Page 97 of Her Ex-Husband's Brother
“Don’t touch me!”
“I’m your mother.”
Her hand reaches for my face.
The room fractures.
I lift my arms to brace my face and hide so she can’t touch me.
She cries out as though I hit her.
Chairs scrape. Marcus grabs my wrist.
“Don’t let her touch me!” I shout.
“August, lower your voice.”
“She can’t take me. She can’t take me. She can’t?—”
Two more staff members appear in the doorway.
My mother backs away, one hand clutched to her chest, but I see her now. Really see her.
Not scared.
Satisfied.
She wanted this.
She knew exactly what would happen when they put her in front of me.
“She did this on purpose!”
“August, we need you to calm down.”
“She’s working with him!”
Someone takes my other arm.
I twist hard, terror burning through the fog.
“Get off me!”
“Stop resisting.”
“I’m not going with her!”
“No one is taking you anywhere.”
They’re lying.
They’re all lying because she’s standing there with that wounded-mother face, and I’m screaming, and this is the only version of us anyone ever believes.
Her calm.
My madness.
A hand presses between my shoulder blades.
