Page 3 of Forsaken Oath

Margot’s eyes go wide, but she doesn’t argue. She spins around on her heel, her hair flying out behind her, and barrels down the hallway toward their room.

I glance at the couch, where Mom’s starting to stir. “What’s going on?”

I advance toward her, my arms flying wide. “What’s going on?” the words seethe through my clenched teeth. Disbelief and horror tangle together inside of me, wrapped up so tight I can barely breathe. “Congratulations,Darla. You’re officially relieved of your motherly duties.”

She blinks in response, her forehead crinkling in confusion. “What’re you on about now?”

My arms hit my legs with a thwack, the rage sucked out of me faster than a deflated balloon. She’s not in the right headspace to even comprehend my anger. “I’m taking the girls, and we’re leaving.”

She shuffles forward, planting her hands on the couch cushion like she’s going to get up. “Oh. We goin’ for ice cream again? You’re buyin’ right?”

“No,” I bark, shaking my head quickly. “You’re staying here. The girls and I are leaving, and we’re not coming back. Not ever.”

I watch her thoughts tumble over one another as she tries to make sense of them. After a minute of silence, I walk backward down the hallway. It doesn’t take me long to pack, and five minutes later, I’m hustling my sisters out the front door.

Ma just watches us without saying a word. I get the girls in my car, and when I go back inside, Ma’s standing in the kitchen, holding my tote bag full of food.

Her lips are pinched into a scowl, one hand planted on her hip.

Is she going to make a plea for us to stay? I hate that I’ve got a seedling of hope that she is. That she suddenly decided in the last ten minutes that she actuallywantsto be a mother.

I reach for the handles of the tote bag, and she jerks it out of reach. I make myself set flame to that sprouted hope. Locking all my emotions down as I watch it burn into ash.

“What do you want?” This was always the way it was going to be, wasn’t it? Nothing with my mother is ever easy. She takes and takesand takes.

“The way I see it, I could call the cops right now. Tell them my adult daughter kidnapped my babies,” she drawls. “You’d go to prison.”

I shake my head and grit my teeth. “I’m still a fucking minor, Darla. Or did you forget that? What do you want?”

She arches a brow and looks at me. “If you leave, how am I supposed to pay rent? And food?”

I roll my eyes and snatch the bag out of her hands. “Why don’t you try getting a job?” I turn away from her and beeline for the front door.

“Eight hundred,” she says.

I stop with my hand on the doorknob and look over my shoulder at her. My mouth parts as I feel the color drain from my face.

“Eight hundred a month. Every month. Or I call the cops and report you as a runaway and a kidnapper.” She lifts a shoulder and stares at me through dark eyes. “And I’m sure I could rustle up some people to verify that you brought drugs into my home.”

I grit my teeth so hard, I hear something in my jaw pop. It doesn’t matter that I doubt anyone would believe her. If I’m tangled up with the cops, then there’s no one to look out for my sisters. I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened tonight if I didn’t get home when I did.

Tears fill my eyes as I blindly grab the cash from my crossbody purse. All five hundred and seventy-three dollars of my tips for the last four weeks.

It’s not enough. Nothing ever is when it comes to her. But I throw it at her anyway, the bills scattering across the dingy carpet between us.

Mom’s eyes light up as drops to her knees and scrambles to collect the cash. “Same time next month,” she says without looking up, her voice softening as she stuffs bills into her bra. “Don’t forget.”

The words hang in the air, and I hate her for saying them. For thinking this is normal. For making itnormal.

1

ELOISE

EIGHT YEARS LATER

“Someone give her an Oscar,”I mutter under my breath as the exaggerated moans filter through the motel’s thin walls and spill into the parking lot. There’s a whole choir of enthusiasm going on in the Paradise Palms Motel tonight. A squirrel pokes its head out of a nearby garbage can, like the volume has finally gotten to him too. I laugh softly when I notice it double-fisting fries.

Anything to distract me from the scene unfolding in front of me.

---