Page 138 of Unhinged

I smile sweetly. "Did you run out of grocery money again? Looking for a free meal? Sorry to tell you that the only thing Matvei and I cooked last night was meth, and there's none left."

She glares.

“Ha-ha. Just kidding. It was weed.”

His mother narrows her eyes at me.

"Why do you hate me?" she asks.

My need to run is quickly forgotten. I'm not leaving her in this house unsupervised.

"I never did anything to you," his mother says, obviously still trying to keep my attention on her. And then she keeps talking—blah, blah, blah—but I tune her out.

And then I realize something that sends a chill down my spine.

His parents don't have keys to this house anymore.

Matvei changed the locks.

"How did you get in here?"

"I have a key," his mother says.

"No, you don't. He changed those locks."

"Why?" his mother snaps. "I've had a key to his house since he bought it… untilyoucame on the scene." Her voice rises in pitch, in volume.

"Because he didn't want you walking in while he was fucking me in the living room. Does that make you feel better?"

"Honey, you're just someone he’s wasting his time on.”

“It’s kinda gross how jealous you are.”

Her voice is so smug, so sure. "He doesn't want you. Don't you think if he wanted you, he would'vemarriedyou, like the rest of them? Done this the right way instead of bringing you back here like you were some kind of cheap whore?"

It stings.

I tell myself not to listen, not to pay attention.

I'm stronger than this.

But I already feel so low, so useless.

I can't be anything for him.

"You should run," she says coldly, cruelly. "You should get out of here while you still can."

“You hate me because he picked me over you,” I say, my voice low.

“He didn’t pick you,” she snarls. “You’re just the body he’s fucking while he waits for someone better.”

My heart lurches, but I push through. She’s trying to hurt me, trying to cause me pain.

"You hate him for what he did to your son, but don't you know how he's gone out of his way to be loyal to you? Even after everything you've done to him?"

I hate them.

I hate them so much.

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