You Told Me To Walk So I Walked Right Out Of Your Lives Chapter 06
My mother’s outstretched hand froze in midair.
She looked at me, her eyes red-rimmed. “What do you mean? You still won’t forgive us?”
I shook my head. “We had an agreement. Once I paid back the money, we’d separate. I’ve raised enough.”
My father’s expression turned ugly.
“Enough! How long are you going to keep this up over one little thing?”
“We’ve already admitted we were wrong. Why are you still acting like this?”
Ronan spoke up, too. “Amaris, family would never hurt you.”
“Besides, nothing that serious happened to you in the end, did it? Why are you still clinging to this?”
I looked at them, suddenly feeling as if I couldn’t understand their language.
“Mr. Santoro, Mrs. Santoro, Ronan… what you mean is that being locked up for twelve hours and having my hand broken doesn’t count as anything serious.”
“And that after I saved someone, being treated like the one who hurt her doesn’t matter, either.”
“Do you have to see me dead in the water before you’ll think it’s serious?”
They all fell silent.
Miller stood nearby, her expression grim.
I opened my backpack and took out a check.
“This is fifty thousand dollars.”
“It includes the school award, the money I made from my drawings, and every cent I’ve saved over the years.”
“You gave me a small amount of pocket money each year.”
“As for tuition, I applied for student loans and financial aid myself. You never paid for it.”
“Most of my clothes came from charities. You didn’t pay for those, either.”
“What you gave me was an attic room that could barely fit a bed, and lasagna twice. Fifty thousand dollars is more than enough.”
I placed the check in my mother’s hand.
“Thank you, Santoro family, for taking me in all these years. From now on, we go our separate ways.”