Page 17 of Falling Too Late

Now, I had a reason to care.

“Okay, this is what we are going to do.” Ma’s voice was soft, quiet. As if they would hear that we had her. Ma walked over to the couch and sat down next to Wren. Her palm came up, but Wren flinched away, so Ma placed them in her lap, clutching them tight. “Wren, I would like to take you to the hospital.”

“But—”

“Listen, I have a friend, and she’s a nurse.” Ma reached out for Wren’s hand and waited. Wren stared; slowly, Ma took it and grasped it tightly in both her hands. “You can have a rape kit done. You will lie down on a table, and they are going to examine you. They have to swab your insides, to collect his DNA. They will take pictures of you. Showing the bruise, the scrapes,” Ma shook her head, tears freely falling again, “everything. They willdo a report, account for everything you tell them. And then they will save it.”

“Save it?”??

“Yes, sweetheart. They will save it until you are ready to do something about it. You can wait a month. You can wait a year or even five years. You can wait as long as you want until you are ready.”

You could see the wheels turning in her head.

“But I’m only sixteen.”

Ma’s voice cracked and shook with emotion. “I know. I know, sweetheart. I don’t know what happens with your age, but my friend will know. We can figure it out, but please, let me take you to the hospital. Let us help you.”

Wren started crying with Ma. They were sitting on the couch and hugging each other. I just stood there, guilt eating at me. I should have done something sooner. I should have said something—if I had, then maybe it wouldn’t have lasted this long.

The two of them left for the hospital. I stayed behind. Plotting.??

I wasn’t going to let Wren end up back with them. The cops weren’t going to take her.??

No one would.

CHAPTER 9

WREN

I’d beenat the Harper house for two weeks. I’d run away before; this wasn’t something new to me. One day when I was twelve, I went to the office and asked to see my second emergency contact in my file, faking it like my aunt had moved and I needed to update her address. The secretary rattled off her address to me, and I repeated it in my head over and over again until I could write it down. I walked fifteen miles across town to her house. I told my aunt Kate what Mom was doing, and to my horror, Aunt Kate put me in her car and took me back to Mom.

Mom locked me in my room, and I listened to her and Kate yell at each other for several hours. Kate had just gotten engaged and didn’t need her sister’s bullshit fucking up her chance at happiness.

Mom hadn’t let me out of my room for three days.??

But Kevin could come and go as he pleased.??

Kevin and Mr. Lloyd.?

I didn’t know of any other family. Mom had said something about hating her parents, so I never knew them. I didn’t even know if they were alive.?

I could hear her talking to herself through the walls of Alex’s room. She was louder than I thought, her voice warbled like shewas possessed. I could make the words out that she said if I really tried.

“That slutty bitch.”

“She’s fucking useless.”

“Out fucking the whole town.”

She sold me to Kevin and Lloyd. At first, I was just Kevin’s. He would give her cash and she would pay the bills with it, but eventually, Mom realized the way Lloyd looked at me. I had noticed it first, having firsthand experience with the way creepy older men looked at me. Lloyd started to come around every so often. He wasn’t as consistent as Kevin, but nonetheless, he didn’t charge Mom rent anymore. She only had to pay utilities.

Kevin fucked me, thinking he was paying for rent, but really Mom had quit her job and was using the money to live off of. ??

Alex walked me home, and I always hid while he unlocked the door. Mom would hear his keys jingle, and she would rush out, question him, put on the facade of a concerned mother. Her daughter was missing. She was good, too, she could start the waterworks and everything. The only reason she wanted me back was to take her anger out on me. I was just her punching bag.

Alex just told her he didn’t know what she was talking about. Hadn’t seen me.?

Mom would pace the hallway, look over the railing while I hid behind the apartment dumpsters, waiting for her to go back inside. Alex would give me the all clear, and I would run up the stairs and into the apartment.

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