Chapter 6 - Cornered in the Dark
Halfway up the steep embankment, my foot slipped on a patch of loose shale. I fell hard against the dirt, scraping my palms raw and losing my grip on the yellow USB drive. It tumbled downward, bouncing down the slope toward the bottom of the hill.
"No!" I cried out, sliding down three feet to snatch it before it disappeared into a drainage culvert. My fingers closed around the plastic casing just as a hand grabbed my ankle from below.
It was Evelyn.
She had followed Richard through the train gap, her expensive clothes covered in dirt, her face contorted with unhinged rage. "You ruined everything, Clara! Mom and I spent years building our reputation! We won't let you drag us down!"
She yanked my foot, trying to pull me back down the hill.
"Let go of me!" I screamed, kicking wildly with my free leg.
"Give me the drive!" Evelyn shrieked, reaching up to grab at the manila envelope tucked into my coat. "You don't deserve that money! You're nothing without us! You've always been nothing!"
For years, those words would have paralyzed me. For years, I would have believed her, bowed my head, and let her take whatever she wanted. But as I looked back down at her twisted, hateful face, the fog of a lifetime of manipulation completely dissolved. I wasn't the weak, broken girl she had spent a decade belittling. I was a mother protecting her child.
"I am not nothing," I said, my voice dropping to a icy, fierce whisper. "And I am done letting you parasite off my life."
I used all the leverage I had against the hillside to drive my heel directly down onto her hand. Evelyn howled in pain, releasing my ankle. I scrambled upward instantly, reaching the top of the embankment where Lily stood weeping and holding out her small hands to help pull me over the crest.
We collapsed onto the grassy shoulder of State Route 9.
Across the four-lane highway sat the county weigh station, and parked right outside was a bright white and gold State Trooper cruiser.
"Mom, look! The police!" Lily pointed.
May you like
"Run, Lily!" I gasped, pulling her along as we sprinted toward the pedestrian crossing.
Behind us, Evelyn scrambled to the top of the hill, covered in mud and gasping for air, but she froze when she saw the state trooper stepping out of his vehicle, his hand resting cautiously on his belt holster as he observed two distressed, dirt-streaked people running across the highway toward him.
