Page 60 of Best Served Cold

“How did you stop me from going to school?” I repeated, louder, my entire body tense as a low buzz filled my ears. “What did you do?”

“Not that it matters, but Linda redirected any correspondence from the school back into the system.”

My mind went blank as her words registered.

Linda had been as much of a presence in my life growing up as my own mother, and she’d been referring to herself as mine and Becca’s second mom since we were babies. She was my mother’s best friend.

And she worked at the post office.

I’d trusted her, at least until I’d hit my teen years and realized that no one had my back except my sister. Linda been one of the only ‘safe’ adults I’d had access to growing up because the people at church and my Christian school didn’t give a shit about me and would have run to my parents with anything I’d told them in confidence.

What other things had she done over the years? What secrets had she leaked to them?

Knowing she’d helped my parents torpedo my future and take away the only thing I’d ever wanted cut deep. My throat closed around a burn.

“You…that’s a felony.” I blinked to clear my vision.

Fuck Linda, fuck my mom, and fuck everyone who enabled her to treat us like property instead of like people.

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is. Tampering with mail is a felony.”

“I’m your mother and you were seventeen. Anything addressed to you was mine to open or do whatever I felt was best for you.”

“That’s not how the mail or laws work.” I shook my head, realizing I was focusing on the wrong thing. “Did I get accepted?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Did I get accepted?”

“I stopped you from making the biggest mistake of your life—”

“You had no right!”

“I had every right,” she said indignantly. “I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to help you and your sister and you’ve been nothing but ungrateful. I’ve done everything for you. Sacrificed everything for you, and you repay me by abandoning me and living a life of sin? Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?”

“I…”

So I had gotten in. The reality that my mother had not only lied to me about it, but that she’d been hiding it for the past eight years, was making it hard to think straight.

“It’s time to grow up, Noah. Come home, accept Jesus and denounce the life you’ve chosen. Jesus loves you, and he’ll forgive you. Pastor Michael said he’ll counsel you through the transition. Help you find your way again. Miriam is willing to let you court her—”

“Miriam?” I cut in, my brain coming back online. “Linda’s daughter?”

Linda had four daughters, and if my mental math was correct, Miriam was still very much underage.

“Yes.”

“She’s fifteen.”

“Sixteen.”

“Like that’s any better. She’s a child.”

“She’s a young woman from a good family—”

“She’s a baby. She’s still in high school!”

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