Page 55 of Brandy Snap: Part One

“Mel, are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I answered numbly. My throat was raw, my brain was tired from over-thinking, and I was at a point where I just wanted to curl up and let myself wither away.

I’d spent all day imagining what I would say to Rosa when I finally had the energy to call her. I just wanted to release it like I had in front of Mum, to hurl all my feelings at her, so maybe I could deal with all the ways my heart had broken in the past week.

But when I finally heard her voice, all I felt was disappointment.

“Well, why didn’t you answer?” she sighed. “Anyway, whatever. Look, I’m going to need to cancel—”

“When did you stop making Mum’s payments?” I asked bluntly, cutting straight through her. I’d normally let her babble, but it hurt too much to hear her break yet another promise while knowing we were so deep in debt.

“W-What?” Rosa answered, her tone suddenly dropping from a cheerful lilt to a hushed whisper.

I didn’t give her time to gather herself. I’d had all day to imagine this conversation. I wasn’t letting her stop me.

“I spoke with Greensprings today.” I pushed out, my chest growing tighter with each word. “How long have you been letting me pay for all of Mum’s care? Did you think I wouldn’t find out? What have you even been doing with that money?”

There was only silence from her end of the line. The only time she was ever quiet was when she needed to come up with an excuse.

“It wasn’t like that,” she said cautiously. I thought she would at least have the decency to be honest with me, just for a second, but she ruined it, like I knew she would. “It was just…Andy nearly got fired because of his leave of absence and Carl needed extra for the Land Rover and—”

“Rosa!Please. Stop making excuses!” I wasn’t holding up a fist and counting down all the different reasons she couldn’t do something until she ran out of options. I was done accepting that this was a normal part of my life.

“This isn’t a conversation where I just listen to you wiggle your way out of this. We’re £10,000 in debt because of you!”

“Oh, be real. It can’t be that bad,” she scoffed, and my jaw dropped. "You were still paying your half, so it should have been fine."

Still weak from my heat, it took me a minute before I could gather myself enough to actually give her a sane response instead of shouting at her like I really wanted to.

“You know exactly how much it costs every month. I know you can be an idiot, but you’re not this stupid.” I pressed my hand against my stomach. I was so enraged by her excuses that it actually hurt.

“Hey, I’m not—”

“Shut up!” I snapped. I softened my voice to try and regain some control. “Please, Rosa.” I scrunched up my eyes, rubbing my hand against my forehead. “I can’t believe you’ve been so selfish. What did you expect would happen? That I was just going to work harder to pay it off?”

“No, but…I mean…We can’t exactly afford to pay it with Tommy starting school soon and—”

“I just got fired,” I threw out, hoping it would be enough to stall her. “So there’s no chance of me paying it back. Ever.”

“What?” she screeched. “You got fired?”

The room behind her was plunged into silence as her alphas stopped talking. Even Tommy went quiet.

“How is that possible? I thought you had a contract with them?”

I knew I was about to make another mistake, just like I did with Lucielle. But I was so tired I didn’t care about anything anymore. I just wanted some relief.

“I presented, Rosa. As an omega. Six days ago.”

I wanted to show her I was suffering, too. I always suspected she’d never believed me when I told her how I’d had to live since Mum had her stroke three years ago. So maybe that would wake her up, even just a fraction.

The line went completely dead before she gave a shuddering breath, and I heard movement from the other end of the phone. It sounded like she was walking, and I wasn’t sure until there was a click of a door shutting.

And then she started screaming.

“Oh my God, Mel, that’s so amazing! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”

I quickly whipped the phone from my ear, worried she was going to deafen me.

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