Page 70 of Pretty Broken Wings

“Let me go.” I watch Mom squirm. Rich starts throwing fake punches into her stomach.

It makes me uncomfortable. I’m taking a step back down the hallway when I hear Rich say, “How funny would it be if I hit you as hard as I could?”

For a second, I process what he just said. Did I hear what I thought I heard?

Did he just... threaten to hit my mom?

Before I realize what I’m doing, I stride into the kitchen. I may not be big, but I’m bigger than I used to be.

Rich makes eye contact with me and lets Mom go. Then, Mom turns, smoothing down her shirt. “Oh, hey, Gage.” She tries to play it off like nothing’s wrong, but the corners of her eyes are tight, and her hands start gripping her arms so tightly I can see her manicured nails digging into her skin.

“We’ll discuss this later.” Rich shrugs and grabs an apple from the counter.

After he walks out, I turn to Mom. It feels like the bones inside my body are vibrating, even though I know they aren’t.

“He threatened you.”

“Oh, honey.” Mom glances back to where I was standing. “How long were you there?”

I grit my teeth. “He threatened you, Mom.”

“He was just making a joke,” Mom says the words like they’re a script, with no emotion. She grabs my shoulders.

I shake her off. “You don’t have to baby me anymore, Mom.”

“Gage, I…” She shakes her head. “It’s not like before, baby. It’s fine. Please don’t worry.”

“Leave him.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. And once they’re out, I feel so much relief. “Leave him,” I say again, looking towards the living room.

“Gage, sweetie…”

“Mom, please.” I can’t keep the desperation out of my voice. I can’t see this happen to my mom again.

She pulls me into a hug, and I just stand there stiffly. She strokes my hair, muttering things about how we have a house and food now, and how she’s happy, and on and on. I tune her out because I know Mom isn’t going to leave him. She’ll stay, and Rich will continue to take advantage of her because Mom wants to stay, and I can’t figure out why.

I love her. I know Axel loves her. Shouldn’t that be enough?

But it isn’t. Because I’m learning that you can’t love someone enough to keep them safe.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Not the face!” Axel throws his hands up when he sees me coming for him. “Mom will cry if she knows we’ve been fighting.”

I punch Axel in the stomach. He bows over, coughing. I hit him again in the ribs, rage flowing through me.

He fucked this up. He fucked everything up!

“She’s scared of us.” I knee him. Axel drops to the ground but does nothing to fight back.

“She’s fuckingscared of us!” I can’t keep the rage from taking over my body. I saw that look in Raven’s eye. She thought I was going to hit her. Even Buddy thought I was going to hit her, which makes my already blurry vision a foggy mess. Normally, I like to heal things. But now, I want to destroy Axel. I want to rip him limb from limb.

And that’s what makes me stop. I have to hold myself back, shaking.

I willnotbecome our father.

Axel groans from the floor, coughing, getting to his knees. “Damn, bro, you been working out?”

“This isn’t a game,” I hiss.