Hell's Angel: Devil's Backbone (BK 2)

The Bagels

Alison's POV
(bellamysgirl)

I sighed through my nose, dropping into the metal chair behind the glass. The lanky brunette woman I knew as my mother sat on the other side of the thin sheet glass that separated us. She was the first to reach for her phone. There was a slight hopeful expression to her face, gesturing an inch with the phone, trying to nudge me to pick it up. I paused, making her sweat it out a moment longer.

Then I picked up my black phone and held it to my ear. "Hi," I said, dryly.

"How have you been? I haven't seen you in so long...It's been a while since you visited me," she seemed disappointed.

I squared my shoulders. "There's a reason for that, Mom." She inhaled and looked around a moment. Then she turned back to the glass, hushing her tone just slightly. "You haven't told the boy, have you?" she asked, concerned.

"Have I told him that you work for Hydra and that's why he'll never know his grandmother?" She tilted her head with a lowering of her eyebrows and I sighed. "No. I've been a bit busy lately for that."

"Oh?" she raised an eyebrow, curious, prodding. I remained silent and she scoffed. "You came all this way and you're not going to talk to me? Surely you came for something."

"Yeah, I came to make sure you were still here and you hadn't broken out, yet." That seemed to sting. She sat back a bit in her chair—as far as the telephone cord would let her—and she remained quiet for a long pause. "I'm not that woman anymore, Alison. How many times do I have to tell you?" she asked, pleadingly.

"However many it takes for you to start showing it," I answered, calmly.

She sighed through her nose. "How about instead of insulting me the whole time you're here...you tell me what I've been missing being in this box?" I inhaled. Not a good idea. But, what else was I going to do? I got here early enough that I have at least an hour before Chase's birthday party at Dani's. "Fine. What do you wanna know?" I asked, reluctant.

"Are you still single?" she asked, curiously. I nodded. "Do you still live in that ratty old apartment?" I shook my head.

"I own my own café, now. It has an apartment above the dining area," I explained. "So far it's pretty successful."

"That's wonderful! How is Chase doing? I imagine he's gotten much taller since you last showed me a picture." I dug into my coat pocket and unearthed my cell phone. I flipped to the most recent photo I had and held the phone up to the glass. It was a picture of Chase, Rueben, and I on the fire escape outside my bedroom window. She squinted to see him without her glasses on. "He's eleven, starting today," I told her.

"It's his birthday today?" she asked, in disbelief.

I nodded. "Yep. Happens every year, at around the same time. Imagine that."

She scowled a bit and I slid away my phone. "He doesn't even know I exist, does he?"

"No, he knows. He just thinks you live too far away for us to afford a plane ticket to visit you."

"Why? What would be so harmful about-" she looked genuinely offended.

I inhaled deeply. "Stop right there. What is harmful is having your father die in a terrorist attack, and then having your mother sent to prison two years later. I won't let you do the same thing to him as you did to me. The only thing you could ever bring him is embarrassment," I said, trying to rein in my annoyance. "What is harmful...is knowing you."

I hung the phone back up at a bewildered mother, and then flagged down the guard. I stood and he escorted me out, and I wondered why I even bothered coming when I knew exactly how it would end every time—disaster.