Chapter 2

Mom was torn. She liked that I'd found a job and could bring in extra income, but she didn't want to lose her free labor. After all, if I moved out, who was going to do all the housework?

She'd gotten used to being waited on for years and had no intention of lifting a finger herself. She liked things clean, sure, but that didn't mean she liked cleaning. Why would she, when she could sit on the couch and order me around?

I put on a troubled face. "You know how it is, Mom. I'm still underage. Most places won't even hire me. It wasn't easy finding this job."

"What kind of boss won't let you come home at night? Tell me who it is. I'll talk to him. And if he still says no, you can just go work at your Aunt Peggy's husband's factory. The pay there is way better anyway."

I dodged that suggestion as fast as I could, promising I'd talk to my boss about it.

Mom was close with Aunt Peggy's family. If I actually went to work at her husband's factory, I'd never see a cent of my own paycheck.

With my escape plan falling apart, all I could do was throw myself into work. I left early in the morning and came home as late as possible, trying to avoid the hours when Mom was mopping. Even so, I lived in constant fear that the bleach fumes were seeping into my lungs.

The one small mercy was that I'd always slept on the enclosed porch. At night, I left the windows wide open to air things out. It was freezing, but at least I could breathe easily.

My job started to settle into a routine, and then the news came that Cody had dropped out of school. Mom was so furious she choked on her own breath.

"I worked myself to the bone to put you through school, and you just quit? You're the pride of the Aven family. You're supposed to carry on the family name and make something of yourself."

Cody tossed his cutlery down without a care in the world.

"Didn't Brielle drop out too? Why didn't you ever say anything to her about it? You only give me a hard time."

Mom shot me a vicious glare, then turned back to coaxing him.

"How can you compare yourself to her? You're the only son in this family, our one real hope for the future. It'd be such a waste for a smart kid like you to throw that away."

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Cody was dead last in his entire grade, and dropping out was still "a waste"? By that logic, nobody should ever drop out.

Cody was so spoiled he couldn't stand anyone disagreeing with him. The second Mom pushed back, he shoved her away.

"Will you quit nagging? I told you, I'm not going back. Ever. If you think school's so great, go yourself. I don't need school to make the Aven name mean something."

Mom couldn't win against him and eventually gave in.

Cody hadn't been home two days before he and Mom were at each other's throats, and the reason was the bleach. She mopped with it every single day.

I was out of the house during the day, and Dad had been living at his workplace and never came home, so Mom had long since gone nose-blind to the fumes. But Cody had just gotten back, and the smell hit him like a wall.

"Are you trying to kill me? It smells like you dumped poison all over the floor."

"Oh, sweetheart, that's just bleach. It's good for you. If I mop with this stuff, you won't get sick."

Mom was delighted that Cody had finally noticed all the effort she put into keeping the house clean, and she started showing off about it.

"Get rid of it. What is this garbage? I'm perfectly healthy, and I don't need this crap on the floor." Cody scowled.

"Just listen to your mother. Would I ever do anything to hurt you?"

Mom adored Cody more than anything, and when it came to his health, she refused to budge an inch, not even for him. She'd even convinced herself that his coughing was actually a good sign, that it meant his body was fighting off germs, and that the fumes were triggering some kind of detox reaction.

She thought once the viruses inside him were killed off, the coughing would stop on its own. After all, she breathed it in every day now and didn't feel a thing.

She went and mixed an extra-strong batch of bleach water and mopped Cody's room with it. He couldn't take it anymore. He stormed out and kicked over the mop bucket.