"Why do you care if I'm mad or not?" It was the only thing I cared about knowing at this point.
"You're smart King. You figure it out."
Ace Carter was bad news and so were his friends. Luckily, I stayed away from him, his friends and all their dram...
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"Melrose," Emily sighed from the nurse's station. She didn't sound surprised to see me whatsoever.
She started walking toward me but I took a step back, still confused. "What are you doing here?"
"Your father-"
"I know. But you don't even live here anymore. How did you know he was here?" My eyebrows furrowed.
She glanced at the boy next to me and gave him a tight smile. I imagined he did the same back, but I couldn't move my gaze from her. "I guess I'm still an emergency contact on the records."
"And you came back for him, but not for me?" My voice cracked.
Ace latched onto my hand.
"Melon, I couldn't come back while he was-"
Tears threatened to leak at the mention of her old nickname for me. "What? Still alive?" She didn't say anything. "You left me here with him."
"Can we talk somewhere more private?" She bit her lip nervously.
I swallowed harshly and squeezed Ace's hand in anger. "Why? Too embarrassed of your daughter calling you out?"
Emily looked emotional, as if she deserved to be holding back tears. The woman left me when I was fourteen and only had the audacity to call me on my birthday; which she hadn't even done a few weeks ago. "I wasn't happy in that house Melrose. You know that."
"And you think I was?" I kept my voice low and angry. "He treated us both like shit and you got out of it."
He glanced around the hospital and started biting her thumbnail. It was a habit she obviously hadn't broken. She had always done it when Charlie walked in the room. "I needed to start over and I couldn't afford to take you with me. I had always planned to come back when I had enough money, but I never got to where I wanted melon."
I scoffed. "You never planned on coming back for me Emily. You don't have to lie to me."
"I really did angel, I promise. I had a whole plan. I would go back to school, get my degree and get a good job. And I would come back and get you and we would live together in a big house," she spoke as if she were reminiscing on memories instead of a dream.
I looked up at Ace and he brought my hand up to his lips to kiss it. I turned back to my mother. "Did you go back to school?"
She shook her head solemnly. "No, I couldn't once I got a job waitressing at a restaurant. I worked so many hours just to get enough money for rent. I can still barely afford my one bedroom apartment."
"It still doesn't excuse you from leaving me with an abuser, Emily," I shook my head.
She did the same. "He wouldn't touch a hair on your head, Melon. He was all talk with you."
