Page 30 of Restless
“I don’t know. I think it is, but it might be…it might be…”
“Bash’s.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Do you want it?”
“If Ryan was still nice to me and it was his. But it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t take me away. If Daddy didn’t beat it out of me, Bash and Cleaner would.”
“Jesus Christ,” CJ whispered. “Your parents are—”
“They’re good, CJ,” she said softly, and sniffled. “I love them. Mama told me if I’d lived a long time ago, I would’ve been as wise as the lady who turned and looked back at that city.”
For as long as he remembered, his mother took him and his siblings to Mass at least once a month. She respected Dad’s agnosticism, though he did attend occasionally, especially for special events. Rule’s near zealotry turned CJ off from sermons. He did know some things, though, and it fucking appalled him that Molly’s mother wanted to turn her daughter into a pillar of salt. He frowned. “That lady wasn’t wise, Molly,” he said with indignation. “She went against a direct order and suffered dearly.”
Molly flinched. “No—”
“You need to get away from them.”
“They love me.”
“They’re abusing you! They’re allowing Bash to abuse you.”
She shook her head. “Bash rises from the ground when he isn’t on our shelf to see everything. He flies into Daddy’s ear and tells him to be mean to me.”
“My Dad will help you—”
“No! I don’t want to leave Mama and Daddy. They are the only mama and daddy I’ve ever known. Mother Goose let them leave her shoe.”
By the expression on her face, CJ knew she believed her words.
“I love them. They’re my parents.”
He’d accomplish nothing by denigrating those fuckheads.
Molly bit her lip. “You come from a big family.”
“Yes,” he agreed, wary at the sudden hope in her eyes. “What does my family have to do with yours?”
“You want kids,” she answered, placing her hand over her belly. “Harley told me.”
Sighing, CJ stared at the door again. It was so silent on the other side. His mother was probably still drugged up and barely lucid, while his father sat in a chair close to her bed, staring at her. Whenever CJ visited, he never saw his father utilizing the second bed in the private room so Dad could spend the night in a semblance of comfort.
CJ felt emotionally overloaded. He was so scared he might still lose his mother and little sister. Harley’s behavior concerned him, too. He wanted to have patience with her, but he wouldn’t allow her unfair bullshit. The last thing he needed was Molly lying to Harley. As much as he empathized with Molly’s situation, she couldn’t complicate his life to ease her own. “I’ll never forgive you if you tell Harley that I’m the father of your baby.”
“I want you to be.”
“I’m not, Molly, andIdon’t want to be. I am your friend, though. I’ll find a way to help you, but you have to be my friend, too. I’m not excusing Harley’s bullshit. However,yourbullshit is adding fucking fuel to the fire. Stop it.”
“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
CJ frowned.
“That’s my favorite prayer.”
“It’s fucking frightening.”
“It’s for children.”
