A Touch of Sin |18+|

23

ALANI

Ma—"

"No. I don't want to hear any excuses. It was brought to my attention that you visited your sister for three months, and you can't be bothered to visit your parents for just a few days?" My mother said, and judging from her tone—she was close to yelling at me.

I sat back on my chair, heaving a sigh as I stared at the open textbooks sprawled on my desk. "Cecelia told you that?" I asked, not believing that she would because she knew better.

"That's what you respond to?" she asked, sounding slightly offended.

I ran a hand over my face, trying not to let the annoyance in my voice show. My mother was a ...complicated one. Clingy, yet distant. Loving, yet cold. I couldn't understand it—and I stopped trying to.

"Ma—"

"No, she didn't," she said eventually, her own sigh travelling through the phone. "Her neighbour, Auntie Linda let me know that Cecelia had someone living with her and when she described you, I knew it was you," my mother murmured, and I closed my eyes—letting my forehead rest in the palm of my hand with my elbow propped up on the desk.

"Does Lia know that you have somebody spying on her?" I asked weakly, already fed up with the call. I wouldn't put it past my mother to have a neighbour communicate our personal lives with her.

Lucky for me, she didn't know my address and I doubt Cecelia would give it to her.

"It's not spying. It's information about my daughter. You are still my daughter, right?" she asked, and I could only imagine the hand on her hip and the narrowing of her brown eyes. Another thing with my mother, she was an excellent manipulator. It became evident when I got older and familiarised myself with her tactics.

Still, I gave her the answer she wanted.

"Yes, I am," I mumbled. At the end of the day, she was still my mother—the woman who worked day and night to provide for us. To put us through school. To give us a life she thought we deserved. I couldn't help but love her.

"Exactly!" she chirped. "So when—"

Her sentence was interrupted by a beeping of my phone.

I pulled the screen away from my ear, looking down at it and finding Valerio trying to call me.

He left twenty minutes ago. Why was he calling me? I clicked decline, deciding to get back to him when I finished up the conversation with my mother. Which was hopefully really fucking soon. 

"Did you hear me?" she asked, the frustration in her voice growing by the second.

"I have to go," I said, bracing myself for her predictable response.

"I'm not done talking to you!" my mother scolded, and a door slammed shut in the background. She was probably at work and moved to a more private place to shout at me.

"Ma—I really have to go," I said desperately, seeing Valerio trying to get through to me again. I swiped away from the call, still hearing my mother's distant voice as I typed a message to him. Can't talk right now.

"Alani. Don't you dare hang up on me. I need to know when you're coming to see your parents," she rushed out, and I breathed in deeply to stop myself from lashing out on her.

I wasn't in the mood to be dealing with the added stress she was giving me. I'd visit when I was ready to visit.

"Is it an emergency?" I asked, frowning at her desperation.