Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School Book 3)

by Thandiwe Mpofu

  “Mia, how are we here in this house? What did you do?”

  “Why do you assume I did something?” I say just as my phone vibrates with a text.

  “Mia, seriously,” she says exasperated. “This might be the house you grew up in, but make no mistake, she still owns it. Neither one of us is safe. While we’re under roof, which is basically being under her thumb.”

  She’s right. Of course, she’s right.

  But how do I explain? How do I demand answers from her when my life flipped upside down the day I saw Courtney with my father and truths came out? My life’s been a lie. I’ve been nothing but my father’s puppet since I was four so what’s Courtney’s manipulations now in the grand scheme of things?

  “What do you want from me?” I snap. “What do you want me to say?”

  “Mia…”

  “If anything, you should be the one doing all the talking right now,” I say, my voice rising. “How could you let me live like that? How could you allow me, as my own biological mother, to be raised by that man? Used as his puppet.”

  As soon as I say that, I watch as her face grows pale, her eyes widening with horror. Everything in me comes to a screeching halt. My heart starts racing watching the truth flash in her eyes.

  I was hoping—no, I was praying—that he lied, that he was just trying to fuck with me, forcing ne into his sick, twisted plan to hurt the Fitzgerald family but no. The truth is right there.

  “Oh God,” she whispers, covering her mouth with a trembling palm. “You… you know?”

  “What exactly am I supposed to know, Nicky?” I mock. “Should I know that I’ve been believing since I was four-years-old that my name is Mia when my legal, birth name is Amy?”

  “Oh no…”

  “Should I know that you let that man make me believe that Nancy was my mother while you stood by and signed me away only to break me like this where everything I thought I knew is stripped away?”

  “It wasn’t like that!” she defends, frustration etched on her beautiful face. “It wasn’t like that at all.”

  “What was it like then, Nicky?” I whisper. “Because we’ve been here for two weeks, sure, but you’ve been a professional tight-lipped mess.”

  “Mia, I—”

  “If you wanted to talk, like really talk, you could’ve come clean than let me wander from room to room of this ghost house, wondering why me,” I seethe, turning around to look at her and she reels back when she sees the look on my face. “How about you tell me why you let everything that happened to me, happen?”

  “Mia…”

  “Yes, that. Let’s start with my name! You’re the one who named me Amy, didn’t you?” I whisper, my body trembling.

  Nicky’s eyes flood with tears but she doesn’t look away as she nods.

  “Yes. I did.”

  “So how did I become this?” I snap.

  Tears start running down her beautiful face. I stand there stoically, pretending like I’m not a shudder away from folding into a ball and crying myself a river I’d gladly drown in.

  “I tried,” she whispers brokenly. “In those first days and weeks, I tried to help you remember me, but each time I did, Nathan would find out somehow and when he did, he’d…” she trails off, her body now shaking like a leaf in a storm. In my mind, I see her lying on the floor, palming her cheek the day she told me to run. Did Nathan hurt her even then?

  “What did he do?” I whisper.

  “Well, let’s just say that jerk has always had a penchant for violence. For you, I wanted to brave it out if it meant I stayed close to you, but it gave you nightmares, you’d scream in the middle of the night after he made you witness his form of…” she trails off. “I couldn’t let myself cause you pain and distress like that. I couldn’t live with myself.”

  I visibly tremble, then hug myself as the pressure weighing on my chest intensifies, making it hard to breathe.

  “But you were my mother,” I croak, the lump in my throat getting bigger. “You should’ve helped me remember.”

  “Oh baby, you didn’t want to remember.”

  What?

  I stare at her, blinking like a cartoon character. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s like I mentioned before. You chose to forget. Or rather, your subconscious made the decision for you, choosing to protect you from the truth because the trauma…” she chokes off, now crying in earnest, “it was just too much. What he did… it was too much.”

  I stare at her for a long moment, reading between the obvious, thick lines.

  So, with a heavy weight pressing down my chest, I ask what I already know. “He hurt me, didn’t he?” I whisper. Nancy looks away but her silence, it speaks volumes so I go on, “He hurt me more than once, didn’t he?”

  She looks up then, but she doesn’t look me in the eye.

  “Didn’t he?”

  “Nancy and I… we fought him. We told you the truth over and over again and you picked up on it. You called me your mom and Nancy your aunt, but that bastard quickly realized that the best way to control us was to hurt you. And then soon enough, I have no idea how you did it or how you could’ve known, but after that whenever he told you things, you just accepted them. When he told you to do something, you just did it.”

  And there it is. The confirmation I was dreading and hoping not to be true.

  “Is that why you stayed away then?” I whisper. “You hardly visited all those years. You never stayed for longer than two days or three. Always disappearing to God knows where.”

  “Mia, sweetheart, I knew if I stayed, the tension would only get worse between Nathan and me. As it was Nancy… well, she was so close to murdering that sonofabitch, but we both knew you were all that mattered. So, we kept with it.”

  Wow. Just like that, huh?

  “Okay,” I mutter, turning away.

  “Okay?” she whispers, and I shrug, I have no idea what she was expecting, but what else can I say to that mess?

  “Yes. I need to go. Don’t want to be late for my first day of senior year,” I say, keeping my voice level as I turn away to read the text on my phone.

  Cole: It’s not looking good.

  A shudder goes down my spine as I read the text over and over again, my heart sinking as dread cements in the pit of my stomach. I text back.

  Me: Meet me in five minutes at this location.

  “I want you to open up, Mia. I feel like you’re in something deep and you’re shutting me out because you got hurt so bad.” Nicky steps forward. “I want to help you.”

  “There’s nothing to help.” Honestly, there’s nothing she can do.

  “But you’re just—”

  “Please don’t insult both of us by saying I’m just a child. A few months ago, I was a normal kid taking care of her then dying mother. The next thing I knew, you came back and moved us into the Fitzgerald mansion not bothering to check with me fully if I was okay with it—and even then you had ample opportunities to come clean that you were my biological mother, but you didn’t and then all hell broke loose that I had to deal with. My amnesia. The fact that my father is a piece of shit who you were engaged to. That Nancy married that asshole just to spite John who then became your fiancé for some fucked up reason that you still haven’t explained—”

  “Sweetheart, you haven’t even given me a chance to talk to you after you came back from Europe.”

  “—and you still look at me like I’m still a child?” I go on, grabbing the folder that’s been under my pillow for days containing every piece of information I all but killed myself to gather as I retraced all my blotchy, blurry steps. “Well, I’m not.”

  “Mia—”

  “I’ll be late for school. I have to go.” With that, I dahs out the room, holding the folder tightly to my chest as my mind races, trying to think of how I can make this right.

  “Wait, Mia, we’re not done talking!”

  “Yes, we are!”

  “But Julian’s trial—”

&nbs
p; “Is none of my business until I’m called in to testify.”

  I really do I hope I’m not called which means I have to make sure this file full of evidence to exonerate Julian is delivered on time. And for that, I need to deliver this to the devil.

  As soon as I open the door however, my breath catches in my throat and my heart skips a beat as I stare at the person standing at the bottom of the stairs, clearly waiting for me.

  “Good morning, Mia,” she says sweetly. “Or should I say, Amy.”

  Ah fuck.

  Julian

  Present time.

  “Fuck!” I punch the dashboard over and over again, hardly aware of my busted up knuckles or the deranged look on my face.

  I punch it again and again, trying to exhaust myself, trying to punish myself, trying to feel the pain I deserve because fuck, how could I let this happen? How could I leave her unprotected and vulnerable like this and now…

  I feel Cole’s silence. He doesn’t say a word, but a quick glance at him, and I see the anger in his eyes.

  “Just a few answers and we’ll go get her,” he murmurs in the silence of the car.

  I ignore him, feeling like I’d rather jump into a volcano than let Mia suffer another second with those… those, ah!

  The moment Cole pulls into the driveaway of the house that used to belong to Mia’s family but was so cunningly taken over by my brother, the door to the passenger’s side is already open and I’m running to the front door.

  Knowing better than to just barge in, I press the intercom over and over again, literally stabbing it to death, impatient and needing to get this over and done with.

  Cole is right behind me when the door is swung open.

  “You have some nerve—” I trail off as soon as Nicky comes in full view, as tears run down her face, her eyes red and puffy, her phone pressed to her ear.

  What. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck. Is going on today?

  I glance at Cole, questions brimming in my eye shakes his head, confusion clear in his eyes.

  This woman might have lied to Mia about her true role in her life—I mean she did push her out, I bet she kept her mouth shut even then—but I knew she loved Mia. Her tears are not theatrical. Something is wrong.

  But still, why is she here?

  “Nicky,” Cole starts, taking the lead on this knowing how absolutely useless I am—not to mention my grade-A type assholery—when it comes to crying women other than Mia of course. “Is everything okay? We came looking for Courtney, but…”

  Nicky sniffles, shaking her head repeatedly and I just fucking know before she can say thing.

  “What is it?” Cole questions but fuck that. How can he be that dumb and naïve? The situation is pretty fucking clear and obvious here.

  “Mia,” Nicky cries louder now, dropping her phone to the floor. “They have her. Someone took Mia.”

  The woman breaks down crying, leaving her weight into the doorknob. I stare at her.

  “That’s it,” I seethe, my vision now firmly tainted with red mists and pain. “Give them to me,” I snap, my hand outstretched to Cole.

  “What?”

  “Your fucking car keys, I need them.”

  “Hell no!” a different voice says from behind me, and I sigh. Turning around, I stare into the angry, clouded face of my father. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “You don’t have the right to tell me what the fuck to do.”

  “I do when you’re about to run around like a headless chicken,” he snaps. “I told you we all meet at the house.”

  “This also appears to be a house,” Liam chimes in, coming closer.

  “You,” I seethe, glaring daggers at my younger brother.

  “What don’t look at me. I didn’t snitch,” he says with a tense shrug, his eyes on Nicky. “I just know you and Dad well, he followed me.”

  “Because I know you both, now be sensitive to the situation.”

  “Sensitive to the situation?” Nicky blows up now, her eyes wide and full of rage. “How dare you show up here and talk about being sensitive? My daughter was just taken and they’re threatening to kill her.”

  “How do you know?” I tush to say. “Was it them on the phone.”

  “Them? Who is this ‘them’ you’re talking about?” she questions, stepping closer. “Do you know who took her?”

  Yes. I fucking know them all right.

  “Nicky,” Dad says, stepping in now. “Who was that on the phone?”

  “That was Mia’s principal. She’s with the police. Apparently, Mia’s car was found abandoned with signs of struggle everywhere. The school cameras picked up an unmarked black SUV speeding away and that raised alarms.”

  “When was this?”

  “They just reviewed the footage, but it was hours ago,” Nicky rushes to say.

  I stare at my father, then at Cole, silently sending them my best fuck you with my eyes, thanking them for fucking wasting time that io clearly don’t have.

  “Why are you here? I thought this was fucking Courtney’s property now,” I snap.

  “Julian!” Dad says, but I ignore him, stepping closer to Nicky as I think of all the times Mia hurt and cried over this woman and the lies she weaved on a daily.

  “Are you and her close now? Did you make some kind of deal with her to keep your life of luxury and comfort while letting my snake of a mother hurt Mia like this?”

  “What? No?”

  “You lied about being her mother, kept it a secret from her, what makes you think I’ll believe a word you say when the love of my fucking doomed life doesn’t truth you?”

  “Okay, now that’s enough—”

  “Love of your life?” Nicky snaps, straightening up now. “The only part of that speech you got right is about your dumb bitch of a mother who I will kill if I set my eyes on and the fact that your life is doomed. You don’t love my daughter. You abandoned her when she needed you, when she told you she was being set up, you left her hanging! left her to break and shatter for two weeks as she tried reaching you, only to receive cold silence.”

  “I was—” I trail off, having no defense. What was I doing beside, reading her texts and dreaming of her lips just to kiss her one more time and now…

  “See, you’re the one I wouldn’t dare trust seeing as the way you broke her heart led her to make some kind of deal with Courtney that has landed her and I living here with no explanation.”

  “What do you mean?” Cole questions.

  “Well, we’ve been living here for about two weeks. Actually, from the day you were arrested,” Nicky says, waving her hands as she talks, just like Mia. The mannerisms are the same, the passion, the same, the anger—same. “And in all of this, the whirlwind of the press hounding her for a statement, the silence and sadness she’s been in, she hasn’t once uttered a word of explanation of how we are here, but I have my fucking suspicions.”

  “Courtney.” Liam and I say at the same time.

  “You’re damn right,” Nicky seethes. “That bitch hates my daughter and I’ve tried keeping her away from that snake, but some kind of deal was made.”

  “But wait, weren’t you living back at the house?” Liam questions clearly confused.

  “Well, I felt it wasn’t right…”

  “If you’re going to tell the truth, Nicky, say the whole truth,” Dad says now. “You moved out because of that bastard, Nathan.”

  Nicky deflates right in front of us. All the strength and war like resilience she just displayed evaporating like a drop of water in a desert. Fear is now clear in her eyes as she talks a step back.

  “Nathan,” she whispers, looking down at the floor. “Nathan and Courtney are working together. She confirmed it again this morning.”

  “Wait, what?” we all but explode, but honestly, who is shocked here.

  “Yes, it’s all coming back now, the day Mia came back from Europe, just before you were arrested, Mia went to see Courtney in the hopes that she could help with the allegations and lies
of kidnapping and all that crap, but when she came here, Courtney was not alone.”

  “Nathan was with her,” Dad mutters unhappily, calmly, and that’s never a good sign with him. He’s livid.

  “Yes! Mia was so upset and in tears when she came looking for me so we could pack our bags, to move out , but she told me about Courtney and Kristine, but nothing else and with everything going on I—” she trails off as another car drives up the elegant driveway.

  Before we know it, Nicky is pushing past all of us, knocking me aside as she runs down the stairs and straight for the car.

  I watch as she throws open the driver’s door of the very familiar E-Class Mercedes, and practically drags my mother out by the roots of her hair.

  “Well damn, now this is a show I’ll gladly settle in and watch,” Liam says as the two women start screaming and fighting. It’s not the first time they’ve gotten into it, but it is the first time Nicky actually wants to bash Courtney’s head in. I wouldn’t be opposed. At this point, count me in as a fucking fan.

  “For God’s sake, stop them before the kill each other and whatever deal Courtney made with Mia is lost,” Dad says.

  Cole and Liam rush toward the two women. I try to think how fast I can I make my fucking escape and go get Mia by myself, but Dad’s fucking right. I need answers.

  “You crazy bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?” Courtney is shouting when they’re pulled apart.

  “Where is she?” Nicky screams like a ferocious beast.

  “Where is who?”

  “My daughter, you witch!”

  “Well, I don’t have her!” Courtney shouts. “Have you tried checking with your dead sister? She seemed to pick up after you a lot.”

  Nicky charges for Courtney again but Cole mages to barely contain her. Knowing my mother has the answers I need, her vindictiveness gone too far now for me to behave in a civilized manner, I stride toward her, ignoring the claw marks on her face.

  “Where is she?” I demand.

  “Julian,” she says trembling. “You’re here! Oh, thank Heavens it worked.”

  “Just don’t,” I snap. “I know you’re working with Nathan which is why I know you made some kind of deal and now, you’ve gone and hurt her this cruelly. Where. Is. She?”