The Cat Who Spent Nine Lives Saving Me Chapter 10
I thought our happy life had finally begun.
But on the morning of December twenty-seventh, pounding on the door woke me.
Sunny charged at the door, barking furiously. Silence fell outside for a moment, followed by my mother’s shrill voice.
“Elara Wynn, you couldn’t even come home for Christmas? Do you want us to think you’re dead?”
She forced her way inside, her gaze sweeping first over the register and then the livestream equipment.
“Your brother Nolan is getting married next month. The remaining wedding expenses and the down payment on his new apartment are both waiting for your year-end bonus. Meanwhile, you’re wasting your money on two filthy animals!”
“Mr. Carlson may be in his fifties, but he owns two construction companies. If you marry him, Nolan can get a job at his company, too. What kind of daughter is this selfish?”
She reached out to grab me, and my memories came crashing back.
“Mom, these are all my savings. My company laid me off. I’m not paying Nolan’s credit-card bills anymore.”
“The doctor says I have severe depression. I don’t want to live.”
Those hands, joints thickened by years of farmwork, had held mine when I was little. They had also torn up my college acceptance letter and forced me to stay in our town, get a job, and hand over my wages.
Back then, she had merely said coldly, “If you really want to die, then do it. Don’t use that to blackmail me. If you’re not going to die, marry Carlson.”
My eyes fell on the box cutter on the counter.
The world went suddenly silent. I lunged for it.
[Mom, look at Cat!]
Domino leaped onto the counter and swept the blade beneath the shelving with one paw. Sunny launched himself at my mother and bit into her calf.
She screamed and fell.
By the time I came to my senses, tears were streaming down my face. Domino burrowed into my arms and frantically licked my chin.
“Get out,” I screamed at my mother. “I don’t have a mother like you.”
She stared at me in disbelief.
“Elara, have you lost your mind?”