Page 97 of Cruel Dominion

It was soup; once it got cold, she’d have a reason not to eat it anymore. She was already so thin and her energy levels were in the toilet. Skipping meals was just going to make it harder. Guilt bubbled in the pit of my stomach. Besides rent, food, and gas, I was saving everything I had for her treatment. It had been six and a half months since her last round of chemo and radiation and she needed another one… three months ago.

But at this rate, it would take me ten more years just to pay for the first one.

It didn’t help that Dad was drinking and gambling his much better wages away before I could get my hands on even a dime.

“I can’t leave until you eat something. You’re going to make me late for work,” I lied. I didn’t have a shift tonight even though I’d been begging to take some off the hands of the other waitstaff at the restaurant.

Pretty soon, I would have to consider alternatives to make more money faster. I promised Anna nothing illegal, but I wasn’t sure I could keep that promise if it meant losing Ma like this.

She sighed, pressing her face into her pillow. When the fatigue started a little over a year ago, it didn’t seem like that big a deal. Just a little more tired than usual, I’ll just have some more coffee.

The pain started and she thought it was just early menopause symptoms. I thought she was too young for that but we let it slide. Chances were it was menopause, even if it was a little early. The jump from menopause to cancer was so absurd, neither of us considered it.

She opted for hormone treatment to combat it because it was cheaper than surgery and radiation. She wasn’t that advanced yet and at the start, we were hopeful.

I got another job to help pay for the treatment while keeping things running at home. It wasn’t like her free-loading husband was helping. I would have picked up the slack anyway, but it was just kind of funny the way he had enough money to get hammered but I had to pick up the rent because he wasn’t making enough money to cover it.

It was harder now with him arrested. They’d never kept him so long before, but I counted every day spent without his presence here a blessing, even if it meant I might need to consider dropping out of school to get a third job.

Another promise I’d have to break.

Ma shuffled under the comforter, rolling heavily onto her back. Her face contorted from the effort. I looked away. It made my chest ache. I wanted to give her privacy but I also just couldn’t watch.

I always knew that one day I’d have to bury my parents. I just never thought I’d have to watch her waste away for months in front of me before it finally happened. I didn’t think it would happen before I was even the legal age to drink.

Dread crawled up my back and wrapped around my neck, filling my head and expanding like a horror-movie red balloon.

“I made soup. That gross canned chicken noodle one you love that’s mostly broth?—”

A sharp knock sounded at the door. A chill froze my muscles, but then I realized he had a key. Dad wouldn’t knock, he’d just let himself in. Unless he’d lost it.

“Just a sec, ma, let me see who that is. Eat, okay. When I come back, I want to see at least half of that gone.”

She nodded woodenly. Her eyes were closed again and her expression peaceful. I whipped my head away, a wrenching in my chest.

I pulled the door open, exasperated, seeing an unfamiliar man standing on the other side. He was tall, that was the first thing I noticed. Then, I saw the suit. I’d never worn a suit in my life, but I knew when I was looking at a good one. It was gray and looked like it was cut to his exact fit, not one of those sloppy rental ones that made guys look like little boys trying on their dad’s clothes.

His hair was black mostly but the temples were graying. Still, his posture and vibe didn’t say old man. They said he was loaded and his mouth, pulled down in a deep frown, said he was pissed.

Just a wild guess; he didn’t live in this neighborhood.

“Can I help you?” I asked, my tone clipped.

His cold blue eyes swept down, then back up, sizing me up.

“You’re still home. Not working tonight at Sally’s?”

I frowned, my hand tightening on the doorknob. He knew where I worked. Something in his face struck me as familiar, and I had a sinking in my gut I didn’t want to explore.

If he was here, it didn’t mean anything good and I couldn’t take any more bad right now.

“Look, I think you have the wrong house or something.”

I started to close the door in his face, but his hand smacked the wood, keeping it open.

“I know who you are, boy.”

“Okay…”

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