Finding Lost Loves

Chapter Eighteen
Gracie's POV

Me and Emma must have looked like deer in headlights when we saw Mom. My first thought was How does she even know where we go to school?" I know that's not even close to being the most important question, but that was the first.

I think we would have tried to hide if the annoying, old woman at the office hadn't called out our names. I glared angrily at her and heard Emma sigh. Allie, Linnie, and Katie were sitting in the office already, looking miserable. Mom turned to look at us as we slumped into the office. "Hey, sweeties," she squealed, as she walked over to hug us. We both stepped out of the way.

I couldn't help but notice the difference in her though. She had showered, didn't smell like booze, and actually looked like the typical mother. For some reason, that made me furious. All these years she was perfectly capable of being like this all the time. Even if she secretly hated us, she could at least pretend she cared. It just shows Mom only cares about herself.

"Go away," I told her. "Dad and Shay are coming to get us. We don't need you."

Mom turned red and her eyes flashed, but she remembered just in time that she couldn't yell at us or worse, since there were other people around. "You don't know what you're saying girls. It's all a misunderstanding. Your father and his…boyfriend have confused you," she said, in what would have sounded like a caring voice if you didn't know her.

"We understand fine," Emma hissed. "And we want you to go away."

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" Mom asked politely to the office lady.

Obviously, the office lady knew enough of what was going on, probably from my sisters and I complaining because Mom had forgotten us again of gotten loudly drunk, to know not to leave us alone with her. That, or she is even more of a snoop than I thought, and that's saying a lot. "…I don't really know if that's a good idea. How about we wait until the girls' father gets here. Then, you can all have the office in the back," she suggested.

Mom sent her a withering look, knowing that fake kindness wouldn't help get her what she wanted in this case. Office Lady was one of those people you could bully or bribe into just about anything. Everyone knew it, including the students. We all definitely used it to our advantage when we wanted to get out of having to call our parents or go to detention.

As Mom had predicted, Office Lady paled and muttered, "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt anyone if you went in now. I'll send their father in when he gets here."

"Okay," Mom said, stonily. "Everyone get in there." Her tone left no room for arguments. We walked into the office and sat down as far from Mom as we possibly could. Mom closed the door behind her before sitting down. "All of you are selfish bitches and I'll make sure you'll never see your faggot of a father or his slut boyfriend ever again. You're going to come home with me and I'll make you regret ever trying to leave," she threatened, trying to make herself look bigger than she was. It was typical bully behavior like they teach in school. The thought would have made me laugh if this wasn't so serious.

Just as Katie opened her mouth to reply, the door burst open. Dad stormed in looking huge and like a father bear, followed closely by Shay who looked more like a cute little teddy bear. I wouldn't have thought Shay could scare anyone, but somehow the glare on his face managed to do its job. Dad looked over us quickly, making sure we were all okay before turning to Mom. "They're not yours. I'm taking my daughters back home and we'll never have to even hear your name again. Shay and I talked to a lawyer today. The divorce papers will be in your mailbox by the end of the week. If you sign them, it'll make the whole thing a lot easier. If you don't, we'll deal with it in court and it'll be over with either way."

"No problem!" Mom shouted, vehemently. "I don't want to ever be near you ever again, but I sure as hell am not giving you MY daughters!"

"Actually, you are." The entire room went silent as everyone turned to Emma. She was sitting there, flipping through her phone and smiling slightly, not at all affected by the sudden silence she'd caused.

"What?" Mom asked. "I thought I already taught you to shut up-" she started.

"Exactly," Emma agreed. "But you see, phone can record things and I just happened to record something very helpful. Want to hear it?" Emma asked innocently and when no one answered, she pressed play.

At first there was just silence and then… "All of you had better know that you're not going anywhere for months! I'm so not dealing with anymore of you shit! You're all worthless and so stupid that you don't understand don't go near your idiot father's bitch sister! All of you get your asses up to your rooms and I don't want to hear a word from any of you for the rest of the night! And don't even think of coming down to eat dinner!"

"Of course not. You'll probably be drinking yourself stupid by then anyway. I don't really want to be around for that."

Everything went silent for a moment, before Mom freaked out. "YOU LITTLE-" Next, we heard what was unmistakably a slap followed by the car making a loud squeaking sound as we almost veered off the road. Mom gasped angrily. Emma held out her finger to shush her and, shockingly, she didn’t say anything.

We heard muffled voices. The first sounded like Dad. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just go, okay?"

"No. Not okay-"

"What the hell?! You almost killed me! For all I know I could have whiplash and, like, internal bleeding! Learn to drive, damn it! No one cares if that worthless brat is okay!"

"I do! And you should too! She's your daughter, you shallow, self-centered bitch!"

"If you think that we should get a divorce! You know what would happen then!"

"Emma, get in the car." The car door opened and closed, but because of how loud the voices were, we could still hear clearly.
"You right. We should get divorced, but I will never leave my daughters alone with you. We're all going home so the girls and I can get our stuff and then we're going to Tammy's-"

The tape stopped there and Emma looked at Mom, victoriously. "All I have to do is show this to any court and Dad will get custody of us and you'll probably go to jail for hitting me," Emma smirked. "You should just sign custody over to Dad along with the divorce papers."

Everyone in the room, except Mom grinned. We knew we'd won. There was no way she could get out of this one.

And for once, Mom knew it too.