Read Online Rising Tide: Dark Innocence (The Maura DeLuca Trilogy Book 1) by Claudette Melanson - Free Book Online Page B

decided, there was no
going back.  And after, we were so happy, until about three months before
you were born.  Then we had a huge fight and…”  She hesitated and it
was like she changed what she was originally going to say, “and he left.”
    She rose, and I knew this was going
to be all the story I would get.  I still had what seemed like hundreds of
questions brewing up in my mind.  Were her parents angry?  Had he
ever even seen me?  What could they have fought about that left such
devastating consequences in its wake?  I had to ask the most important
question of all before she left me to ponder all of this alone, while I lay in
the little twin bed.
    “Mom...”  I was so close to
finding out the biggest mystery of all.  I whispered breathlessly,” Why
did he leave, Mom?”
    She did turn back to me, her
expression unbelievably embittered, “Because we could only come to one
agreement about the course my future should take…..and yours, as well.”
     
    Broken.  That was the best way
to describe my poor half-hearted mother.  That was the way my father left
her, so she couldn’t help it.  And when I came home from my doomed outing,
I was afraid what was left of her just might fall to pieces.  As Ron
walked me up the front steps, I cringed away from the expression she’d have
engraved on her face when she saw my scantly covered body, the blood dried into
my hair from the ugly wound in my head…the boy I was with…
    “Are you sure you want to come
in?”  I hated the fear that permeated my voice.  I didn’t know if I
was more afraid of Caelyn screaming at Ron before she knew what had happened,
or her falling apart in front of him after she’d heard everything.
    It was too late now…he was ringing
the doorbell.  He looked so much braver than I felt.  I could see the
anger that had crept back into him in the hard set of his lips, the flash in
his dark eyes.
    It didn’t take long at all for
Caelyn to tear the door open, anxiety all over her face.  She looked at
Ron, dumbfounded.  She must have caught sight of some part of me, because
she instantly peered around his shoulder then to find me, standing meekly
behind him, clad only in a boy’s shirt that just barely cleared my hips.
    “Maura?! What the…” her eyes fairly
popped with dismayed astonishment.
    “Hi Mom.” What an asinine thing to
say.  I should have at least started with, “I’m okay.”
    Caelyn just stood there with her
mouth hanging open.  I felt the fear turn over, like a living thing, in my
stomach.  How was I going to survive this?  How could I even begin to
explain everything that had happened tonight?
    Luckily I had Ron.  “Hi, um,
Ms. DeLuca,” he started out sounding very shy, but as my mother’s brows
furrowed closer together, he put a stronger edge to his voice.  “I came to
bring Maura home.”  She was still scowling.
    “Um…I’m Ron by the way,” he put his
hand out to her.  She ignored that entirely.
    My mother’s look was venomous,
“Maura!  Get in the house this instant!”
    Oh boy…she thought Ron was at fault
for whatever imagined atrocities were going through her brain right now.
    “Mom!”  I was desperate to put
everything right, despite how much trouble I knew I’d be in.  “You have it
all wrong!”
    “I said GET IN THE HOUSE!” she
screamed at me, absolute fury flying from her eyes.  I’d never seen her so
angry before and I was terrified.  “Do I need to ask you again?”
    “N-n-no ma’am,” I stuttered. 
I hurried past Ron, but not without looking up at him with apology in my
eyes.  I felt horrible for his being put in the middle of all this just
because he’d happened to save my life.
    Once inside, I steeled myself to
try to talk to my mother.  “Mom, will you please just let me…”
    “Don’t say anything, Maura,” her
voice shook.  “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through tonight?”
    I was confused then.  Did she
want me to stay quiet or