Blissful Devastation (Leighton Lock Chronicles #1) by A.T. Smith Page B

herself up. “Don't worry about the money, I’ll find a way but you can't
be here, I won't let you.”
    “Okay.” She says, her sniffles sounding aloud as she
struggles to walk beside me. I take her out to my car, settling her into the 
seat before going indoors to pack her some things up to last a while.
    I’m back at my car in five minutes, driving away from the
place we both had called home. There is no way my mother is dying here, with
the disgusting way my father is being.
    It is all too real to accept, too hard to even comprehend.
    Yet again, this cruel sickening world is taking another
person I love.
    My mother, the person who has protected me always, is dying.
    And I am the selfish cunt who had ignored her for the past
five months, my own stubborn arse not realising something was wrong. She has
just been too busy dealing with her health, and surviving living with my
father.
    I am a selfish prick.
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
    I have managed to keep my mum alive for another two months,
bed bound and barely alive, but still breathing. She has cancer, an aggressive
form, that is eating away at her, taking every last piece of her with it.
    “Mum, how you feeling?” I ask her, bringing my son in the
room to sit on the bed with her. He is now seven months old and healthy as
anything. She cherishes these moments. Getting to see the life and vibrancy my
son possesses, it make her force herself to live a little bit longer.
    “Not good, kid. I'm tired.” She smiles faintly, the oxygen
tubes in her nostril slipping a little. I push them back up, then straighten
her pillows and lift her bony body back up.
    “Want me to get you something?” I ask her, lifting the cup
of water from the side and sliding the straw into her mouth to drink from. Her
cracked lips barely surround it as she weakly sucks from it, managing to draw a
few droplets into her mouth.
    I am breaking, once again, the same as seven months ago,
when I saw Josie so lifeless and weak. This is my mother, the woman I love
unconditionally, losing a battle she was never going to win. If only I had
known earlier, I could have got her the help. She had told me my father refused
to get her the home care she needed, leaving her to slowly drift.
    If there is one thing I want in this world, it is to kill
him, for everything he has ever done. My mother has made me promise not to
touch him but by God do I want to.
    “No, I don't need anything, Son. It’ll be soon, I just need
to say goodbye to you all.” She smiles again, tears trickling from the corner
of her eyes, collecting in a little pool on her pillow.
    Joseph plays with the cover over her, pulling and tugging at
it, giggling and mumbling away to himself. My mum looks to him, struggling, but
succeeding to lift her hand and stroke his mop of brown hair. He is still the
spitting image of his mum, absolutely beautiful.
    “I'm sorry for everything, Leighton. Sorry I couldn’t be a
better mum.” My mum tells me, clasping my hand lamely.
    “Shhh, mum, you were perfect. You did everything for me.” I
lean and kiss her head, her eyes closing slowly. Her breaths start to become
laboured and short, her chest struggling to draw breath in.
    I know it’s coming, probably within the next hour, and I’m
not ready for it.
    She begins to cough weakly, trying to clear the build up of
fluid in her lungs. “Leighton, I need to tell you something.” She manages to
say. I can see her losing it, she is fading quickly. The blood on the surface
of her skin is beginning to draw back, a white hue coating her all over. Her
breathing becomes almost non-existent. I have to get my brother and sister
here, they need to say goodbye before it’s too late.
    “GEORGIA, BRANDON!” I shout at the top of my lungs from the
doorway of her room, before returning to her side.
    “Leighton, it was him.” she tells me as I hold onto her hand
again. I remove Joe from her bed, placing him on my knee so I can move closer.
    “What was who mum?” I