TWISTED DESIRES

CHAPTER TWO

CELESTE

After meeting with a few more inmates, it was time for me to go home. I was exhausted as I climbed into my car and threw my briefcase into the passenger seat. I started the car, put my seatbelt on, and backed out of the parking lot. I don't know why I decided to do this as a career. It was mentally exhausting. Some of the inmates were insane. Some of them were slowly losing their minds each day they spent in prison. In the beginning, I would've said this job was easy. Now that I've been doing it for some time, I've realized it's not. My phone started to ring, and I looked at my Bluetooth to see it was my mother. I clicked the answer button on my touchscreen radio and tried to sound happy.

"Hey, Mom."

"Hello, sweetheart; I have been trying to reach you for two days. I was starting to get worried."

"Sorry, I've been busy with work. I saw your voicemail, but I didn't get around to listening to it. I'm sorry if I worried you."

She laughed a little, "It's OK. I'm glad to hear your voice. Is everything okay with work?"

I shrugged, "it's work. It doesn't get any better."

"I don't like what you do. I think it's too dangerous. How can you trust those inmates? I don't want you to be alone with them, Celeste."

This is why I didn't answer my mother's calls a lot. All she wanted to talk about was how dangerous my career was. Then she would move on and tell me that I could change my career if I wanted to. I didn't want to talk about it, but she always brought it up. "I'm fine, Mom. I have guards, and they stand right by the door."

"What if they're not quick enough? I think they need to be in the room with you."

"I have a weapon inside my office if that makes you feel better." I was lying; I didn't have a weapon, but if it put her mind at ease, I would tell her I did.

"That's a relief. I hope one day you decide to change your career. There are so many other things you could do."

I rolled my eyes, "I wanted to be a lawyer, but we see how that turned out." I got accepted into Harvard, and I was in my third year when my aunt Diane decided she needed kidney treatment. My parents put so much money into her treatment, and because of that, I couldn't finish law school.

She sighed softly, "I'm sorry. I know we played a role in why you didn't become a lawyer. I wouldn't have helped her if she didn't need it, Celeste."

"You should've told her that she should work to provide for herself. She's so damn lazy."

"Celeste, that's your aunt. You shouldn't say such things."

It was true, and I hated that my mother was in denial. My aunt never worked a day in her life. She thought laying on her back would give her the future she wanted. She lived off her ex-husband until he got tired of her and divorced her. He left her with nothing except for a dog that barked nonstop and a fucked up kidney. That was from all the alcohol she poured into her body day after day. "This is why she is the way she is. You take up for her instead of telling her the truth. She's a drunk, and she uses alcohol to try to numb the pain of Devon leaving her. She's always been jealous of you and our family. Every time something good happens to you. She tries to take it. I will never forget the time she tried to sleep with Dad."

"Celeste, I know you two didn't have a good relationship, but you still have to respect her."

I laughed, "I will never respect her. I don't have to. I did when I was younger, but now that I'm an adult, I decide how I feel about people. I don't like her, and I never did." My mother was wasting her time trying to get me to change my mind about how I felt about my aunt.