Page 52 of Overruled

My mother’s mouth parts in surprise, a myriad of emotions flickering across her face one after the other. “Ezra…you shouldn’t have done that.”

I shut my eyes tight, feeling stung by her soft admonition. “Mom, he’s horrible. I can’t just sit here and let him use you anymore. Because that’s what he’s doing, don’t you see that? He’s using you. Using us both. That’s all we are to him. Pawns. That’s all anyone is to him.”

My mother is quiet for several seconds, her eyes becoming glassy and her lips quivering. “I know you must think I’m weak,” she admits. “For being so placid for so long.”

“No, Mom, I don’t—”

She holds up a hand to stop me. “You’d be right, Ezra.” And when I try to protest again, “No, you would be. Because I am. I know that.”

Despite her words, she smiles at me.

“I think…for a long time now, I’ve felt like I deserve this. Every choice I’ve ever made has only hurt you or your brother.”

“That’s bullshit, you’ve—”

“Let me get this out,” she says with more force than I’ve ever heard her use. “Every choice I’ve made has caused you pain. Has pushed your brother away from me. Those are my burdens to bear. But I can’t let you take on any more for yourself. Not because of me.”

“It’s too late,” I tell her. “I quit. I quit, and I’m not going back. You and I both know that it’s you he’s going to take it out on. That you will be the one who suffers, just so that he can make me suffer.”

“Ezra…”

“Come with me,” I beg. “Just leave. I’ll keep you safe. We can fight this together. I won’t ever let him hurt either of us again if you’ll just let me.”

She considers this, her eyes thoughtful and sad. “He won’t allow it. You know that. He’ll come after us both. He knows too many people, Ezra. There’s nothing we can do to him.”

“We won’t know unless we try,” I urge. “I’m just asking you to give me the chance to try .”

“And what happens when he starts making your life worse? It won’t be just you he’ll come after, Ezra. It will be your friends. Anyone you care about.”

I wince at the thought of Dani, grateful at least that it seems like there will be no chance now that Alexander will ever know what she means to me.

I huff out a humorless laugh. “I don’t think that will be an issue. Not anymore. There’s no one in my life close enough to me for him to use.”

“What about the woman you were seeing?”

I shake my head. “That was nothing, Mom. It’s done.”

“That was her, wasn’t it? The woman I met the night of the party?”

I consider lying to her, but I’m so fucking raw that I just don’t have it in me to do so. “It was,” I admit hoarsely.

“She seemed nice,” my mother offers.

“She is,” I agree. “But it doesn’t matter. It didn’t work out. It’s better that way, honestly. It means that there’s nothing Alexander can do to me. There’s no reason for you not to say yes.”

Her thumb traces lightly back and forth across my jaw, her eyes as lucid as I’ve ever seen them.

I can see the moment she comes to a decision; her spine goes a little straighter, and her shoulders square, and for one brief moment, she reminds me of the woman she used to be.

The one who I believed could do anything.

“All right, Ezra,” she says softly. “I will come with you.”

“Good.” I kiss her hand, rising to my feet. “I want you to go to your room and pack some clothes. Just the essentials. I want to be gone in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” she answers just as quietly, nodding as she starts to push up out of her chair.

I don’t wait for her, moving back through the house as I hear her heading toward the stairs, deciding to wait by the door so I can watch and make sure I don’t miss it if Alexander decides to come home early.

“This is stupid,” a voice sounds from behind me, making me jump.

Eli is leaning against the entrance to the sitting room just off the entryway, his arms crossed and his eyes hard. “You know that Dad will never let you get away with this.”

“I would like to see either of you try to stop me,” I say in warning. “She’s not going to suffer for one more second in this fucking house. Do you understand?”

“Suffer,” Eli scoffs. “Because being pampered around the clock by nurses while having every comfort at her beck and call is suffering .”

“She’s a prisoner , Eli,” I spit. “Your own mother has been locked up in this house with no say about any part of her life, and you’ve never lifted a finger to help her. You’ve never said a word .”

“I’m not the one who—”

“Shut the fuck up,” I growl. “I’m talking now.

That man you worship so much is a monster.

A fucking monster . He locked our mother in her room.

He made her hate herself so much that she wanted to die .

Do you get that? Or are you so deluded by Alexander’s lies that you’ve actually convinced yourself that she’s the villain in that story?

For what? For trying to find any semblance of happiness in this hellhole she was trapped in with that man who treated her like she wasn’t worth his time? ”

Eli’s brow knits, his mouth turning down in a frown. I watch as he averts his eyes to the floor, no doubt mulling over my words. “That’s easy for you to say,” he says quietly. “It was always about you, after she had you. You were all that she cared about.”

“That’s not true.”

We both turn at the sound of my mother’s voice, and I watch as she drops her bag on the floor, closing the distance between Eli and her until she stands directly in front of him. She reaches up to press her palm against his cheek, a tear slipping down hers as she gives him a sad smile.

“I have loved you since before you were born, Eli,” she tells him.

“I have loved you every day since. I’m sorry that I didn’t fight harder to show you.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t bring myself to speak out against your father’s lies.

But don’t you think for one second that I loved you any less than your brother. Not for one second.”

To my utter shock, I watch as my brother’s lip trembles, his hand twitching as if he might place it over Mom’s for the briefest of moments. When he swallows, getting himself under control and saying nothing, I decide we can’t wait any longer.

“Mom,” I remind her gently. “We need to go.”

Mom lingers where she’s at for another second, brushing her thumb across Eli’s cheek.

“I love you. I’m sorry if you ever thought that I didn’t.

” She pushes up on her toes, pressing a kiss to the place her thumb just was, and Eli’s eyes shut, his mouth a tight line.

“Be happy, Eli,” she whispers. Then she turns on her heel, grabs her bag, and follows me out.

I send up a silent promise then and there that she’ll never come back here again.