Everyone in My Family Remembered What I Did, Except Me Chapter 08

Everyone in My Family Remembered What I Did, Except Me Chapter 08

“Ma’am, the balance has been transferred out. Are you sure you want to close this account?”

The teller’s voice pulled me back.

I confirmed it, signed everything, and closed the account.

Sylvia called almost immediately.

“Maddie, why did you close that account?”

“I wanted to send more money back to you.”

I dropped the warm, dutiful daughter act.

I shouted into the phone in the nastiest voice I could manage.

“That’s my card and my money. Why should the two of you get to burn through it?”

“Let me tell you something. I pulled the cash and I closed the account. You’re never getting another

dollar out of me.”

“Maddie, what’s gotten into you?”

I smiled, and I dropped my voice into something low and ugly.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”

“You already told the host about me, and now you want to send her back for treatment.”

“You want me gone. Keep dreaming. It’s never going to happen.”

I hung up before she could say anything else.

For the next hour, my parents and Simon took turns blowing up my phone.

I blocked all three numbers.

Then, a little after ten that night, a text came in from a number I didn’t know.

Monica: [Madeline, this is Dr. Quinn. Text me back when you see this.]

I raised an eyebrow and called her instead.

“Dr. Quinn, you were looking for me?”

I’d gone right back to sounding harmless.

She was thrown for a second, and then she steadied herself.

“Yes. Your parents said you weren’t yourself today.”

“They thought you seemed very worked up, and I was worried your condition might be getting

worse, so I wanted to check in:”

She’d taken the bait, so I put on a panicked voice.

I told her I didn’t remember contacting my family at all that day.

“Dr. Quinn, what do I do? Is it getting worse?”

Monica hesitated before she spoke again.

She told me to come back as soon as I could so we could talk in person.

I agreed without a fight.

That same night, I booked a flight home for the next morning.

Monica was already there when I arrived.

“Mom, Dad, Simon.”

Every one of their faces was grim, and they were watching me the way people watch a suspect.

Thinking about what they’d done to me, I dropped the last of my dignity and flipped in an instant.

“Aaaaah!”

I screamed like I’d lost my mind.

I ran out the front door and pounded on every neighbor’s door in the hall.

Within a couple of minutes, doors were opening up and down the floor.

The timing was right, so I dropped onto the hallway floor and started wailing.

I pointed at Simon and Monica and let them have it.

“The two of you are sleeping together and robbing me blind!”

“You made up an illness so you could take everything I own! You’re trying to destroy me!”

Then I rolled over and looked at my parents.

“And the two of you always took his side!”

“You were willing to starve yourselves just to help them run their con on me.”

“Every dollar of it went to my brother and that woman!”

My parents’ faces went gray.

Gordon rushed over to clamp a hand over my mouth.

Simon grabbed hold of me and tried to drag me back into the apartment.

The guilt written on both of them made me even more certain that everything I’d guessed was tr

Thinking about how Simon knew the truth and still felt fine about using my money to keep his

girlfriend, I lost the rest of my temper.

I hit and kicked at him with everything I had.

Monica saw it and forgot she was supposed to be my treating physician.

She told the neighbors I was mentally ill and asked them to help restrain me.

I turned around and looked her dead in the face.

“Who’s mentally ill? You’re the one who’s sick.”

I brought my hand up and slapped her.

Monica went sideways, her face hit the wall, and her nose started bleeding.

My parents cried out, and Simon dropped everything and ran over to help her up.

He shot her a look while he did it.

Monica caught on immediately and clutched her belly.

I saw what they were going for and flipped again before they could get there.

I slid to the floor and looked around at everyone with a blank, lost expression.

“What just happened to me?”