Bless the Broken Road that Lead Me Straight to You

Chapter 30

Erin's head was spinning as she tried to piece together everything in her head. Everything felt so completely out of control.

She wanted to sit down. She wanted time to slow down so she could figure all of this out.

But, she didn't sit down. Instead, she forced herself to focus on one thing at a time.

Right now, she needed to focus on getting Bunny out of this house. As quickly as possible.

While she stood there reeling, Bunny just kept talking. God, she was using her innocent, mothering tone of voice, and it made Erin want to throw something at her.

She could barely keep up with what she was saying. Bunny must have just asked her a question, because now she was staring at her expectantly.

She didn't answer her question. She wouldn't have answered even if she had heard it. Instead, she glared at her mother, staring straight in her eyes and said, "What are you doing here?" She didn't even try to hide the disdain in her voice.

It was only then that she noticed Jay standing beside her. At some point, Kim must have stepped away from her, and Jay must have moved closer, because now he was holding her hand.

"I came to see you," she said. "I'm not allowed to come see my only daughter?" God. She always put such an act when other people were around. She just wanted everyone to leave.

Actually, she wanted to leave with them.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" She repeated her question, slowly this time, enunciating each word separately, hoping to finally get her point across. Stop with the bullshit.

"I thought I would come to Sunday night dinner," she said, her voice aloof, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Erin hated that she even knew about Sunday dinners. "I am your family after all." She said, now her voice was dripping in sarcasm. It always amazed Erin how she did that. Changed her tone of voice, mid sentence. And my amazed, she meant terrified. Because as a kid, it only took two seconds to go from nice to mean. "And now that Hank's bitch of a wife is dead, I thought I'd finally get an invite."

And there it was. Nice to mean.

Erin could feel the air completely suck out of the room. Every pair of eyes in the room seemed to widen at her comment.

God, her mother was such a piece of shit.

Hank took a step forward and looked like he wanted lunge for her. The room was so quiet that Erin could hear his labored, angry breathing.

"Watch it," Erin said. Jay was still by her side, still holding her hand. Now he was squeezing it gently, rubbing soft circles around her knuckles.

His touch usually calmed her down.

Not today.

"Fine, Erin." Bunny spit at her. "If you don't want me at Sunday night dinner, then fine."

Bunny didn't seem to get the point.

Erin didn't want her here ever. Actually, she didn't want her anywhere within a mile radius of her ever.

And then suddenly she realized it wasn't just her she had to worry about. She had two beautiful little girls upstairs that she never wanted her mother to meet.

Oh, God. She prayed that they would stay asleep. She needed to get Bunny the hell out.

When Erin didn't reply right away, Bunny tried again. "I want to take you to lunch."