Starlee's Heart (The Wayward Sons 1) - Page 71
“No, Mother, I’m not going to sit down. Not until I find out what this is about? Why are you being asked to be a witness in a hearing for that boy?”
I swallow the lump. “Because when I first got here, someone tried to rob me. And Dexter stopped him. He’s on probation and getting into that fight could cause problems for him. I’m going to testify for him.”
My mother’s hard expression crumbles. Not into one of understanding but panic. Sheer panic. She stumbles toward the table and falls in a seat.
“Mom?”
“You were robbed? And witnessed a fight? How could you not tell me?”
“I didn’t want to worry you. You’d barely returned home.”
Her eyes shift to Leelee. “How could you let this happen? Were you there?”
My grandmother shifts. “No. I wasn’t.”
“You were alone?” she asks incredulously. “But we had rules established. No going out alone.”
“I know. I just wanted a view of the sunrise and after that, I was safer. I never left the yard.” Until I met Jake and we left the yard every day. And then I met George and Charlie and they helped me move past my fears. “I helped Leelee every day and I did all my school work.” My chest pounds with the truth, bursting to come out. “I also made friends here, Mom, real friends.”
“That boy out there isn’t your friend.”
“Yes, he is, and so are the other boys that live in the house next door.”
Her face pales. “Other boys?”
“And Katie, who lives in the trailer park, and Sierra, Dexter’s sister.”
“No. That is not why I sent you here.”
I sit in the chair across from her. Leelee stands worried at the sink. I look at my mother. “Then why did you send me here?”
The room falls silent. Only the ticking clock connected to the old stove can be heard. I reach across the table and take my mother’s hand. “Mom?”
“Because I screwed up, Starlee. I moved mountains to keep you protected. I set up systems and security and everything we needed for you to be safe but it didn’t work. You found a loophole online. You snuck out and broke the rules and frankly I had a meltdown. All those years of vigilance and worry? What for? I figured there was only so much trouble you could get into here. I guess I didn’t realize how quickly you’d find it and latch on to it.”
“You may have kept me safe,” I say, trying not to shout, “but you made me fearful. Terrified. I spent the first half of this summer scared of my own shadow.”
“It’s one thing to protect someone,” Leelee says, “and it’s another to hinder them.”
“See?” my mother waves her hands in surrender. “I told you I screwed up.”
“Star,” Leelee says, “you did the best you could, no one is accusing you of anything different.”
My mother exhales with complete exhaustion. “If you want to know the real reason that I sent you here, it’s because I wanted you to have the childhood I had; safe, secure, busy.”
I frown. “You hated it here.”
She looks at Leelee. “I thought I did, but in hindsight it wasn’t so bad. I should have known that it’s changed like everything else in the world. The house next door wasn’t filled with handsome boys. And we didn’t have assaulters in the street.”
“It’s not that bad,” I protest, but to her I know it is.
“Well now that you’re back and in one piece, you can spend the day packing your stuff. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“What? No. The hearing is tomorrow!”
She shrugs. “And you won’t be there.”
“That’s not fair. Not to Dexter. He saved me.”
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