Part 2 | Chapter 24
(Three Months Earlier, June 2025)
My mother is a monster. I know I’m not supposed to say that, society frowns judgmentally on this degree of honesty when it comes to discussing one’s mother. But I don’t take it back, because this has been my lifelong reality.
I’ve just slipped into a much-needed, fitful sleep when my phone on the nightstand begins violently buzzing with an incoming call. It jolts my entire body as if someone has thrown a bucket of ice water in my face, and for a second, I cannot make sense of the sound or place its origin. My phone so rarely rings, and never in the middle of the night. The clock on the dresser reads 11:58 p.m. as I reach over to make the obnoxious sound stop.
It’s a blocked number and I’m about to send it to voicemail when I remember, it could be the police.
