Page 90 of Revelation (Love Isn't What It Seems 3)

A flash of surprise but then she just shrugged her shoulders. “I guess things finally caught up to them.”

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter. What do you want, Layla?”

“I want to know why.”

“Why what?”

I stared at this woman that was my mother, not a great one but still my mother, for the first sixteen years of my life. And then she left me next to a burning car and let me believe she was dead.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Why did you leave me? Why the blackmail? Why did you do all this?”

A bitter laugh escaped her throat. “You are already judging me, and you don’t even know the truth.”

“What truth?”

“Why don’t you ask your grandparents?”

I frowned, staring at her in shock. “And you think they would tell me? The two human beings that hate me, probably more than you.”

My mother flinched, and it added fuel to my anger. “Do you know that I actually hoped to stay in the hospital so I wouldn’t have to go home with them? I was tempted to break another bone, just so I’d stay a bit longer. I hated it there. There wasn’t a day that went by where I wasn’t reminded that I caused yours and Brian’s deaths. That I should have died too. Instead, they had to put up with me and look at me every damn day. And you just walked away and left me to them.”

Silence fell and the only sound was my heavy breathing. I couldn’t pass out now. I reminded myself to take a deep breath in.

“They knew you didn’t kill us,” my mother’s voice was barely a whisper.

“They… they knew you were alive?”

“No, they didn’t. They knew you didn’t kill us because they attempted to kill us. They didn’t count on Brian being in the car and the two of us surviving.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I found out that day that your grandfather took out life insurance on both of us. When I found out, I confronted him but he threatened me. He would pull all schooling funds and take you out of their will.”

I scoffed. “You should have let him.”

“I knew he’d do something, I just didn’t realize it would be the same day. On our way home, my brakes failed. Someone tampered with them. They worked fine when I came for you and Brian. I went in to get you two and we were on our way back home. They no longer worked. At all. You passed out in the backseat so I dragged you out of the car. I did the same with Brian.”

“Was... was he still alive?”

“No, he was dead already, but I didn’t want him to burn. I hid in the distance, and when I was sure the paramedics got you, I left.” A small part of me felt she loved me at least a little bit if she ensured the paramedics got me before the flames did. “I decided it was best I remained dead. I decided, I’d get your grandfather back. And I would do it slowly, reminding him every year what he did. So on your eighteenth birthday, I started the blackmail.”

I blinked my eyes at that logic. “But you were blackmailing me.”

“I figured you would get it from your grandfather. After all, he got thirty million for my death.”

“I never told him.”

“What do you mean?” Now, she was the one that looked confused.

“I never told grandfather about the blackmail,” I told her.

“So he added you to the bank accounts?” I shook my head. “How did you have the money for it, Layla?”

“I just saved from my allowance and jobs. When I didn’t have enough, I would ask for additional allowance for whatever I could think of.”

The meaning of my words hit her. She caused him absolutely no pain nor stress. It was all on her daughter. Finally, there was guilt and regret on her face. But she couldn’t have cared for me that much, if she left me behind.

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