Page 112 of My Damaged Protector

“I left Glazer Ville.”

“Okay? So, Auntie's living here too then?”

“No.”

She frowns. “What? How will I be able to see her then when I come home for break if you're staying so far from each other?”

“I can always visit,” my aunt interjects, giving me a look. She doesn't want me to rip the band-aid off.

Too late. The conversation has already started, and it's not ending until everything that needs to be said is out.

“There won't be any coming for breaks, Olivia.”

“What? So, I'll never come home? How could you do this to me? I know you don't want me around, but permanently not letting me see you? That's cruel, even for you Mom.”

Okay. I expected her to be disappointed, but not to point fingers at me.

“Calm down Olivia, and that's not what I meant. You won't be needing to come home for break because you won’t be leaving. This is our new home. You and me.”

“Oh, hell no! No!”

“Mind your language,” Sheila and I say at the same time.

She looks at us with irritation. “My language is the least of the problems here. Auntie, please tell my mom that I can't stay with her!”

I don't understand.

“Why?” I ask her in confusion. Just a few minutes ago, she was happy to see me. She said she missed me. Why wouldn't she want to stay with me then?

She chuckles at my question, looking at me like I'm crazy for asking.

“You're serious?” she asks.

“Goddamn it, I am. Spit it out.”

“Sarah.” It's my turn to be cautioned about my language by my aunt.

“Not now,” I huff

“And that's why I can't stay with you,” Olivia snarls, pointing accusing fingers at me.

“What?”

“Don't what me! You're a hypocrite, Mom. You always have been. And the only person you care about is you. You've done your best to show me how much you didn't want me all these years, and I wasn't even staying in the same house with you. Now you want to rip away the only life I've managed to have whereI'm wanted by forcing me to come live with you in this valley? No. I will not stay with you!”

I don't know what hurts more. That she calls me a hypocrite, or she thinks I don't want her.

She is my precious gift.

“Olivia,” I call her name.

“Don't.”

“Let your mother speak,” Auntie snaps at her, and I watch her face fold. I don't think I've ever seen my aunt chastise Olivia like this before. She looks at me, her eyes shining with tears, hurt lurking behind those orbs.

“I haven’t even started staying with you and you're already turning Auntie to your side.”

Okay, enough.

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