Mierda,even I felt scared by her. This was a woman who could do nothing to me and had no authority over me, yet I wanted to cower away in her presence. I felt out of place standing where I was, open and exposed.
I had never experienced such a negative relationship with a family member. I mean, I had a distant relationship with my stepdad. My mother remarried to Alan when I was six and Gabriela was five, and he did not turn out to be the most attentive stepdad in the world.
Then he and my mother had our two younger brothers a few years later. Alan never did anything to purposely make Gabriela and I feel out of place, but he certainly did not put much effort. We were not his real kids, and he never fixed that awkward start that we had.
Alan was not a bad person. He would never dare to talk to any of my siblings the way Eli's aunt spoke to him. He was a decent guy, he just never made much of an effort. Gabriela felt more rejected by Alan than I did. She took it personally despite how much I tried to get it into her head that she shouldn’t.
None of that helped me to even begin to relate to how Eli had to be feeling because the situations were completely different. All I could do was offer my unconditional support to him.
Somehow, I ended up by his side. I leaned and whispered, "You know you can stay with me."
But my baby wasn't listening to me. His body was barely touching mine, but I could feel the subtle shaking that he was trying so hard to suppress.
"Do you honestly believe I killed my mom?" his tone was raspy as he spoke. “That’s what all this is, isn’t it?”
The woman's expression was stone cold. "I’m putting you out because you don’t know how to act."
"Seriously?" Eli asked in a hushed tone.
I lightly pulled on his arm. "Let's just go, Eli."
But he was not budging, and he was not looking at Macy anymore. Instead, his eyes were focused on the twins. They stood uncomfortably in the middle of the room like statues.Emerson’s lip quivered as she was about to cry while Easton looked dumbfounded.
But they both refused eye contact with their younger brother. Elias was so clearly waiting on it, he stared them down for what felt like forever. His siblings never met his gaze, and I could see that realization hit him when his eyes fell to the ground. It was also when he snapped out of the fog he was in.
My heart twisted and Emerson and Easton’s lack of words. Couldn’t they see that was all he wanted? Eli just wanted his siblings to defend him, and they were too cowardly to do it.
He turned to me with his focus still on the floor. "Can you wait outside while I get some things?"
"Yes. You don’t want help?"
"No," he answered quickly.
I hesitated but eventually nodded. Eli went into the bedroom and I was left with the rest of his family. My shoulder nudged Macy’s purposely as I made my exit. I was hoping to piss her off, but it only made her lips curl into a smirk of satisfaction. I swung open the front door and was about to walk out, but I felt the urge to say something.
I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with Macy. "You get joy out of making a child feel miserable for his whole life because you can't get over your own issues. You are a pathetic bitch who deserves nothing in life.”
It felt wrong speaking to an adult like that, but she was an exception to the 'never disrespect your elders' rule. Her eyes narrowed at my words, but she did not retaliate.
Then I turned to his siblings. "And you two need to do better."
With that, I shut the door behind me with my head held high. Now I had to wait for Eli to finish packing his things so I could take him away and never bring him back to this hellhole. I did not notice the trembling in my legs until I was out the door.I leaned against it, shutting my eyes as I took a deep breath to calm myself.
If I was this worked up, I could only imagine how worse off Eli was.
Thirty-three
Javier
Eli was quiet the entirety of the drive. It did not matter what I would say to him he would not give a verbal response. There was a lot of shrugging and humming, but not a singular proper word.
I stopped trying after the first few attempts, my hand resting on his knee to provide some comfort in any way that I could. He did not want to speak and that was alright. If I had just gotten kicked out of my home I would not want to talk either.
His whole body was tense, but he wore no emotion on his face. He couldn’t even muster up the courage to say 'I don't care' like I knew he wanted to. Eli was stubborn, he always had been and always would be. He liked to deny and pretend like things never bothered him when that was the biggest sign that they really did. So, the fact that he wasn't even attempting to shrug it off worried me.
I felt helpless because nothing that I did was making it better, not even a little bit. I just wanted to fix it for him. Life had been going so well, but of course something had to come and ruin it—or should I say someone. If I could take the pain from him and put it on myself, I would.
We made it to my house quickly. I helped him with the one bag that he packed and carried it to the front door for him. Thesecond we opened the door my sister was standing idly with a frown. She seemed to already know what happened and I could only assume that was because of Emerson.
