Destroy (13 page)

“She's still alive,” he says.

“But that's all,” I say. “Ya know.
That's
all.”

He stares awkwardly at me for a few seconds. And then moves on with the plan that all these other people, these adults who have never met me before today, came up with.

It turns out my mother won't be coming home anytime soon. After tomorrow, they're going to put her in the psychiatric ward for an eight-day evaluation.

Me and my mother, we don't have any living blood relatives in Joliet or the entire state of Illinois. My mother was an only child. Her parents died in a car accident when I was three, and me and her lived in Chicago at the time. She got everything in the will (they were really well off), so we moved into the house she grew up in about a month after their funerals.

She always wanted to be back in Joliet, but she couldn't handle the embarrassment and the stress of the ridicule she would've gotten from her mother if we'd moved back.

“She hated me for having you.” My mother told me this one morning when I was, like, four and woke up to find her watching a recording of her first lead performance in a ballet right after she moved to New York.

Right before she met my father and fell madly, insanely in love with him.

“The night I told her I was pregnant with you, she walked out of the restaurant where we were dining. Then she called me an idiot. She told me I'd never dance again.”

My mother paused. She looked over at me. Her eyes were filled with tears. And then she shook her head and looked at the floor. “She was right,” she whispered. “She was right about everything.”

Back to the waiting room now.

The doctor says, “Your father is coming here, Jaime. He'll be here in the morning to take you back to San Francisco while your mother is being evaluated.”

I'm pretty sure I'm fucking speechless for the first time ever in my life. My head gets all fuzzy. It feels like Mike Tyson just slammed a fist into my head.

I'm dizzy.

My chest tightens and my hands shake.

The child services rep steps in now.

And she says, “We know about that night in New York, Jaime. We know your father struck your mother across the face and pushed her down. And we know about the restraining order against him. But she never pressed any charges. Instead, your father agreed to fast-track the divorce and pay the amount of child support she wanted. It's been thirteen years, and without any other guardian, your father has legal rights to step in, given your mother's current state.”

“Jaime,” the doctor says. “Do you understand this?”

My mouth is dry. It feels like chalk.

“Jaime,” the doctor presses.

“No,” I say.

“No what?” he asks.

“No,” I say again. “I don't understand any of
this
. You're sending me to stay with the man who betrayed my mother. He ruined her fucking life and made her crazy for all these years, and I have to go live with him now.”

“Just until the evaluation is over,” the doctor says.

“What happens if she doesn't get better?”

The doctor looks back at the child services rep.

“Don't look at her,” I snap. “I asked you a question. Look at me, dude.”

He sighs. “We'll cross the bridge if we come to it.”

“Great,” I snort. “That's real, fucking great. And what about school? Final exams are next week.”

“You'll be allowed to take them after this gets resolved,” the woman says. “You don't have anyone else to care for you here. You don't have any other family besides your father.”

A scowl cuts across my face. “He's not my family,” I rip. “That bastard is the reason why my mother is here right now. So let's just be clear about that. He's
not
my family.”

“Well, there's nobody else,” she says. “You don't have anyone else.”

“I know,” I snap. “I know I'm alone. So please just stop saying it. I understand
that
.”

ALSO BY JASON MYERS

exit here.

The Mission

Dead End

Run the Game

Blazed

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON PULSE

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Simon Pulse eBook edition July 2014

Text copyright © 2014 by Jason Myers

Cover photograph copyright © 2014 by Gallery Stock/Frank Bohbot; Bar sign copyright © 2014 by Thinkstock.

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON PULSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
www.simonspeakers.com
.

Cover designed by Jessica Handelman

ISBN 978-1-4814-3498-0 (eBook)