Released (Caged 3)

“Do we have a chance?” she asked, and a small sob escaped her throat. “Will you talk to me, please?”

For the longest time, I just stared at my fingers on my lap. My mind was completely blank, and I had no idea what to say to her. I had no idea what could make everything all right again, and I wasn’t even sure if that was what I wanted.

“Tria wants a family,” I said finally. “She’s…she’s having a baby, you know.”

“I know,” Mom said. “Your father told me.”

“November,” I said. “She’s supposed to have it in November.”

“Michael said you were…scared.”

I tensed. I didn’t like that he was talking to her about me. I mean, I knew he was—it’s not like he kept any of that shit a secret—but hearing her actually say it out loud…well, that was different. I didn’t like it.

Well, I didn’t like most of it.

Part of me reminded myself that she wanted to know—that they had all been talking about me the past ten years all the time. I was still in their minds and in their hearts even when I wouldn’t accept it. I wanted to know they hadn’t forgotten me or stopped caring and that she really did miss me.

“It will be all right,” she said quietly. “We’re going to take care of you. We’re going to take care of Tria, too.”

I had no idea what it was. Her words…her tone. Maybe it was just because she said she was going to take care of Tria…I didn’t know. I just fell apart.

Completely.

Utterly.

For once, it was my mother’s arms around me as all the pain and sense of loss poured out. Though she had been at the center of it years ago, I couldn’t help but lean on her when she was next to me on the couch and holding me against her. She cried. I cried.

It was actually really fucking weird.

Too weird.

Too much.

I pushed her away from me and raced across the room. I ended up next to the window instead of the door, so I had no way to get out. I just leaned against the ledge and counted the plum tree’s lame excuse for fruit.

“Liam, can you tell your mom what you are thinking right now?”

“She fucking let him,” I mumbled.

“Let him what?” Erin pressed.

I turned and glared at my mother.

“You didn’t stop him,” I stated. “You just let him…let him say all that shit. He said all that shit to Aimee and scared the crap out of her. She didn’t know what to do, and she wouldn’t tell anyone after that. You let him…”

“I knew he was right, Liam,” Mom said softly.

I tensed and was about to walk right the fuck out because staying meant possibly punching out my mother. Erin stopped me with a hand and made me sit back down.

“Julianne, could you please clarify what you mean by that? It sounds like you are agreeing with Douglass’s harsher words toward Aimee.”

“Not the words themselves, no,” she said, “but the thought behind them. If you were out of each other’s lives, you wouldn’t have been so hell-bent on becoming a father at seventeen. You weren’t ready for that kind of responsibility.”

“How did you know what the fuck I was ready for?” I bellowed as I turned to glare at her.

“Because you were my son!” she cried back. “You still are, and I still know you—even if you haven’t been in the family all this time! I can see how much you’ve changed…grown. Even since the wedding, you’re different.”

I looked back to the window and tried to keep my breathing from going completely overboard. I couldn’t think straight when that started to happen.