Page 12 of Silk & Bones Reunion

Melora shrugged. “You have secrets you won’t tell me but I can’t have any? I’m not allowed to do as you have done? So everything in my life you have a right to know about? Yet, you have never done the same for me, have you?” She shook her head. “There was only one person I ever trusted enough for that and she died when I was ten years old. How do I know that if I do tell you, you won’t turn your back on me and walk away, just because you can?”

Sam looked confused...damn, he felt confused.

She took Shaw out of his arms and said, “That’s not fair to me or you, Sam. I’ll tell you again, I haven’t done anything to shame me or you and if you can’t see that, then I guess you don’t belong here. If you had asked me sincerely and not demanded it, I might have told you but when you accused me of breaking my vows with no evidence, that I couldn’t accept. Besides, if anyone could be accused of cheating it would be you, wouldn’t it?” She paused then asked, “Have you been keeping it in your pants, Sam?”

He felt angry at her nasty accusation. “Izzy said you were as loyal as they come.” Sam shook his head. “Guess she doesn’t know you as well as she thinks, huh?”

She looked like he’d slapped her. “But it hurts, doesn't it?” she whispered in a shaky voice. “Being accused of that when you know you didn’t do anything wrong. That is how I felt when you accused me of it.”

He turned as if to leave. He didn’t like how this was unraveling and all he felt was anger. Then he looked back at her and said, “Yeah baby, I’ve been keeping it in my pants. My dick only seems to want you. So yeah, I’ve been honoring my vows even if you refuse to tell me what’s going on.”

Melora watched him walk back to his truck and climb back inside.

They stared at each other for a minute then Sam’s heart hurt when he looked at his daughter’s face and saw tears rolling down her little cheeks.

He growled in frustration as he turned the engine over and backed up to leave. Looking in his rearview mirror, he now noticed the tears on both their faces. Sam hated what he saw and his heart honestly felt broken as Melora slowly closed the door.

Chapter Six

As the evening settled and the house grew quiet after the kids went down, Melora sat on the patio with a cup of tea. The lighting in the house behind her was low and she had no lights on outside.

Curled up on the lounge chair, she was wrapped in a blanket.

Sam came around the corner of the house and then stopped to stare at her when he saw her waiting for him. Stepping forward, he came over and sat down next to her. He noticed the cold beer waiting for him.

They both sat there and quietly drank their drinks for a while.

Finally, Melora broke the silence by saying, “Sam, I lost my mom when I was ten because some dumbass hit her with his car when she was going to work.” Her words were softly spoken but the rage could be heard. “I was lost as she was the only parent I ever knew. I didn’t know my dad at all. He was just a name to me. Social Services put me in the system and apparently were trying to find him but to tell you the truth, I don’t think they tried all that hard.” She laid her head back against the lounger and stared at the stars above them for a moment. “My life went to hell in a handbasket almost overnight and I had no control of anything. My mom had done the best she could and while I always had enough, we never had more than enough, you know?”

Sam nodded but didn’t interrupt her.

“We had a small apartment and she and I kept it clean. I always had clothes but not a large amount of outfits, you know. We had food in the house and it was always enough but we never threw anything away. Mom worked hard but she knew I was home safe. But after she died, I heard the neighbors whisper and talk about how we were so poor. Well, we were poor but I never went without.” She shook her head. Still staring at the night sky she continued, “I was dragged out of my bed and taken to a building where I was stripped of my clothes. I had to shower and put on a uniform. I was then evaluated by a doctor who asked me some pretty embarrassing questions. Then I was shown into a small bedroom. They shut off the lights and they locked the door on me when they left.”

Sam stared at her as he had never heard any of these details before.

She shook her head. “I never even knew why I was there. I kept saying my mom wouldn’t be able to find me when she got home.” She turned her head and stared at Sam. “They didn’t tell me she was dead until the next morning. I couldn’t sleep that night and I kept calling out for my mom.” She paused to sip her hot tea. “Someone banged on the door loudly the next morning and when they unlocked it, the warden came in to toss some clothes at me and told me to get dressed. I asked her to turn around and she growled at me but she did turn her back. I got dressed and I asked her where the bathroom was. She led me down the hall and showed me where to go. When I was done, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me down the hall to a conference room where two other people were waiting for us. I sat there and they opened their file and told me rather brutally that my mom had died after a car hit her as she crossed the street on her way to work her second job. They assured me I would be given a new home and I better do whatever I could to fit in.” Shaking her head she admitted. “I tried, I really did but the places they put me in were the worst I’d ever seen.”

Sam knew it had been rough but he never knew she had been treated like a felon.

Melora closed her eyes and whispered, “The first place didn’t care that I was even there. They shoved me into an already overcrowded bedroom with five other kids and told me to keep my spot clean and show up for meals on time or I would go hungry. I was told I had to be respectful of the other people in the house and I better not make trouble or I would be kicked out.”

“How long were you there?” Sam asked softly.

“Three weeks,” she replied. “The bio kids of the couple liked to mess with me. They would come through and mess up my spot just before weekly inspections and the foster parents would yell and scream at me to do better. When I tried to tell them what was going on they never believed me. When I tried to fight back the bio kids would beat me up and tell their parents I hurt myself to get them in trouble.” She paused then said, “Week three came and the county was coming to inspect the house to see how I was doing. Well, the bio kids pulled their usual shenanigans and this time, it was the county who found my place a mess. The foster parents said this was how I was. That my mother didn’t teach me anything about cleaning or manners and they decided they couldn’t deal with me anymore. The county took me to another home and that was two church-going older ladies. They would keep me in line and teach me to be obedient.” She paused and let out a scoff.

Sam shook his head and waited for the rest.

Melora snorted. “Those two old ladies might have been religious old biddies but they ran their house like a concentration camp. They would wake me up at 4:30 a.m. and I had to scrub their entire house before I could have breakfast at seven a.m. We had an hour of scriptures and then they homeschooled me. Every time I missed an answer, they would cane me. I mean, my mom never hit me...ever. I never knew pain like that before. I tried running away but when the cops found me they would take me back to that house. And every time they did... the punishment would be worse. Finally, they started locking me in my room. If I didn’t clean well enough for them, they would lock me in the room. At first, it was just overnight. The next morning the whole routine would start again. They inspected my work and there was never anything wrong with the way I cleaned, but they would go out of their way to find something wrong. Then they would lock me in my room again. The last time they locked me up was for three days. No food or water either.” Shaking her head she said, “That was the last time. I found a way out and I ate something then I left that insane house. I ran away again and this time, I ran straight to a lawyer. I told her everything and she was horrified. I was twelve at the time.”

“Did she do anything to help?” Sam wanted to know.

Melora shrugged. “I wasn’t taken back to that house and the old ladies lost their foster status but that’s all. I got a new social worker but the foster system was so broken all he did was find me a place to sleep. I had a total of twelve foster homes before I finally ran away from the last place when I was sixteen. To them, I was nothing more than a way to pay their bills anyway.” She looked away before she began speaking again, “There was one house, though. The Petersons. They had several other throwaway kids like me. By then, I had learned a couple of very good lessons about how to keep secrets. And who to be loyal to. I met another kid there and he was as lost in the system as I was. Somehow, that bond between us grew and we remained fast friends. Even though he ended up going to another foster house later on, we still kept in touch the best we could.”

“What happened after that?” Sam asked.

“When I was sixteen, I’d finally had enough of the bullshit I was going through. My last foster home had a seventeen-year-old bio son, and one night he thought he’d crawl into my bed with me. I kicked his ass out the hard way and when he started screaming, his parents came in and found him rolling around on the floor holding his balls. The father went crazy, accusing me of all sorts of shit that I hadn’t done. I grabbed my to-go bag and left. I stayed out of sight and watched as the social workers came by, and then I got close enough to hear what they were telling them. They accused me of him being in my room, turning on him and hurting him on purpose. They wanted the police involved and the social worker agreed. I left and stayed hidden, but I also wrote a letter to the papers and where I told them the truth about that night’s events. I also told the papers this wasn’t the first or the only time JR tried and got away with this shit. He’d already raped four other girls in that house and I named names.” She sat there for a moment before continuing, “When the cops investigated the charges, they found I was the only one telling the truth. JR went to jail and the parents lost their free ride. I was so out of that place and I wasn’t going back to the foster system. Then I met Izzy and we stayed together after that. We found being out on the streets was easier for us than staying in a house with foster people.”

“So why are you telling me all this shit now?” Sam asked as he stared at her.

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