Page 108 of Ivy's Venom

“What?” I croak out.

“Mr. O’Connor and his partner Mr. Pratt.” She huffs like she’s annoyed with having to repeat herself.

“What about them?” I am suddenly awake and staring at my mother.

“Did you ever wonder why they left so abruptly?”

“Yes, I asked Aunt Adri, why?” I speak slowly.

“I’m only giving you one chance to answer me honestly,” her voice is different. “Did they hurt you?”

“No.” I answer truthfully.

“Did you do things you shouldn’t do with a teacher with them?” My palms begin to sweat and I look at the car’s surroundings.

“Are we in New York?”

“Answer the question.” She snaps her fingers in front of my face.

“Yes.” I whisper. “Only Mr. O’Connor, not Mr. Pratt.”

“Mr. Pratt didn’t try anything on you?”

How does she know all this?

“He didn’t really, no. But I think he thought I would join him and Mr. O’Connor.” I tell her, watching her face closely as she drives.

“I got rid of them.”

At first her words don’t register and I blink a few times in confusion.

“What?” I ask.

“I got rid of them.” She changes lanes and shrugs. “Your Aunt Adri had her suspicions and I never ignore those.”

“Mom,” I sit up straight, “please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I went by Mr. O’Connor’s house around eight the evening Adri told me about seeing you run out of the school. Just to chat.” She grins, “Mr. O’Connor was shocked to see me and said, and I quote, ‘whatever Ivy has told you, it’s not true, Mrs. Greene’, I told him I was there just for a quick chat about my troubled teenage daughter.”

“Mom, stop.” I feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head.

“They agreed, it must be hard raising a daughter as troubled as you, so far into drugs, and partying all the time. It was all I needed to know so I could do what I needed to do.”

“This has to be a joke.”

I look around once more just as we pull into the Torres’ Compound. Why the fuck are we here?

“Mom!” I yell into the car’s interior, “what did you do to Mr. O’Connor?”

“I wanted to kill them Ivy,” her voice is deadly low and the tone sounds nothing like the mother I know. “No one should touch a minor, no matter how much they ask for it.” Her eyes cut to mine, “I made them leave Whitsborough and they were only allowed to take what their pockets could fill. That’s it. But I promise you, if they ever bring their pedophile asses back into my town, I will skin them alive and you will fucking watch.”

I can feel my mouth gaping open and shut, my eyes about ready to pop out of my head. I make a few squeaking noises but I can’t seem to form a fucking word.

“I gave you the name Greene,” her bright blue eyes stare into mine, “but you are a fucking Torres. Maybe, I needed to do this sooner because Ivy, you became a victim of the very thing I’m eradicating.”

“Mom,” I’m fucking speechless, “I don’t…”

“Let’s go.” She opens her car door and slams it shut behind her.

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