Chapter 3

"Easy for you to say." I turned to her, my voice shaking. "Then pay me back. Give me my ten grand."

The room went dead silent.

Then—

A slap cracked across my face.

My ears rang. My cheek burned.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Mom's face twisted with rage. "Maybe it's time I reminded you who runs this house."

She yanked out her phone and started furiously typing.

A second later, my phone blew up.

Messages flooded the family group chat.

Voice Message from Mom: "Everyone come look at this. Look at the kind of daughter I raised. She goes to the city for a few years and suddenly she thinks she's too good for her own family. She came home just to demand money from me. I spent a little of her money and now she wants me to pay it back. After everything I've done for her!"

Replies poured in right after, full of criticism and fake advice.

I sank onto the floor and covered my face.

Sophie crouched beside me, acting all concerned, and tried to help me up. I jerked my hand away.

"Don't touch me."

My voice was quiet, but they both heard it.

Mom stopped recording voice messages and stared at me like she couldn't believe what she'd heard.

Slowly, I stood up and dug my ID and bank card out of the trash bag.

This time, I didn't look back.

"Where are you going?" Mom's voice came from behind me, anger edged with panic.

I said nothing.

The night air felt even colder now. My cheek still burned.

I pulled out my phone and called the bank.

"Hi, I need to freeze my credit card immediately and remove the authorized user from my account."

***

Late that night, I lay on a plastic bench in the bus terminal, listening to the announcements echo overhead.

I opened my banking app and stared at the locked savings account.

Twenty grand.

Three more days until it unlocked.

Back then, I'd saved it for Mom to "manage."

Three years ago, she said she'd help me invest. Said I was bad with money and needed someone watching over it.

So I agreed. Opened a three-year CD and planned to hand it over once it matured.

I thought it would prove I was a good daughter. That maybe I was worth loving.

Now it was my only way out.

I didn't sleep at all.

At six in the morning, I bought the earliest ticket and left town.

The second I stepped out of the station, two cops stopped me.

"Are you Elayne Everett?" one asked. "Your mother reported you missing. She's really worried."

I almost laughed.

At the station, I heard Mom crying the second I walked in.

"Elayne, my daughter!" She rushed over and wrapped me in a tight hug. "Where did you go? I looked for you all night. I was so worried!"

Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were swollen and red like she hadn't slept once.

I stood there stiffly and let her hold me.

"Officer, thank you, thank you." She turned to the cops, tears running down her face. "Every mother loves her daughter. Elayne's my precious girl. We just had a little fight, and she got upset and ran off. I searched all night. I'm freezing. I feel so dizzy..."

Mid-sentence, she doubled over coughing.

Instinctively, I reached out to steady her, then froze the second I touched her arm.

"Mom, you're burning up."

"It's nothing." She waved it off and coughed again. "As long as you're safe... let's just go home..."

One of the officers frowned. "Ma'am, you should really go to the hospital."

Then he looked at me. "Ms. Everett, take care of your mother. Family problems should be worked out by talking."