Page 61 of My Vows Are Sealed

Maybe she’d always foisted Nathan off on me every chance she got and I just hadn’t noticed it until now because I loved spending time with him, but lately, it literally seemed like she went out of her way to avoid having anything to do with him. It was like she had completely lost interest in raising her son, just like what Nathan would have done with a pet hamster or guinea pig as soon as the novelty wore off.

“I’m kind of in the middle of something here, Mom,” I said flatly, gesturing toward the half-painted cabinet that was sitting on a huge sheet of plastic.

“It’ll only take you twenty minutes,” she whined.

“And by that logic, it would only takeyoutwenty minutes to pick him up,” I countered.

“Oh, I really shouldn’t be driving in my condition, honey,” she sniveled.

I rolled my eyes at her obvious ploy for sympathy. It wasn’t like I’d ever say no to doing anything for my brother, but the thing was, she knew that and took advantage of it. It was like she was using my love for him against me, or at least using it to manipulate me.

“What are you going to do in a year and a half when I’m not around anymore, Mom?” I growled as I put the lid on the paint can and started to clean off the brush.

“What are you talking about?” she scoffed. “You’re going to the College of Charleston, and you’re going to live at home to save on expenses. That’s always been the plan.”

Oh, my God. Was she actually serious? I mean…was she? She actually thought that I was just going to stay living here for the rest of my life so I could take care of Nathan for her?

Not to mention, she knew that I’d been talking to her brother, my Uncle Paul, about taking an apprenticeship with him at his construction company instead of going to college after I graduated next year. Working there would let me start making a decent living right away. Enough to provide a comfortable life for Darla while she went to college.

Yeah, maybe a lot of people would have thought it was stupid to mold my future plans around Darla. They’d say that high school romance didn’t last, and maybe that was true for most people. But it wasn’t true for us. This wasn’t a fling to me. It was real, and it was forever. I couldn’t imagine the day ever coming when I didn’t love her with every fiber of my being. And I knew I needed to start figuring out how to support usnow, so that I could get her out of that house and away from her father the second she turned eighteen.

“Plans change, Mom,” I spat. “And, newsflash: Nate’syourson, not mine. I’d take a bullet for him any day of the week, and I don’t mind helping out with him every now and then, but he’s not my responsibility. It’syourjob to raise him and provide for him, so what I’m doing with my life after high school shouldn’t even be part of your thought process when it comes to your parenting plan once I graduate.”

“You know I’m too old to be doing this again, Brendan,” she whimpered, her bottom lip quivering like she was about to cry. “I cared for you when you were his age, and now I just need a little bit of help. Is that too much to ask?”

No, a little help wasn’t too much to ask. But I was practically raising my brother and I had no social life to speak of because she expected me to constantly be at her beck and call to take care of him whenever she didn’t feel like it, which was pretty much all the time. And she’d basically admitted to me just now that her entire plan for raising Nathan was to have me do it until he was self-sufficient.

“Well, maybe you and Dad should have thought about whether you wanted to be parents again before you decided not to use birth control,” I scoffed. “But you didn’t, and now you have an amazing, sweet, curious little boy who loves you unconditionally. And what do you do? You foist him off on anyone who’s willing to take him every chance you get!”

My dad’s office door opened, and a few seconds later, he came to stand next to my mom with a scowl on his face.

“What the hell is going on out here?” he growled. “I’m trying to work!”

“All I did was ask Brendan to go get Nathan from his play date because I have one of my headaches,” she pouted like a child.

Yeah, one of her recurring headaches, which seemed to magically disappear as soon as someone took Nathan off her hands. And which she’d never seen a doctor for.

“And she could clearly see that I was in the middle of something,” I added. “Come in here and you’ll see a huge plastic tarp laid out with my cabinet from carpentry class, which I was putting a base coat on so Nate and I can paint it together tomorrow.”

“Ruth, the Jeffersons’ house is only ten minutes away. You couldn’t leave Brendan alone on his first day of winter break so he could finish his project?”

“It’s not my fault that I have a headache!”

Dear God. By this point I could have been at the Jeffersons’ house already. And at least going to pick Nathan up would get me out of this house and away from this woman, who somehow insisted on being a parent even though she clearly lacked the emotional capacity to care for anyone other than herself.

“Brendan, can you please help your mom out this once?” he sighed.

“Yeah, I’ll get Nate. Because, unlike her,Iactually give a shit about him,” I snarled as I grabbed my keys and wallet and stormed out of my room, slamming the door harder than I needed to.

“Howdareyou use that language with me, young man?” my mom spat.

“Give it a rest, Ruth,” my dad barked. “He’s picking your son up for you. What more do you want?”

I didn’t even turn back as I marched out the door and got Nathan’s booster seat out of their car to install in mine. I didn’t know why they didn’t just buy him a second one to keep in my car with all the time I spent carting him around. But, then again, I was kind of glad that I didn’t have one installed in my car all the time, because I would have gottenhellfor it at school.

* * *

“Come on, bud,” I said as I unbuckled Nathan from his booster seat. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

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