Another Love Another time

Chapter 36: Oh my!

"All we ever wanted was for you all to include her. Oh Riv, Melissa's home life was not good. Yes, her parents provided for her financially, but they were absent parents. She didn't have any adults in her life that were there for her. All we were trying to do is care for her; show her she could come to us if she needed us. We wanted to make sure she was included, so at least she felt love from one place."

"At my expense. You never stood up for me." I'm crying and I'm mad. "You never protected me!" I beat my chest. "At the expense of trying to show her love you made your own daughter" I look at my Aunt Connie and Jess, "feel like I did something wrong, like my concerns weren't warranted. You made me your own daughter; niece suffer so that you could show another little girl love. You all know the shit she did to me, and you let her get away with it! You let her manipulate the situation and separate Auggie and I knowing I only had a limited amount of time with him. Where the fuck was the love for me?" I point to my chest. "You want to know where your love went?" I laugh, but it's not funny. "Melissa is the reason I was attacked and was almost raped! How does that make you feel about your precious fucking Melissa? You did so well in showing her love that she orchestrated the whole thing to get me out of the way so she could have Auggie and before any of you ask me if I'm sure, if I hear that come out your mouth, I will cut you out of my life. I will make sure you are not part of my life.

"I was attacked because the little girl you wanted to show love to, that you wanted us to include turned into a spoiled teenager that you all always let get her way; wanted Auggie." I point at him just in case they forgot he was in the room, "And when she realized that wasn't going to happen, she had someone attack me and force themselves on me." I go into what happened, that I have proof that she arranged it. I don't tell them I know who the attacker is. They don't need to know that. The look on their faces is of shock.

"Am I sure? You're damn right, I'm sure. So, no I will never play nice, I will never get along with her and if you want me to be at any family events moving forward you make damn certain she doesn't show up." I know I'm screaming, but this is long overdue.

"You were always so strong we thought, oh my..." I interrupt her, "Because I had to be fucking strong Mom! Would you have really cared if I wasn't. All you cared about it seems was making sure Melissa felt love from somewhere while you made me feel like I didn't matter. You all could have accomplished that so differently. Instead, you choose to be okay with her manipulating a situation and keeping me and Auggie away from each other. Did you all hate me? I know our relationship has been strained." I wipe the tears from under my eyes. "For once I need you all to be on my side. For once I need you to think about what is best for me because I can tell you with certainty, she made my life hell." I take a deep breath to try to calm myself down, but I'm still so angry that they all showed up this morning asking yet again to make an exception for Melissa.

"One of the reasons I wanted to move here was to fix this" I point down at the ground, "but if this is going to be a repeat of my childhood no thanks." And then I walk out of the house. I don't have time for this shit. I've said what I wanted to say. I'm not a kid anymore. I don't have to listen to them anymore. I know I need to get ready for work, but I need to calm down.

Auggie

The door slams shut. I look at the three women. I'm flabbergasted. I look at the three women in front of me. Aunt Ashley is crying, my mom is in complete shock, and Jessica looks horrified.

"First of all, just to set you set you straight on what Melissa said happened. She's lying. Melissa was here waiting for River when she got home last night. River didn't attack her. She was defending herself. Melissa instigated it all. And second of all, what the hell guys? Why do you continue to do this?" I shake my head.