“Megan I
have to tell you something very important, but you have to promise me you won’t
tell anyone.” Maddie began sobbing, streams of tears running down her cheeks.
“ I
promise!”
“I mean
it Megan, you can’t tell anyone, not even your mom, or write it in your diary,
nothing.”
“Maddie,
I won’t. How long have we been friends? I’ve never told a secret of yours and I
never will.”
My step
dad is abusing my mom he is beating her and cheating on her! The other night I
came home to find my mom unconscious on the kitchen floor and her lip had been
busted up real bad. Thankfully McKenzie was at our neighbors house, and Alan
had gone out to spend more of the money my dad left us.”
“How
long has this been going on?” hissed Megan.
“I’m not
sure, but I think that it has been going on long enough… He needs to go!”
“Are you
going to tell the police? I mean you have to. He’s a danger to all of you and
if finds out you told, that might trigger him to seriously hurt your mom even
more, maybe even you and Kenzie.”
“I
can’t, they won’t believe me. He used to be a cop, so they will just take his
side and let it slide!” Maddie turned her face away and began sobbing into her
hands.
“Girls,
hush!” the old wrinkly librarian hissed.
“Look,
if you don’t tell someone, something even worse is going to happen!” The bell
rang and seventh period was let out.
“ I’ve
got to go Maddie, I’ll call you tonight.”
“O.K.”
Maddie walked out to her car to find her sister there waiting for her, which
was very odd. Usually Maddie had to call her and tell her she leaving without
her if she wasn’t in the car in two minutes.
She hit the unlock button on her key, they got in and didn’t speak the
whole twenty minute drive home, as soon as they pulled in the driveway Maddie
bolted out of the car, to go in and make sure her mom was still alive. It’s a good thing that Alan - her step-dad -
was at work right now. Her mom was all right, face still swollen, looking
almost as if someone had glued a purple baseball to her left eye.
“Mom,
why do you continue to let this happen to you? Why can’t you leave him?” Maddie
began crying again.
“Alan
didn’t do this hunny, I tripped over one of the pillows in my room and smacked
my head on the corner of the night stand!”
“STOP
LYING!” screamed McKenzie “ I even know that he is hitting you mom, I’m not
stupid!”
“ Girls,
I can’t leave him he will take all the money I have left from your father and
then what will we do? Huh?”
“Maddie
and I both have our college funds and dad’s retirement funds we can do that we
need to leave mom. What if he starts hurting us? Will that be enough for you to
leave that pathetic man?” McKenzie began hyperventilating after all of that
yelling and crying at the same time.
“He
promised me he would never hit the two of you.”
“Mom,
come on! You really believe that pathetic loser?”Maddie questioned her mother
with intensity.
“Well…
I…” her mom began shaking. BANG! The front door slammed shut.
“Woman!”
bellowed Alan. He cocked the shotgun and fired three times… silence; dead
silence rang throughout the neighborhood.
