Chapter Seventeen
I spent my time on the factory floor planning all the things I wanted to shout at my mother. I was going to start with screaming at her for telling my seven-year-old sister to go with strangers, then ask how she could be stupid enough to think saying something like that would do anything but terrify Mari.
The rest of it changed every time I ran through it in my head. Sometimes, I’d yell at her for not taking care of herself, for spending so many nights with her friends she’d started wasting. It didn’t matter that she might’ve gotten sick even if she’d stayed in the apartment with Mar and me. I wanted to scream at her anyway.
Sometimes, I’d show her the cut on my neck, tell her what I’d been willing to do to keep her alive, and beg her to go to the Maker herself. I’d lo
