She blinks. “Okay. So, why do you seem upset?”
“There’s more.” I blow out a breath and pace the room.
She steps closer. “Ollie, you’re freaking me out.”
“It was my mom,” I grit out. “She’s the one who called CPS.”
Silence.
Poppy’s face doesn’t crumple. It hardens to stone.
“What are we going to do?” she asks. “Have you told Cami?”
I shake my head. “I had to tell you first.”
That question wrecks me. Because I know what I want to do. And I hate that I have to do it. I just don’t want to bring that ugliness around my family. They’ve been through enough.
I drag a hand through my hair. “I’m so mad I can’t see straight.”
She steps into me and wraps her arms around my waist. I cling to her like I might fall apart if I don’t.
“I don’t know what we did to get this shit luck with parents,” she murmurs. “Besides my mom.”
Her hand rubs slow, comforting circles on my back.
“But we’re not them,” she continues. “We do things differently. We fight together.”
I press my forehead to hers. “You and me. Always you.”
She smiles softly. “Always you. We can fight anything together, Ollie.”
Owen knocks on the door. “Everything okay?” he asks, stepping in with a curious expression.
I look at him. At her. At the life we’re building.
“Yeah,” I say. “It will be.”
And for the first time today, I believe it, now that I’m with them.
Chapter 33
Poppy
Wanna Be Loved by The Red Clay Strays
I’ve had a few days to sit with it and to let the shock wear off. And now the anger is just settled deep inside of me, and I’m not sure what to do with it. I want to find Theresa and go off on her. I want to take out over eleven years of rage of my mom dying, our dad abandoning us, me raising Owen on my own, and barely scraping by. Because this is just the cherry on the top of the bullshit. And I went through all of that while some people made it harder for me than it needed to be. Like Theresa Kendrick calling CPS on my brother and me. And for what? Because she didn’t want me to be with her son, and she thought that if she made it harder for us, maybe he’d leave us? That’s the only reason I can think of. Because what kind of person does that? Not a mother, that’s for sure.
That she could do this to her own son and hurt an innocent little kid, who did nothing wrong, she risked my little brother because of her own spite. And that’s just beyond not okay.
I’m not even crying about it anymore. I ugly cried the first night Ollie told me while he was in the shower. Mostly for Ollie and Cami, basically losing a mother, just like I did. Only their mother is still alive but she’s just evil. I can’t imagine what she was thinking when she made that call to intentionally hurt us. False allegations meant to destroy.
Now I feel… done. Sad for Ollie but done with her. Like if I saw her on the street, I’d pretend I don’t even know her. Because I don’t. I never did. None of us did.
Parents don’t always turn into the people you need them to be. Sometimes they don’t change. Sometimes they don’t show up. Sometimes they stay selfish, brittle, and toxic right to the end when you have to call it and cut them out. And that never hurts them as severely as it does you. Having to cut them out because people like Theresa and my dad don’t care about their families.
That truth hurts. I’m sick of the way Cami and Ollie are feeling right now, but I’m glad they know now before she does more damage to them. She can’t be trusted with my family. And Ollie and Cami are my family.
I’m in the bay with Owen and a bunch of bikers, watching him zip his little go-kart back and forth in the lot outside the shop doors. He’s got his helmet on, and his tongue poked out in concentration, like he’s auditioning for a very serious car race movie that only exists in his head. He’s been working on getting the thing up and running with Mack, and I love seeing them have fun with it. Ellie’s with Maggie while I get shop work done and catch up on paperwork.
