Overcome by Emily Camp Read Free Book Online Page A

her.
    “Hey, honey.” A faint smile appeared on her face. “Couldn’t sleep?” she tilted her head and brought her large cup to her mouth.
    “No,” his voice scratched and he ran his hand over his head.
    “Want me to make you some warm milk?” She was the only mother who cared about him. He remembered little of his real mom, but what he could she was never like her. Mindy was never caring or comforting. She was distant and didn’t nurture. He often wondered how much different he would be if he would have been raised by his real mom.
    “That’s what I’m having.”
    “Do you … are you scared?” He stepped toward her.
    She didn’t answer right away, though he hadn’t told her yes to her question, she retrieved the milk from the fridge, pouring the liquid in the already heated pot on the stove.  “Do you remember when we used to do this?”
    A lump rose to his throat. Parker was tormented with night terrors after being taken from his real mom and brought here, to family Mindy never let him meet. On nights he woke screaming with sweat dripping from him, worried he’d be taken, Linda, the mom who adopted him, the one who stood so small in front of him, would fix him warm milk and sing or just talk, reassuring him, those were just dreams.
    “Yeah.” Why didn’t he have anything else to say? He just wanted her to reassure him again that everything would be okay. That nobody was going to take her from him.
    His mom poured his warmed milk into a matching brown mug and handed it to him. He followed her to the kitchen table that seemed so large and empty without the rest of the family.
    “You didn’t answer me,” he finally said as she brought her milk to her mouth again.
    She nodded, twirling the mug around in a circle. The large windows behind them, nearly taking up the entire wall, let in blue moon light. “I can’t think about it right now,” she reached over and covered Parker’s hand with hers. It was cold and dry. Not the soft warmth he remembered. “I’ve been thinking. And you should go back to Cambrooke and find your sisters and your mom.”
    He swallowed his milk. “I ...” he sat his mug down on the wooden surface. “You’re my mom. Kammie’s my sister.”
    His mother’s eyes wrinkled in the corners as she stared at him. “It’s not your sisters’ fault you were taken away and brought to us.”
    He took a large gulp of air into his lungs. It was enough he had to deal with his mom’s health. Now she wanted him to deal with the past he’d fought so hard to get over.
    “You’ve had a long year,” she whispered.
    “We all have.” He pushed his milk away.
    “Yes, but when you first came here you missed them and, Parker, life is way too short to not try to get in touch. They’re your family, too.”
    He scratched the top of his head. She was right. He needed to go back, to see Bree and Maggie again. To get to know them and Bryson, his little brother he never knew about.
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 9
    Carly
     
    The classroom was even worse than Carly could imagine. It smelled like stale cigarettes and body odor. The few whistles and crude comments made her skin crawl as she sat down in the empty front row.
    The teacher, Mr. Green, was hunched over papers at his desk. His dark hair was slick with perspiration and the arm pits of his blue short sleeved button up were damp.  He looked up when the guy’s comments became louder.
    “All right, all right.” He clapped his hands in the air, only giving everyone a better view of his sweaty pits. The commotion lowered, but didn’t cease.
    Carly gripped her hands around her desk like it would create a barrier between her and the lions she shared the room with.
    Mr. Green rose to his feet and clapped again, only making the guys clap back. One pimply, BO emitting stoner, moved to the seat next to her. The scraping metal legs on the desk echoed as he slid his seat closer.
    “Okay, sexual harassment rules still apply in the summer time,