“You have no right to come to my home and speak to me this way. I am a good Christian woman!”
Kellen’s scoff nearly folded him in half. “No! You’re not! You’re mean and selfish, and you hate everyone!”
“This display is undignified.”
“What’s undignified is letting me believe my sister had been murdered, Mother. You knew. You knew all this time.”
“Elizabeth was as good as dead to me,” she snarled, her face twisting in an ugly mask.
“Why?” Kellen’s question was a broken plea that hurt Riley’s heart.
“She humiliated me! Just like you’re doing now! Neither one of you was ever good enough. Neither was your father. I’m the only one who lives this life the way we’re supposed to. I follow the rules. I do the right thing. You lived in sin with that woman and then got a divorce! You shouldn’t get an escape from marriage! Not when I had to wait patiently for all that processed meat to catch up to your father. And Elizabeth?” Mrs. Weber laughed bitterly. “Your sister came to me dressed like a whore and told me she was running away with the love of her life.”
She spat out the word “love” like it was poison.
“And neither of you thought to tell me.” Kellen shoved his hands into his short hair, making it stand up.
“It was better that you thought she was dead,” Mrs. Weber said stubbornly.
He turned abruptly to face Riley and Jasmine. “I’m not hallucinating this, am I? She really is a horrible person, right?”
“Yeah, she’s awful,” Riley agreed.
“The worst. I’m impressed you’re not more fucked up,” Jasmine said, crossing her arms and staring down Kellen’s mother.
“You’ll watch your tongue, young lady,” Mrs. Weber hissed before turning on her son. “How dare you bring your trollops to my home. The neighbors can see.”
“Trollops?” Riley repeated.
“You want this trollop to watch her tongue?” Jasmine said. “Watch this!”
Constance and Riley watched as Jasmine grabbed Kellen by the shirt and dragged him in for a hard kiss.
“Disgusting! You’re not welcome here ever again.” Mrs. Weber slammed the door so hard it blew Jasmine’s hair back like she was standing in front of Sesame’s wind machine.
Jasmine ended the kiss and began reapplying her lipstick.
Kellen blinked several times before turning to pound his fist on the door. “Just remember, Mother. You won’t be able to tell everyone I’m dead. They’ll all know the truth. That you lost both of your children because you’re ashitty human being!”
“Well, that went well,” Riley said dryly as they returned to the Jeep and climbed in.
“I feel like I need to shower for at least an hour to get rid of that negativity,” Jasmine said.
“I have no family. I’m an orphan. Like that redhead who sings all the time,” Kellen said morosely from the back seat.
Riley looked at him in the rear-view mirror. “Just because your mom is terrible doesn’t mean Sesame didn’t have her reasons for not telling you.”
“Sentence too long.” He crossed his arms like a petulant three-year-old.
“Great. You melted his brain with that kiss,” Riley told Jasmine.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“You kissed him before this?”
“Ew! No. I meant other men, not Orphan Annie back there.”
Riley tried again with Kellen. “Maybe your sister had an important reason for not telling you.”
