Every Wound We Mend by J.E. Parker

Author:J.E. Parker [Parker, J.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

I found Melody crying in the kitchen.

But much to my surprise, she wasn’t alone.

After sneaking through the back door, at least that’s what I assumed since it was still hanging wide open, letting the humid heat spill into the air-conditioned house, Liam—Brantley and Clara’s fourteen-year-old son—stood next to where she sat at the wooden table, her sweet face buried in her crossed arms.

“Melly Belly,” he whispered, his expression one of mounting distress as he shifted his weight between his feet, lost on what to do with himself. Then, not seeing me, where I lurked right outside the doorway, just out of sight, he continued. “Why are you crying?” His face hardened. “And who made you do it? Just tell me, and I’ll—”

The chair where Melody had her culo parked made a God-awful scraping sound when she abruptly stood, sending it flying backward and almost out the open door. Shoving her straightened arms down at her sides, she fisted her trembling hands.

“I’m crying because I don’t like her!”

Liam blinked. “Who?”

More red splotches bloomed on her little cheeks, a temper I hadn’t known she possessed, though I wasn’t surprised considering her lineage, making an appearance. “Kendra!”

My brows bent at the shouted name. I didn’t know who Kendra was, but as I stood there seething, I wondered if I needed to find a closet to shove her into as punishment for making Melody cry.

It was a fleeting thought, however. I wouldn’t do such a thing to a child. Honestly, I wouldn’t, no matter how badly I wanted to.

Her madre, though...

“And you aren’t going to do anything because she’s your girlfriend!” she continued to scream, snaring my focus from the criminal-like plans I’d started to concoct and causing my glossed lips to part, mouth falling right open.

Girlfriend? Dios mío!

Melody stomped her foot on the ground and screeched, really putting the dramatics she’d inherited from her father on full display. “She may be pretty, Liam Nicholas Morgan”—I gasped, my right hand clutching my imaginary pearls when she called him by his full name—“but she’s meaner than a peed-off rattlesnake, and I hope her dumb lips fall off so she can’t kiss you no more!”

I blinked, my ire rising, as the real-life telenovela before me continued to play out, and Liam scowled. “Kendra’s mean to you?”

Melody started to cry again, the tears that had temporarily ceased now falling in rivulets down her flushed face. “Only all the time,” she replied, breaking my heart. “She calls me ugly and stupid, and I don’t want to see her again!” Her shoulders shook. “Never ever again!”

Losing her fight, Melody slumped against the table. Chin wobbling, she looked up at Liam from beneath her soaked black lashes. “She called me ugly because I have freckles like Mama and Maci, and stupid because she saw Bella trying to help me read better.”

More of her tears fell.

“Do you think I’m ugly?”

Liam’s face fell, his heart obviously breaking for her. Much like mine. But downright irate, I’d had it and refused to give him the chance to say the wrong thing when she was at her most vulnerable.

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