CH. 2. SECRETS REVEALED
Previously:
"Max," Val began after I finished wrapping Ari's hands. "There is something important I need to tell you." I raised my eyebrows at her, signaling her to continue.
"Max…I'm your mother."
Dr. M's POV
"Max" I began, unsure as of how to say this. "I'm your mother." Wow.
I waited for her reaction, but her face remained emotionless. Her eyes however, were swirling with them. There was anger, hate, worry, and another emotion that I never wanted her, or Ella, to feel; fear. Was she afraid of me, or was it something else?
Suddenly there was a shout from somewhere in the house.
"MAXIMUM! GET IN HERE, YOU SLUT!"
Was that Jeb? It sounded like him, but his voice was heavy, and his words were stringed together. And what was that about Max being a slut? Max certainly didn't look like one. She was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and washed out blue jeans. And the only make-up she was wearing was foundation. But why would she need that? Unless… no, it's not possible, is it?
Both Max and Ari froze. Max made gestures with her hands at Ari. He looked hesitant, but he nodded anyway.
Max left to wherever Jeb was and the living room was once again consumed in silence.
During this silence I began thinking; what was Max hiding? Her reaction wasn't what I expected. I certainly didn't expect her to be happy, no. The anger and hate I certainly expected, but I didn't think the hate would be so strong. What had Jeb told her? And what was with her limp? Did she have an accident? Or, did someone do that to her?
I was suddenly jolted out of my thoughts by a crash, a thud and a ripping sound.
Ari looked anxious and seemed contemplating something for a moment before running out. I looked at Ella and followed Ari. Without looking back, I knew she was following me.
Ari led us to the kitchen/dining room area where there was a sight that made me want to throw up and extremely angry at the same time.
There was broken glass from what looked like a beer bottle and a torn up shirt that looked like Max's. And Max was there on the floor with Jeb standing above her with a piece of the broken glass in is hand and appeared to be cutting Max's back. There was blood all around her, so he must have dug deep in her skin.
I jumped out of my stupor and, running on my sudden anger, charged at Jeb. As I did so I saw Ari shaking his head franticly out of the corner of my eye. I threw Jeb off of Max.
I looked at Max, and my anger immediately went away when I saw she was unconscious.
"Where's your bathroom?" I asked Ari.
"Follow me," his voice was strangely low and serious for a seven year old.
I asked Ella to help me carry Max, and she jumped as if electrocuted. She still had a dazed look on her face.
We got to the bathroom and I asked Ari to step out for a bit while I worked on Max.
"I've seen Maxi without a shirt on before. I know what to do." Well, I certainly wasn't expecting him to say that, and it made me extremely nervous. But, I let him stay anyway.
"Can you get me a wet rag?" I asked Ari. When I turned around, he already had one in his hand.
I began to gently wash away the blood and by the time the dry blood was gone, I was able to see what Jeb had been cutting into Max. There were various bruises and scars that looked several years old.
When I saw those, my blood boiled. BICTH, SLUT, WHORE, FAT, WORHTLESS, FAILURE, and many others that I refuse to say, were carved into her.
Max certainly wasn't fat; in fact I can see some of her ribs. And she most definitely isn't a failure. Even though I had to leave before she could barely toddle, I can still see the potential in her, though she was unconscious, I saw it when she was awake.
"Let me bandage her, she's my big sister," Ari almost begged, he was just so adorable that I couldn't resist the Bambi eyes he was giving me, so I let him bandage Max.
The way he did it was as if he'd done many times before. The look on his face was so much like Max's, it was scary.
When he finished, I couldn't help but notice that the bandages were a bit loose, so I pointed that out.
"Could you tighten them for me? I have to go deal with Jeb." He said that so innocently, it was hard to imagine this is what he had to go through every day.
I unwrapped then re-wrapped the bandages more tightly around Max's torso. Right when I finished she began to stir.
"Ella, help me carry her to her room." Thankfully, her room had her name on the door. Granted the name was wearing down, but it was still there. We set her down on her bed, after processing how small her room was.
In the corner I saw the guitar I bought before Max was born and felt a surge of pride.
"Mom," Ella spoke for the first time since we got here. "Can I talk to you?" I nodded and we stepped outside in the hallway. "We need to bring Max and Ari back with us."
"Don't worry Ella, we will."
"-please Mom, they can't stay here living like this-wait you said yes? Yes!"
We walked back into Max's room and saw that she was trying to sit up.
"You shouldn't do that. You'll hurt yourself." She just looked at me and continued to sit up.
I instinctively went to move a stray hair out of her face, but she just cringed slightly away from my touch. I slowly put my hand down, slightly upset, but I didn't think she would welcome me back into her life after fourteen years just like that. Especially when I came back with her half-sister that she never knew about.
We sat in silence for a moment until Max made a move to sit up.
"You need to rest. You lost quite a bit of blood down there. I don't even know how you're awake right now, but don't worry. You didn't lose enough to go to the hospital," I said pushing her back down gently.
She stood up against mine and Ella's protests, but they were meaningless. Max grabbed a pen and paper and wrote: Need to deal with Jeb, and left. Ella and I sat there until we simultaneously got up and followed Max.
Max, Ari, and a passed out Jeb, were in the living room.
"Max, Ari," I paused once again.
"We're taking you both back to Arizona with us," Ella blurted out.
Max made more gestures at Ari after a moment of her staring at us as if she was looking into our souls, I barely suppressed a shudder, but Ella did shudder.
"Why should I believe that you're my mother? And why should I trust you to take us across almost the entire continent when we just met?" Ari said.
I took off the locket that was around my neck, opened it up and showed it to her. The picture was of when she was a baby. Jeb was on the left and I was on the right, holding Max.
She stared into our souls once again, but more intense. It was as if she was trying to see our lie. When she saw that we were honest and sincere, she slowly and hesitantly nodded after those agonizing minutes of being stared down by my own daughter.
I smiled with relief and said, "You two should get packing, then. We have a motel room, and there is no way you guys are staying here one more night."
Max bent down to pick Ari up, but immediately gasped and winced and stood up, one arm bent awkwardly in order to hold her back, and the other around her ribs. Jeb must've broken one or two before we got to the kitchen/dining room.
Max instead grabbed one of Ari's hands, and walked upstairs to pack. Ari let go of her hand and instead he let Max lean on him for support.
After a few minutes they came back down with a duffle bag, a back pack and Max's guitar.
Once we'd put their stuff in the trunk except the guitar that was in the backseat with Max and Ari, we headed to the motel.
I looked in my rearview mirror and saw Ari huddled into Max's side and snoring. Max was running her hands through his spikey hair while he slept, and was looking out the window at all the houses, mailboxes and trees that seemed to zoom by.
I'm no psychic, but I could tell that this was going to be a new start for the both of them. Maybe even for Ella and I.
Oh my Cheeseburgers! Thank you so much! I honestly never thought I would get this many reads and reviews. Sorry this chapter's so short, that just felt like a good place to end it.
I got told off for putting lyrics here, so I won't be putting entire songs on here any more.
I'll be honest; I only made this account out of fun and because my head was going to explode from not telling anyone about this. But having people actually read it, is just, unbelievable.
I will now ask a question out of pure randomness:
Would you prefer to ride a magical unicorn through a field of sunflowers with rainbow lasers coming out of your hands, or ride Jake the Dog with Finn the Human through the land of Ooo with Ice King shooting ice lasers in the sky?