Home Survivor

Chapter 5

~Chapter 5~

The home phone starts ringing. I snap open my eyes and groan. I grumble and pick myself up from the couch.
What happened last night?
I remember Jay and rush to open the front door. The concrete is empty except a couple drops of blood from Jay's bloody nose.
The phone rings again. I run over to the kitchen counter and grab the phone from the receiver.
"Parkers." I say.
"Could I talk to Jonathan Parkers?" A woman asks. Her voice is gentle and small.
"I'm sorry. He doesn't sleep with woman anymore so if your a past lover, it's over." I'm about to hang up but she interrupts.
"Nia, is that you?"
My hand freezes mid-air. She knows my name.
"Who is this?" I demand.
"It's your mother." She says.
My eyes tear up. Why would she be calling now? After all these years. She left my dad without a divorce and left us. I grip the phone tighter.
"What do you want?" I ask.
"My children. I talked to my lawyer and he said since me and your father aren't legally divorced, you guys still partially belong to me." She whispers. It sounds like she's crying too.
"I'll have to ask." I say and I'm about to hang up again, but she stops me.
"No need to ask. Come on, Nia. Act like the grown up girl I know you are. We can catch up and I'll be the mother you always wanted. Please trust me on this."
I bite my bottom lip. There's too many things I want to say. They're gonna sting, but nothing is gonna stop me from saying them.
"Why should I trust you? You left me with dad! You left ALL of us with dad. When I was eleven, I had to make an agreement with him to stop the drugs. We were left alone with a man who once abused us and couldn't remember our names on our birthdays because he was too drunk and high on drugs, and you want ME to trust YOU. I want to say yes, but what stops you from ditching us again?" I yell.
"Nia, what's wrong?" Chrissa and Haley are standing at the top of the living room stairs. Haley drops Chrissa's hand and runs down the stairs to come to me. She hugs me and her head only comes to my waist. I pat her head. Haley was once so young and stupid as a four-year-old but now she's an intelligent little ten year old.
"I'm a different woman now." My mother says over the phone.
"What garuntees that?" I smirk.
"Nia, do you want me to come and take you all away or not. I can tell you everything you'll be missing in your life." She snaps.
I put the home phone on speaker so Chrissa and Haley can hear. I place the phone on the counter by Chrissa and run upstairs to grab Derek.
"Derek!" I yell at him through the door. Derek rushes through the door, his blonde hair tousled and his brown eyes wild. A pocketknife in hand.
"What?" He looks around, then puts his pocketknife away, satisfied that Jay is nowhere near me.
"Moms on the phone." I say. Derek pushes past me and sprints down the stairs, three at a time.
He grabs the phone from Chrissa.
"Hello? Mom?" He asks.
"Hi sweetie." Mom replies.
"I suppose I'll tell you what you'll miss if you don't come with me." She continues.
Haley smiles, but frowns when she sees my eyebrows furrowed together.
"I've remarried. To someone rich and-"
"But you aren't legally divorced to dad so how can you be married?" I interrupt. Mom sighs.
"Your father and I are technically divorced, but since there's no signed document, you guys still partially belong to me even though you live with him. So I remarried. His name is Walker James, he's very rich. We live in a mansion, almost castle in...Hollywood." Chrissa interrupts this time. "Hollywood?!"
Mom sighs again. "Yes. Anyways, I'm now Mrs. Beatrice James. Me and Walker have two daughters and a son. Please don't be mad at me for having kids, it's just that I couldn't reach you guys and I didn't know if you guys belonged to me. But, I also was dating Walker when I was living with your father. And we had my first daughter a year before I left your dad. Oh, and Walker is also divorced. He has a son named Chase." She finishes.
I wince. When she says 'belonged' it sounds like we are just objects, passed from one owner to another. Also, how could my mom hide another pregnancy from my dad. Maybe she left before it was obvious.
"Do you have a puppy?" Haley asks. Typical ten-year-old.
"Not yet. But we have been talking to dog breeders so once you come live with us, first thing we'll do is get you a puppy." My mom replies. I'm not good at reading voices, but she sounds excited and I bet she's smiling.
"How big are the bedrooms?" Chrissa asks. Chrissa's room has always been a small room that could only fit a bed and a bedside table.
"Absolutely huge! We left 5 bedrooms empty so when you guys come, you can decorate it the way you want, there's no limits! Speaking of 5 bedrooms, there's only four of you. Where's my Liam?" Mom asks.
"I don't know. He moved out after my eleventh birthday. He doesn't like us to call him or try to talk to him." I say. Derek nods.
"How old are you guys? We haven't talked in 16 years."
"I'm seventeen. My birthday was yesterday. Chrissa is 19. Liam is about 28, Haley is 10, and Derek is twenty." I say.
"Hm. So will you guys move in with me?" Mom asks.
I look at Haley. She's smiling and silently begging. Derek nods again, Chrissa is quiet. I roughly nod my head.
"We'll begin packing now."