been invited to a frat party. It was Friday evening—the first Friday this season he didn’t have to be at practice or a game. While we had to get up early tomorrow for a competition, Reece wanted to go to this party because Ming begged him to come. We’d leave before midnight though, so we could catch some sleep.
“I’ve got to go,” I added, but before I could walk away, Millie stepped closer to me once again.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I know I’ve been a bad?—”
I snorted. “Don’t you dare call yourself my mother.”
“But I am.”
“You gave birth to me, is all.” Anger was slowly flooding my veins. “There’s no need to apologize for disappearing. You did me and everyone else a favor by dying. Just because you suddenly feel guilty for something you did doesn’t give you the right to corner me in a coffee shop. I have no interest in getting to know you, and the past fifteen years of everyone telling you to leave me and my family alone should’ve been a clear indicator of that. You can shove your half-assed apology up your entitled ass and leave me, Dad, my mom, and everyone else the fuck alone, got it?”
“Your… mom?” For whatever reason, she looked taken aback by that. “Emory isn’t your mom, I am. I gave birth to you, Brooklyn. Emory stole my life!”
I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “How could she steal your life when you were trying to live hers?”
Again, I didn’t know the whole story, but I knew a whole lot more about my parents’ history than Millie apparently thought I did.
“Look, whatever happened between you and my parentsisyourproblem. I’m not interested in getting to know you. You had your chance to get to know me when I was born, but you chose to fake your death instead. That’s on you. And you can’t even say thatIruined your life because I know that you thought if you got pregnant, it’d mean Dad was going to stay in your life forever. You just realized you didn’t want the responsibility a little too late. So again, that’s on you. It’s been twenty years, let it go. I don’t want you in my life, Dad doesn’t want you in his life, and my mom couldn’t give any more fucks about your existence either. Let. It. Go. Move on.”
Her mouth opened as she was trying to disagree with me, but the Barista cut her off.
“Mrs. Reed? Your coffee is ready.”
Millie turned around, and while she was telling the Barista to wait a second, I took that moment to leave Claire’s.
I wasn’t interested in hearing her out. When I said she should’ve gotten the memo by now, I meant it. If I had had the slightest ounce of interest in her inside of me, I would’ve reached out to her ages ago.
She didn’t try to follow me to the car, which I was glad about since I was sure if Reece saw her, he wouldn’t have stayed as calm as I tried to. He never met her either, obviously, but when we were younger, every time I used to get upset over my birth mother seeing me as someone who had ruined her life, he got more angry than me.
I didn’t want Reece to get mad.
As I reached the car, I realized thatshereacted to Mrs. Reed. Guess someone was stupid enough to fall in love and marry her after all. That poor guy.
“Claire’s didn’t look like it had much of a line when we got here,” Reece said as I got into his car. “Didn’t think you’d be gone for ten whole minutes.”
