Shattered by Melody Carlson Read Free Book Online Page B

you be okay while I’m gone?” he directs to me.
    I just shrug. “I don’t see why not.”
    He nods as he dumps the contents of his mug into the sink. The black coffee leaves a dark streak on the white porcelain, which he doesn’t even rinse off. Mom wouldn’t like that. But she wouldn’t say a word either. She would simply scrub it clean and white just as soon as Dad was out of the kitchen.
    “Did you check the messages on the answering machine?” I ask him. “There were a lot of calls yesterday. I turned the volume off because I got so sick of hearing them.”
    “People mean well,” he says in a flat tone.
    “I guess.”
    “And I wrote down a couple of messages from this morning,” Aunt Kellie informs him. “They’re by the phone.” She points to me. “One call was for you, a girl named Lola. She said she’d called your cell phone, but you didn’t answer. So I explained about your mother.”
    “You told Lola? ”
    Aunt Kellie blinks at me. “Was there a reason not to tell her?”
    “No,” I snap at her. “Except that Lola is my best friend and if anyone was going to tell her about this, it should’ve been me.”
    “Then maybe you better call her. She sounded pretty upset when I told her...”
    But I am already on my way to my room. Grabbing my cell phone, I see that Lola has called me several times. I hit speed dial, and she answers on the first ring.
    “Cleo!” she cries. “What happened? Is it true what your aunt said?”
    “It’s true,” I say quietly.
    “Oh, Cleo! ” And now Lola is crying, which makes me start crying. And for several minutes we both just sob on the phone.
    “I wish I was there with you now,” she says in a broken voice. “I told Mom that I wanted to get on a plane and fly right back there, but she won’t let me. She says we can’t afford it.”
    “That’s okay. There’s really nothing you could do around here anyway.”
    “I could hug you,” she says in a slightly hurt tone. “And I could be there for you... and listen.”
    “Yeah... I know.”
    “How did it happen, Cleo? Was it like your aunt said? Was she really murdered?”
    “ Yeah. It happened on Friday night. The night you spent here.”
    “Wow, and we never even knew about it.”
    “They didn’t discover her—her body until Saturday morning.”
    “Did her death have anything to do with the bachelorette party?”
    “No, it happened after the party. Mom was in her car. The police think it was a carjacker.”
    “Oh, that’s so horrible. Unbelievable. I’m so sorry, Cleo. Is there anything I can do? I mean, besides pray for you. I’ve been doing that all morning.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I can’t even imagine what you must be going through right now.”
    “Yeah... it’s been pretty surreal. It actually kind of felt like I was going crazy last night.”
    “I’ll bet. Are you better now?”
    “I think I’m a little saner today.” Okay, that might be an overstatement, but no sense in worrying her too much.
    “Well, I’ll keep praying for you and your dad, too. I called the church prayer chain too, but someone there had already heard the news and they’ve been praying for you guys since yesterday.”
    “Oh...”
    “I just can’t believe the timing, Cleo. That the same day I move away, you find out your mom’s been killed. That’s just so weird.”
    “Yeah, it’s been hard. I should probably go now,” I say, even though I don’t really need to. “There’s a lot to do today.” Another lie. Lie upon lie upon lie. If my lies were bricks, I might be able to build a house. Or a box. Or a prison cell.
    “All right. But call me if I can do anything, okay? Even if it’s just to listen. You know I’m a good listener, Cleo.”
    “Yeah, I know. Thanks.” Then we say good-bye, and I turn off my phone. I really don’t want to talk to anyone today. Not even Lola. And the reason I don’t want to talk to Lola is because I’m not being completely honest with her. I didn’t tell her