She Chose Her Abuser Over Me

01

If you dare call the cops on my boyfriend, I'll kill myself right here in front of you!

I stood there holding the medical report on her injuries, one step away from handing it to the police.

But my daughter had a knife pressed to her own wrist, screaming her lungs out to protect the little thug who'd put her in the hospital.

I looked at her, at that face ready to die for love, and asked her coldly:

Did you forget how he pinned you down in the bathroom last month and slapped you until you couldn't stand?

I finally got every piece of evidence together. Why would I drop the case?

Because he's the only person I've ever loved! He just never got enough love growing up. Someone like you who only knows how to make money, some cold-blooded freak, you'll never understand him!

You have to pick this exact moment to ruin his whole life. You don't deserve to be anyone's mother!

I stared at her for a long time, then set the report down on the table.

Fine. I'll give you two choices.

Either I call the police right now and Eugene Dickerson goes to prison.

Or I don't call, but starting today, we are no longer mother and daughter.

My daughter didn't hesitate for even a second.

Then we're done!

As long as you let him go, I'll pretend I never had a mother like you!

I looked at her, this hopeless, lovesick girl beyond saving, and nodded calmly:

All right. I won't call the police.

I just hope that when he's gambled away every cent and hands you over to settle his debts, you'll still be able to save him with your love.

The words were barely out when Evelyn Summers dropped the utility knife.

She couldn't get her phone out fast enough, crying as she called Eugene Dickerson.

Babe, my mom agreed not to report it.

I gave up my own mother for you. Come hold me, hurry.

Less than ten minutes later, the doorbell rang.

Eugene strolled in like he owned the place, a cheap dollar iced coffee in one hand.

He shoved the drink into Evelyn's hands and slid an arm around her waist.

Right in front of me, he leaned in and kissed her.

Baby, I knew you'd never give up on me.

Evelyn's tears started again.

Eugene, you're all I have.

He patted her on the back and lifted his eyes to me, wearing the look of a man who'd won.

Don't worry, Aunt Chloe Henson. I'll love Evelyn with my life from now on.

I was so angry I laughed.

You cracked her ribs. That's loving her with your life?

Eugene curled his lip, not caring in the slightest.

Couples fight. Who hasn't lost it once or twice?

She was standing there chatting with some guy from her class, and I got jealous and lost my temper. That's only because I care about her so much.

Evelyn jumped in the second she heard it.

Mom, you hear that?

He just loves me too much. He didn't hit me on purpose.

I looked at the left side of her face, still swollen, the bruise not gone yet.

Whatever softness was left in my chest went out completely.

To raise her, I'd walked away from the divorce with nothing.

Accountant at a company by day, doing the books at a restaurant by night, taking freelance bookkeeping jobs on weekends.

She said she wanted a better high school, so I paid two hundred thousand a year to put her in a private international high school.

She said her classmates all wore designer labels, so I ate plain dinner rolls for two straight months to buy her a thirty-thousand-dollar down coat.

And she was nineteen and still hadn't graduated, skipping class constantly, until she just moved in with Eugene.

Six months ago, she got pregnant.

Eugene said he had no money and sent her to a back-alley clinic in an alley for the procedure.

By the time I reached the hospital, she was lying in the emergency room.

And Eugene was at an internet cafe, playing games.

I found him with the emergency bill still in my hand.

Evelyn almost died. Why didn't you take her to a real hospital?

He didn't even turn his head, eyes locked on the screen.

Real hospitals cost a fortune.

Besides, the kid wasn't only mine. She enjoyed it too, didn't she?

I slapped him across the face right then and there.

But when Evelyn woke up, the first thing out of her mouth was blame for me.

Who gave you the right to hit Eugene?

He already feels terrible about it, and you keep pushing him. Are you trying to drive him to his death?

Last month, when he beat her into the hospital, I couldn't take it anymore and filed for a protective order.

Before the hearing, Eugene gave her a silver ring and called her his wife a few times.

She changed her story on the stand, told the judge she'd fallen and hurt herself.

Then she got down on her knees and begged the judge not to tear them apart.

The thing that finally killed any hope in me was the gold necklace my mother left me.

It was the one keepsake my grandmother had left her, and I'd kept it locked in the safe.

Evelyn stole it. Her excuse was that her boyfriend needed capital to start a business.

A necklace is just a thing. People matter more.

If Grandma knew I'd found real love, she'd support me too.

The memory stopped there, and my stomach turned over.

I pointed at the door.

Get out.

But Eugene didn't move. He held out his hand, brazen as ever.

Aunt Chloe, cutting ties is one thing, but Evelyn's hundred thousand in startup money, you'll need to transfer that over first.

02

I looked at his entitled face and, for a moment, didn't know what to say.

"What startup money?"

"I'm opening a motorcycle club. Evelyn's already agreed to buy in."

Eugene shoved his payment code right up in front of me, even jiggling it for emphasis.

"You've got plenty. A hundred grand is nothing to you."

Evelyn chimed in too.

"This is the last time I'll ever ask you for help."

"Give the money to Eugene, and whether we do well or not from here on, it's none of your business."

I took out my phone.

"Fine. I'll take care of it right now."

They thought I was about to transfer the money. Smug little smiles spread across both their faces as they leaned in.

I opened my banking app.

Right there in front of them, I cancelled every one of Evelyn's supplementary cards and her shared-payment access.

The second the deactivation notice popped up on the screen, Evelyn's face changed.

"What is this supposed to mean?"

"Didn't you want to cut ties?"

I revoked every family spending privilege under her name, not pausing for a second.

"You want it cut, then let's cut it clean."

"From now on, what you wear, what you eat, where you live, who you date, whatever you start up, none of it has anything to do with me."

Evelyn panicked and snatched the phone out of my hand.

"What gives you the right to freeze my cards?"

I pulled it back.

"The cards are mine. The money's mine."

"But I'm your daughter!" she shrieked.

I looked at her. "Who was it, just now, that told me to pretend I never had a mother?"

Shame flipped straight into rage.

"Eugene's starting this business for our future. Helping him is helping me."

"You won't even part with this little bit of money. That's not love, you just want to control me!"

I didn't have a scrap of extra feeling to spare her.

"Are you done?"

"If you're done, get out."

Eugene couldn't keep his face straight anymore. He spat on the floor and dragged Evelyn toward the door.

"Fine, we're leaving. Who wants her dirty money anyway."

"Baby, even if I have to live on instant ramen, I'll never let you go hungry."

Evelyn started crying again, moved to tears, and spun around to yell at me.

"Don't think I can't live without you."

"Eugene can take care of me."

"A cold-blooded freak like you, all you know how to do is count money. You deserve to die alone!"

I shut the door and cut her voice off completely.

I called Lawyer Lambert.

"Draw up a statement severing the mother-daughter relationship for me."

He was quiet for a few seconds on the other end.

"Ms. Henson, a biological mother-daughter relationship can't be dissolved by a statement under the law."

"Then sever everything that can be severed."

I stood by the window, looking down at the two figures clinging to each other below.

"Revoke her access to my bank cards, my car, and my house."

"From now on, if she borrows money, cosigns anything, or collects funds in my name, none of it has anything to do with me."

That night, an unknown number called.

I picked up, and my ex-husband Malcolm Summers's voice came exploding out of the receiver.

"Chloe, how could you throw your own daughter out?"

I twitched the corner of my mouth.

"News travels fast. So you do remember you have a daughter."

"What kind of thing is that to say! She's my flesh and blood! She says you cut off her living expenses."

Malcolm cursed and grumbled.

"What kind of mother are you, this cruel?"

I reached over and switched on the call recording.

"Malcolm, ten years ago you cheated on me with your secretary. At the divorce you said the company was short on cash and paid not one cent of child support."

"And now you come lecturing me on how to be a mother. Are you even fit to?"

There was a beat of hesitation on the line, then he forced out one last shred of dignity.

"I may not have given money, but I've always loved Evelyn, in my heart."

I laughed out loud.

"Can the love in your heart pay tuition?"

"When she was three, in the hospital with pneumonia, I asked to borrow five thousand from you. You said you were out celebrating some other woman's birthday."

"When she was ten and had her appendix out, you said your new wife didn't like you contacting your ex."

"Now she's eighteen, and suddenly you show up playing the doting father."

Shame turned into rage.

"Isn't that because you raised her wrong?"

"All you ever cared about was making money. She was starved for love, that's why she fell for Eugene."

So that was where he'd been leading.

"Right. You've got love."

"Then from today, she's yours to manage."

With that, I hung up and blocked the number.

03

At eleven that night, a friend sent me a screenshot.

Evelyn's latest post.

In the photo she and Eugene were sitting at a curb sharing a bowl of spicy stew, both grinning like the happiest people alive.

The caption read: "True love conquers everything. Free at last from my cold-blooded mother's control."

Malcolm was the first to like it.

He'd even left a comment: "Your father will always support you chasing true love. Don't listen to your mom."

I looked at it and tapped like too.

Then I blocked them both.

Early the next morning, I went to the private international high school where Evelyn was enrolled.

I withdrew her on the spot. The refunded tuition came to a hundred and eight thousand.

At three that afternoon, an unknown number called again.

Behind the voice I could hear the background music of a shopping mall.

Evelyn's fury was barely held down, and she practically ground the words out at me.

"Why did you cut off the shared payment account?"

"Didn't I already tell you yesterday?"

"I'm your daughter! I thought you were just trying to scare me!" Her voice shot up.

"I was buying Eugene shoes, and when I went to pay it said insufficient balance. There were dozens of people behind me who all saw it."

"The clerk even asked if my card had been frozen. Do you know how humiliating that was?"

Faintly, off to the side, I could hear Eugene cursing.

"No money and still playing generous. Wasted my whole afternoon picking those out."

Evelyn panicked.

"Babe, don't go, I'll figure something out."

She was calling after Eugene, then she whipped back to the phone and unloaded on me.

"Mom, restore the limit right now."

"Eugene's had his eye on those shoes forever. They're only thirteen thousand."

I listened to that self-righteous tone, and not a ripple stirred in me.

"Go find your true love."

"If he's man enough to keep you, one pair of shoes shouldn't be a problem."

"Are you only happy when you can watch us fight?"

Evelyn started twisting everything around.

"Eugene just walked off angry because of you. Are you satisfied now?"

"Pretty satisfied, yes."

"Chloe Henson!" It was the first time she'd called me by my full name.

"You ruined my love, and I'll never forgive you as long as I live!"

"Good. I don't need it anyway."

I hung up, clean and quick.

Half an hour later, the bank sent a risk alert.

Evelyn was trying to apply for an online loan using the personal information I'd given her before.

She really had never once spared a thought for whether I lived or died.

I changed the passwords on every account right away and filed identity-theft risk statements with several banks.

Then I called an agent and put the house on the market.

This was the house Evelyn had lived in her whole life.

She knew the door code, and property management had her face on file for entry.

I wasn't about to stay here and wait for them to come bleed me dry.

The agent looked over the place and asked me.

"Ms. Henson, a quick sale means over a hundred grand below market. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"When can you move out?"

"The moment I get the deposit."

On the third day, the house sold for a hundred and twenty thousand under market.

The buyer paid in full, and the paperwork went through fast.

I rented a studio apartment near the office.

The elevator needed a facial scan, the door had a fingerprint lock, and any visitor had to register at the front desk.

The day I moved, I took only my clothes, my documents, and the old photo album my mother had left me.

Evelyn's childhood award certificates, the discontinued toys I'd bought her, all her old birthday gifts.

I packed every bit of it into boxes.

Then I shipped it straight to Malcolm's current address.

That same night, Malcolm texted me from a new number.

"Why'd you ship me all this junk? And cash-on-delivery?"

I sent back four words.

"A father's love, C.O.D."

04

My first night in the new apartment, I poured myself a glass of red wine.

For the first time in nineteen years, breathing felt easy.

No more leaving a light on late into the night, waiting for Evelyn to come home.

No more lying awake, sick with worry over whether Eugene had hit her again.

And no more watching the money drain out of my bank account, one transfer at a time, straight into that little punk's pocket.

I slept better that night than I had in almost ten years.

The next morning, an out-of-state number woke me up.

Malcolm launched straight into cursing me out.

"Chloe, you sold the house?"

"And that's your business how?"

"That house was supposed to go to Evelyn someday. What gives you the right to sell it?"

I walked to the sink and turned on the faucet.

"The deed's in my name."

"But she's your daughter!"

"Then why don't you leave your house to her?"

Malcolm stalled, his voice losing half its steam.

"I have a family now. It's a different situation."

"You have a family, so I'm supposed to cover for your daughter?"

"Evelyn had no money for food yesterday. She cried all night."

Malcolm started laying on the guilt.

"Just wire the child support to my account from now on. I'll hold it for her."

"She's well into her twenties. What child support?"

"And you never paid a cent of it. Where do you get the nerve to manage it for her?"

Seeing he couldn't out-argue me, Malcolm shuffled around on his end for a moment, then just handed the phone off.

"Ma'am, it's me."

Eugene's lazy, insolent voice came down the line.

"Selling the house to hide from us, huh?"

"I'm giving you one last chance."

"Your daughter's with me right now."

"I'm in a good mood, she gets to eat."

"I'm in a bad mood, well, you can figure out what her life looks like."

Right on cue, Evelyn's crying came through the phone.

"Mom, just give him the money."

"Eugene's under so much stress these days. He smashed the TV, and he sold my phone."

Hearing her cry, the hand around my water glass went still for a few seconds.

She was, after all, the daughter I'd raised for twenty-three years, since she was no bigger than my palm.

But her next words shattered every last shred of that instinctive ache.

"Just transfer two hundred thousand first, and Eugene said he'll redo the wedding for me."

"Mom, this is the one wish I have in my whole life. Can't you give me that?"

I closed my eyes. My voice came out cold as ice.

"Did he hit you again?"

Evelyn went quiet for a moment, then fished for an excuse, careful.

"He only pushed me."

"Then call the police."

"I won't!" She panicked at once. "If the cops come, it'll ruin the rest of his life."

I laughed, furious.

"He hits you, and you blame me for not giving money."

"He sells your phone, and you still blame me for not giving money."

"Evelyn, has it ever once crossed your mind that the problem is him?"

"He'd never be like this if you weren't pushing us!" She shouted it, righteous, nothing in her voice but resentment for me.

I had nothing left to say.

You can never argue someone out of a sleep they're only pretending to be in.

Eugene took the phone back.

"You get all that, ma'am?"

"You don't pay up, I'll bring my boys to your company and drag your name through the mud."

I looked at my own calm face in the mirror.

"Go ahead."

"I'll be waiting for you."