SHORTS FROM THE SHELF features short serialized fiction by author Shannon Muir, administrator of SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF, that may be later released as part of e-book or print collections. The story line featured over the next three Saturdays is “The Price of Love”. This is Part 3 of 3.
WATCH FOR A SPECIAL SHORTS FROM THE SHELF COMING FEBRUARY 1ST THROUGH 14TH, THEN RETURNING TO REGULAR SCHEDULED SATURDAYS BEGINNING FEBRUARY 16TH, 2019!
“Wait. How are you my mother? I’ve seen pictures of my mother pregnant. I know she had a child!”
“This really should all wait for the station,” the cop recommended.
“I can’t leave her not knowing!” Ms. Flannery snapped at the cop. Emma watched as the maid’s focus returned to her.
“Your grandmother’s daughter had a child. It didn’t live. I couldn’t take care of you. So I let at them take you in exchange for a job working to look after you. Everyone knew the daughter would run off again. You’d need someone to take care of you. It worked for all of us.”
“But then this isn’t really my family,” Emma cried out.
She saw Ms. Flannery hang her head, ashamed.
“Actually, yes it is. I worked as an intern at your grandfather’s company. I was young and impressionable.”
“You mean the man I thought was my grandfather.”
Ms. Flannery kept her head down.
“So all this time, my father and stepmother raised me alongside their own children? No one had the decency to tell me right when I was an adult so I could make my own decisions about my life, not even you, Ms. Flannery. Don’t you expect me to call you Mother now. It took the stress of the police coming down on your to make you crack. How long did you expect to keep up this charade?”
“I did what I did because I love you,” Ms. Flannery whispered.
“It doesn’t seem like love to me,” Emma replied harshly.
At this point, the cop interrupted. Emma couldn’t begin to imagine how awkward this exchange must be to observe, but honestly did not care.
“I really suggest, Ms. Flannery, that you come give a full report at the station. We can give everyone a full accounting once we have a complete picture of the facts.”
“Go,” Emma said, turning her head away. All these years she’d loved Ms. Flannery like a mother. Now, learning the woman truly to be her mother, the heartbreak of betrayal filled her heart.
Soon, her grandmother – no, stepmother – would return from Africa. She’d hear her side of the story then. Then they all would learn that the price of protecting her for her love would be to lose it.
WATCH FOR A SPECIAL SHORTS FROM THE SHELF COMING FEBRUARY 1ST THROUGH 14TH, THEN RETURNING TO REGULAR SCHEDULED SATURDAYS BEGINNING FEBRUARY 16TH, 2019!
