SHATTERED

╣EIGHT╠

     Once school was over, Ethel went to Miss Sebastian's office to wait for her so they could go home together. As she entered the she gaped in surprise when she saw her stepdad talking to Miss Sebastian.
"What is he doing here?!" Ethel scowled. Miss Sebastian stood up from where she sat. " You here," she said smiling at Ethel.
"Your dad is here to see you." she told her.
Rex turned his head to see Ethel, he drew his chair back, standing up. "It has been a long time Ethel. We've missed you. You've even grown taller." he smiled.
"What do you want?!" she yelled.
"Ethel, please keep your voice down, remember you are in school." Miss Sebastian told her. "I'll give you two privacy." she said and left.
"Ethel, we really need to talk. Please sit." Rex told her motioning for her to sit on the chair beside his own chair. Ethel reluctantly sat down, slouching on the chair and folded her arms, waiting for him to speak.
"How are you?" he asked her.
"I am fine and safe living with my teacher." she said brusquely.
"Good. Are you missing home?"
"Not one bit." she rolled her eyes.
"I know you do, even if you don't miss me, you miss your sister and your mother."
"Like I care." she said sarcastically. "Will you go straight to the point on why you came?" she said irritably.
"Be patient. Is not like I wanted to come, it's was your mum who forced me to come. She couldn't come herself because she felt you would not want to see her. Ethel, what you did the other day was humiliating, why would you say such a thing in front of your teacher and the cops?"
"You did it and you denied it!" she said angrily.
"Don't tell me that."
"You are crazy! Get out! Get out before I lose my temper!" she yelled.
"Shhh... calm down." Rex tried to silence her but she didn't listen.
"Thanks for ruining my life. Since you came into my life, it has been disastrous. See, if you're planning to kidnap me to take me home, it will not work. I guess since I'm no longer available at night, Eleanor is now your new playgirl."
"Will you shut up before I cut your mouth off! Well, I'm not done with ruining your life, because you still have to pay for the humiliation you caused." he scoffed.
"I can't wait till you come back home. Then, your mother would have been dead and I would have gone to meet my family in Canada."
Ethel's jaw dropped in surprise "So you were married?"
"Your mother was too. Surprised?" he chuckled. "I have three grown children already."
"Why are you telling me all these?!"
"Just want you to know who I really am. I guess you don't know me..."
"A liar! A molester! A blood sucking demon, that's who you are!" she said tears glistening in her eyes.
"I think we are done talking." he stood up, tucking his hands in the pocket of his trousers. "I have to go now."
"I can't wait to see you behind bars... that's where you belong!" she stood up raging in anger.
"And your father." he scowled.
"You are nothing like him." she said clenching her fist.
Rex walked to the door and stood "If you mention a word to anybody, I'll kill you and your mother." he glared at her.
"I'll be glad." she said through clenched teeth as he flung the door open, walking out.

➰➿➰

Thelma whole life was crumbling, she just can't believe what was happening to her, first her daughter, Ethel told her to her face that she hated her and now her marriage is in jeopardy. She sat up on Ethel's bed, her legs crisscrossed. For the first time since she married Rex, she picked Logan's framed picture on Ethel's nightstand. She ran her fingers on the picture, this was the first time she was thinking of Logan since their divorce. She starred at his hazel eyes, the eyes that reminded her of so many things about their relationship, the times he was there for her through the thick and thin until when he was convicted of murder . She moved to sit at the edge of the bed dropping the framed picture on the nightstand stand. Tears slid down her cheeks as she reached out to the drawer beneath the nightstand to open it. She saw a white card sprayed with red paint, she brought it out looking at it. She opened it and read what written in it.
"What secret relationship is Rex having with Ethel?" She creased her eyebrow, mumbling to herself. "What cake is he talking about?" she saw the date the letter was written, it was last year, Ethel's birthday.
Standing up from the bed, she walked to the door with the paper in her hand. She opened it, walking downstairs, she saw Rex sitted on a stool at the kitchen island, he had already made breakfast for himself. Eversince Ethel left home she has been sleeping in Ethel's room. She and Rex have never said a word to each other after the day he beat her. She walked to where he sat, eating and placed the letter on the table.
"What? Have you come again with your trouble?" Rex said irritably, chewing the food in his mouth.
"Read." she said and sat across him.
Rex dropped the slice of bread he was eating on his plate and picked up the letter. "What do you want me to do with this?" he said shaking the paper.
"What secret relationship were you having with Ethel? What cake have you been eating?" she said brusquely.
Rex frowned and said, "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Stop pretending, is that not your hand writing?"
"Yes... how did you know I wrote it to Ethel?"
"I found it in her room... is it true? Have you been molesting my daughter, Rex?"
Rex snorted, "What sort of question is that?"
"Answer my question!" she hit the table angrily with her fist.
"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about." he stood up, dropping the letter on the table. "I was only thanking her for being a good daughter, that's the relationship I was talking about and the cake part was a joke."
"Liar! You're a liar!" she pointed a finger angrily at him.
"Believe it or not, that's what I meant." he walked to the sink to drop his plate and tea cup.
"Rex, tell me the truth!" she yelled.
Rex kept mute as he walked to the sitting room to take his office bag and left the house.
Thelma heard him start the car and drive off, she plopped on the stool, picking the letter. Tears welled in her eyes as she starred at the letter.

Was Ethel telling the truth all this while?

She thought as tears wetted the paper.