Shelter (30 page)

“Thank you all for coming out today,” her voice travelled through the small crowd without the aid of a microphone, “I’m so honored that the school asked me to open this wonderful new play area for the sweet children of our town.”

Elias couldn’t suppress the laugh. Some of the people around him looked, one woman even putting her finger on her lips to silence him. He covered it up as a cough and he was left alone.

“Being a mother,” the words tumbled effortlessly out of her mouth, “I understand how important it is to have a safe and caring environment for a child. It gives me great pleasure to announce this park open!”

She was handed a giant pair of scissors by a waiting man and when the photographer was in position, ready to capture to moment, she snipped on the ribbon slowly. Her smile didn’t flicker as the bulb flashed over and over in her face and she didn’t look away from the camera’s lens.

“She’d make a
great
president, don’t you think?” one woman with an eager looking little girl clutched to her hand whispered to another.

“Oh, I know. She’s so nice and so fashionable. I’d
die
to know where she got that coat. Imagine being friends with her.”

“I bet she doesn’t have time for friends!” the woman replied, “She’s
always
so busy. Such a giver.”

“Too busy for her own kids,” Elias couldn’t help himself and when the gate was finally opened, they walked forward, making sure to give Elias a suspicious once over.

He waited for the crowd to thin, knowing she would naturally see him if he stayed where he was. Lingering by a shiny new trashcan, he watched as she chatted with some of the mothers as they walked into the gated park. The sparkle was still there but he could tell that she was trying to leave. When the last woman gushed over the mayor, the smile vanished and the eyebrows dropped. She muttered something to her assistant and he laughed darkly, causing her to roll her eyes and let out a huge sigh. Now that the mask had been dropped, he could tell that she was still sick from the last time he had seen her. It was hidden well under her professional and flawless makeup. She didn’t look nearly old enough to have twenty-six-year-old twins.

Checking her cell phone, she headed down the new path, her sharp heels clicking and the tails of her coat hurrying behind her. She walked right by Elias and Caden, her eyes planted firmly on the screen. Feeling the opportunity slipping away, Elias followed, slinging the backpack over one shoulder.

“’Scuse me, mayor, I just wondered if you’d kiss my baby. I’d be
ever
so grateful,” Elias did his best impression of one of those adoring, babbling women.

She turned around, the coat flying with her. The second her eyes landed on her son, Elias could see the shock alive in those dark pupils.

“What are you doing here?” her voice deepened and lowered, “Tony, wait in the car.”

The assistant nodded and hurried over to a waiting black car on the edge of the sidewalk.

“I just thought I’d come and support my mother,” he artfully arched one brow, “did you think I’d be somewhere else?”

The pinch in her jaw gave it all away. She could try and hide behind that face of steel but Elias could see right through it.

“I’m busy. I have somewhere I need to be,” she snapped as she turned around.

“I know what you did,” he blurted, “I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

The mayor didn’t stop walking at first but she suddenly ground to a halt, as though curious to find out how and why her plan had failed. Turning slowly, she jerked her head over to the school. Knowing that she wanted to be somewhere with no witnesses, he followed, motioning for Caden to stay behind. He hadn’t planned on doing it alone but it felt like the right thing to do. Not for her, but for himself.

She walked across the schoolyard, the click of her heels echoing louder than Elias thought possible. Each step was like the crack of thunder, signaling a brewing storm.

They walked through the reception unseen and headed for the school hall. It was empty, with all of the kids in class. As though setting the scene for their showdown, the mayor walked across the dark polished floor, not stopping until she was standing in front of the high stage, dead in the center. Behind her, a full band of instruments lay unused, waiting for band practice to begin. Elias had tried learning to play the guitar in third grade. He doubted she even knew that.

“What do you want?” she said, no volume control on her voice.

Stopping a safe distance away from her, he racked his brain for where to start first, deciding to start with what he remembered of the speech he had rehearsed.

“I know you paid Rigsy to set me up.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the words were instant, not even bothering to ask who Rigsy was.

“You paid a drug dealer to get me to take drugs so that you could call the police and have me arrested,” feeling braver, he took a stride forward, “and you were seen. You weren’t as careful as you thought.”

Considering her options, she stared darkly at him, her shoulders pushing back, “That’s quite a story you’ve cooked up.”

“It’s true.”

“Prove it.”

She was enjoying the game of cat and mouse. It was as though she lived to win the games she played. Losing wasn’t an option for her and she would win any way she had to.

“Caden saw you paying a man in the alley next to the town hall, four days ago.”

“He must be mistaken,” she shrugged, “I was on a business trip four days ago.”

“Yours is the one face in this town nobody would mistake. He saw you paying a drug dealer to set me up so you could get me out of the way. What were you trying to do? Get me into prison? Or rehab again? Or were you just trying to show me that you were the big bad wolf and you could blow my house down if you wanted to.”

Her cheeks burned darker and more vibrantly with every word. She looked as though she was about to storm out, not wanting to hear her own plan reflected back at her by the son she never thought intelligent enough to see through her.

“If that was true, why aren’t you in prison?” she sounded like she really wanted to know.

“Because I’m clean,” he pulled the paper out of his pocket and unfolded it, “he didn’t succeed. Do you realize how dangerous he is? He attacked me and tried to force me when I said I didn’t want to. I told him I was done with that stuff but he told me he had a job to do, a job that you paid him to do. If Caden didn’t kick my door in, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Her expression faltered, her dark lashes flickering before widening and narrowing on him. Rose red lips parted but they didn’t speak. He stepped closer and held out the drug test. She looked down at it and he was unsure what she was going to do with it but she reached out and snatched it forcefully. To his surprise, she scanned over it, her face remaining still.

“Two months,” she tossed it on the floor, “a new record.”

Elias turned around, clenching his hair in frustration. He wanted to scream out so loud that the walls caved in.

“Do you enjoy this?” he cried, turning to face her again, “Do you live to make me feel worthless?”

“I’m too busy for that.”

“Is that why you paid him to get rid of me, so I wouldn’t be a threat to your busy life? Was I getting too involved, too noisy? You act like you’re so disgusted in how I’ve been living but you liked that I was too high to cause you any problems. Now that I have my mind back, I see what you’re doing and I’m taking notice. All of those strings you’re pulling, people are starting to see. Ellie is seeing what I’ve always seen.”

“Your sister is buying this story?” she laughed, “It’s a fantasy. Drugs can cause paranoia.”

“Read that online?” his voice grew, “Because you didn’t come to a single one of the family sessions when I was in rehab. You didn’t visit me once.”

“I’m -,”

“Busy. I know. Change the record, Mom.”

Hearing ‘
Mom
’ from his lips made her recoil her head slightly, her face tightening even more.

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing,” Elias whispered, “absolutely nothing. I didn’t come here to listen to your excuses, I came here to tell you something.”

She tried to step back slowly but she bumped into the stage. Elias reacted by copying her movement while making sure there was enough distance between them.

“What kind of mother does something like that to her own flesh and blood?” he couldn’t help himself, “I’d gotten so used to you but this was a new low. Can you believe I thought there was a tiny glimmer of hope that you’d one day change? Can you believe I thought you’d be there when I got out of rehab?”

“I – I -,”

“Save your breath. Did you know Rigsy had a thing for guys? He could have done more than feed me drugs but that wouldn’t have bothered you, would it? You wouldn’t care if he snapped my neck and left me dead on that apartment floor.”

“That’s not true,” her voice returned to her.

It shocked him that she would even react to something like that. Her way was usually to make a cutting comment to gain the upper hand.

“Where did you even find him? You must have known I knew him. Go on, admit it.”

Her eyes darted between Elias’, her lips parting and closing as her mind wrestled with the right words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He could have killed me!” he shouted.

“He wouldn’t have, I -,” she stopped herself.

It was as good a confession as Elias needed and he could see the shock in her eyes that she had let that much slip.

“I thought you didn’t know him?”

“He was only supposed to make you take drugs!” she cried, “I found him through your court case. You mentioned him. I didn’t -,”

“We’re not talking about candy here! Rigsy isn’t somebody you cross. He’s a dealer. You should have been trying to set him up, not me. He’s a danger to the people in this town. Those people out there that you pretend to care for, he sells them stuff worse than what I used to take and he ruins their lives, but you don’t care about that. All you care about is power and that’s why you wanted me gone because all you see me as is a threat. A scandal that you can’t sweep under the rug.”

Her head shook slightly, her pin straight jet black hair moving with her. Her hand darted up, sweeping it back into place.

“Is this how you think a mom should be?” his voice cracked, “You see me actually trying to change and you try to send me straight back to the place I’ve been festering in for years. Do you think that is normal?”

“There’s nothing normal about our family.”

“Finally! Something we agree on. You’re right. Growing up as the mayor’s kid was a curse. It ruined my life. You ruined my life. If this is how you show your motherly love, you can keep it.”

Elias’ entire body was shaking. He couldn’t remember any of the original plan because all he could see were his mother’s eyes, staring deep into his. She looked scared and angry. Ready to explode at any moment and ready to drag him down when it happened.

“What would I know about motherly love?” her voice was small, “I didn’t have a mother, or a father. At least you had one.”

“Did I though? Where were you? Did you ever come to this room to see me on that stage?”

When he pointed to it, she turned around to look at it before darting back to the intense stare.

“That stuff isn’t important. I had nobody there for me and I turned out fine,” she almost looked like she believed that.

“Don’t you get it?” he laughed softly, “That’s the most important thing in the world.”

Her brow furrowed in thought, as she absorbed what he was saying. Was she actually listening to what he was saying?
I won’t hold my breath.

“I put a roof over your head. I paid for everything, on my own. Your dad had to go and die before you were even born, leaving me to do it on my own. Do you think I had any idea what I was doing?”

Elias never heard her talk about his father. All he knew about his father was what his grandmother had told him in the few years she was in their lives.

“You didn’t try.”

“How would you know?” it was her time to laugh, “I wasn’t always the mayor. I wasn’t always where I am now. You were four when I came into office. Those first years, I tried so hard on my own, but I couldn’t do it. I needed something to bury myself in. Is that so bad?”

“You sacrificed your kids for your job?”

“How do you think I paid for that nice, big house? How do you think I’m paying for that apartment you’re living in, rent free?
Hmm
? By putting my job first.”

She really was blind. He had always wondered if she understood where she had gone wrong or if she was just ignorant, so convinced that she had always done the right thing.

“We would have rather been homeless with no money if it meant we had a mom who loved us.”

“I -,” she choked, “this has always been you. Ellie is fine.”

“Ellie learned to hide it.”

She looked shocked and that surprised Elias.