Motorcycle Girl: Book Four

Chapter 2: Truth

After a couple minutes she comes down in white fuzzy sweatpants with pink rabbits on them and a pink long sleeve shirt on. She sits down on the couch in her spot.

Odeletta takes another sip of the beer and sighs slowly.

"I bet you regret not aborting me. My life sucks." Raylen mutters.

"Oh gosh Raylen, shut up." Odeletta snaps. "You know that's not true. You four have no idea how good you have it."

We shielded the kids from the truth of Odeletta's past. She didn't want them to look at her in pity.

"When I was Noah's age, I was sent off to America without my parents because the French government was arresting them for something they did not do." She says.

"What?" Raylen asks.

"I lived in the woods until I was seventeen. That's when I met Gwen. I went to school online in France in a library, I thought Uncle Liam and Aunt Annalise were dead. Murdered. I got into drugs in college and Gwen got pissed. We got into a fight and I cut myself so deep I was rushed to the hospital. I almost bled out. The girl found me in the shower in the college bathroom in a pool of my own blood! I was alone, I had always been alone!" She's pissed again. "That motorcycle that I love so much was basically all I had. Gwen bought it for me when I was eighteen. After I got out of the hospital, I was so ashamed about my life and how I cut myself. I used to do it all the time in the woods because it was the only way I felt anything! Gwen got me to stop, turned into the mother I lost when I was twelve. I thought my parents were dead!" She spats. "And I shut Gwen out because I was ashamed. A year later I met your father. He was there when I stormed into a courthouse and was almost executed to free my parents. He was there when I was assaulted and almost raped by some guy. Your father went to jail for punching that guy in the face. He was almost sentenced to fifteen years in prison! Only two months later I found out I was pregnant with you! We got married and moved on, and then when you were two years old, we went to France to see the grandparents I hadn't seen since I was ten and I found out they hired the guy that framed my parents. A few weeks later, your father was shot in the chest and he died. His heart stopped right in front of me. You were two, Raylen. Noemie, you were only...what was it babe?"

"Seven months, I think." I mutter.

"My handed were covered in his blood." She looks down at her hands, her eyebrows furrowing. She has tears in her eyes. "And Raylen you were such a sweet little boy. You walked up to me in the waiting room when nobody would tell you where your Daddy was, and you asked me what was on my hands. I told you it was juice. The person that shot your Dad was hired by my grandparents to kill him and Papa. Just because they didn't make enough money. When we were in his room to see him, you were playing with your toys in his lap and you climbed on him. You put your knee on the bullet wound and he had a seizure. You and Noemie were screaming. After that, he kicked us out, and a while later we almost got divorced over a bullshit fight because I couldn't trust anybody from my shitty childhood. We went to couples therapy and we realized it was my fault. I left for four months to figure out my life. When I came back, the president of France sent us a check for twenty million dollars because he felt bad. That phone in your pocket? That's pity money. The roof over your head? Pity money. The Cadillac you dented, Caroline? Pity money. The barn? The horses? Your beds? Every fucking thing each one of you own is pity money, because your father died. I didn't have loving parents when I was your ages. I didn't have anything. I didn't even have enough money to get myself dinner. Don't you ever tell me your life sucks, Raylen. You have no idea what that even means! I we were gone for six hours! We come home and the car is dented, the house is trashed, you're drunk and high, and we smell like a drug house! Who the fuck do you think you are to do this? I can't-" she cuts off, rubbing her temples. "Raylen, you're taking a blood drug test once a week until I see fit. Caroline, I want your MP3 player. You shouldn't have been throwing anything, no matter how mad you were. Lashing out is not the answer." She looks at Raylen. "You're grounded until I see fit. You're cleaning the horse stalls until I say. If you utter one word of complaints, I'll put your ass on a bus to military school." She looks at Noah and Noemie and Caroline. "You guys..." she sighs. "You did the right thing calling us."