Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/n: I'm really sorry for the wait. My computer has been going crazy and my dad had to fix it. Unfortunately, while he was fixing it, I lost the next two chapters of this story, so I'm starting over from scratch. I hope you like them, though.
B: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Sorry for the wait.
SweetNJuicyXO: All will be revealed in this chapter.
TygrLily: Thank you and I might just tae you up on your offer sometime.
Chapter Four
Heated Phone Call
Mac had long since left the library, opting to go back to her dorm room. After she had opened the box Adam had given her, she knew she wasn't going to get any studying done.
"It's now or never, Mac," she muttered to herself. She picked up the phone to call her mother.
"Hello? Is anyone out there?" a boy's voice came.
"Tate, put my mother on the phone, please." Mac said.
"Why should I?" Tate, Mac's 14-year-old stepbrother, answered.
"Because if you don't, someone will find out about your stash of porno. The one's you keep in your tree house." she threatened.
"Yes ma'am." Tate gulped and handed the phone over to Mac's mother.
"Yes dear?"
"Is my life a game to you?" Mac asked, barely able to contain her anger.
"Excuse me? Have you been inhaling the fumes from the chemistry lab, again, Mackenzie? You're not making any sense."
"Answer the question, Mother. Is my life a game to you?" Mac shouted at her.
"No, your life is not a game to me." Contessa Williams sigh, exasperated with her daughter.
"Really, because my lif experience says otherwise. First, you rip me away from my father in the worst custody battle that courtroom had ever seen. In the process of that, the two of you pit Liam and me against each until we were ready to tear each other apart; we hated each other so much.
"As if that wasn't enough, you tear me away from my best friend, and move me to New York so that you can further advance your career. Which you quit altogether when you marry the world's worst human being; opting instead to become a stay at home mother. Then we all move, again. And you send me to a private Catholic school, and we're not Catholic, we're Lutheran!
"But despite all that, I still came out on top. I'm back in Minnesota, with my "pregnant whore of a best friend", as you so eloquently put it. And you will never guess whom I ran into my first day on campus. We' made a horrible scene on the front lawn. Adam Banks. You know the one. He was two years older than, and my best friend. Until you ripped me away from him and sent his letters back, causing me to hate him with a fiery passion. And I ask again, is my life a game to you, Mother?" Mac asked, wiping the tears from her face.
"Oh dear." was all her mother could say.
"You had damn well better have some answers for me, Mother. Because if hang up on me, you can bet your ass that I will be one the next plane home. I will bang down the door and follow you around like a lost puppy until you do have answers for me. Do you understand me?"
"There is no reason to swear, Mackenzie. There was a good reason why I sent Adam's letters back."
"I'm listening."
"When we first got to New York, you were so anti-social. You made no attempts to make new friends. All you did was write letter after letter to that boy. It was unhealthy. I knew you were never going to see him again. And vice versa. So I sent his letters back, unopened. I figured that after awhile he would get the message. That you didn't want anything to do with him.
"It took a year and a half. He held out longer than you did. By the time he stopped sending letters, we were packing up to move, so I didn't bother sending him a change of address card. I didn't want to encourage the boy."
"Well, you fucked up royally, Mother. Adam kept every single letter that you sent back. In a shoebox. And I'm staring at it, right now. And as soon as I hang up, I plan to read every single letter. Just a piece of advice, Mother. My life is not a game, and I am not a chess piece. You can't control me, anymore. I will not be coming home for Thanksgiving, and I probably won't be coming home for Christmas, either."
"I understand that you are upset with me, Mackenzie, but is it really fair for you to take out your anger with me on your brothers. They all miss you, very much. Please come home, if not for me, then for them."
"We'll see. Good day, and good-bye." Mac hung up the phone before her mother could answer. The phone slipped from her hands, as she fell to the floor and cried.
Cambridge Valley, New York
Contessa Williams slowly hung the phone up from talking with her daughter. And for the first time in twelve years, she finally realized that when she thought she had been helping her daughter, she had not.
She sighed and picked up the phone again.
"Hello, Banks residence, this is Helen speaking." came a voice she had not heard in a long time.
"Helen, it's Connie. We have a problem."
St. Paul, Minnesota
Mac finally picked herself up off the floor and set out to find Adam's apartment.