Chapter 3 - The Departure of Parasites
The next forty-five minutes moved like a slow-motion car crash.
Alana, completely ruined by the social media fallout, was frantically attempting to call her friends from church to explain the "misunderstanding," but every single call was going straight to voicemail. Her phone was buzzing continuously with incoming text messages—messages from relatives, neighbors, and community members expressing their utter disgust at her cruelty.
"They're canceling the charity tea," Alana wept, sitting on her suitcase in the hallway, her pristine hair falling out of its neat bun. "Mrs. Gable just sent a text... she said I am no longer welcome on the hospital fundraising committee..."
"Mom, shut up and pack!" Ellie snapped, shoving her son's clothes into a plastic trash bag because she hadn't brought enough luggage. "My husband just saw the clip on Facebook! He’s screaming at me over text! He said if I don't get back to Columbus by tonight, he's changing the locks on our house!"
Mason was crying in the corner, confused and frightened by the sudden breakdown of the adults around him.
And then there was Parker.
Parker was standing in our master bedroom, holding a armful of his shirts, staring at the empty space on his nightstand where his framed wedding photo used to sit. I had already taken the frame down and placed it inside a box in the closet.
"Clarissa... please," Parker whispered as I walked past the bedroom door carrying a fresh load of laundry for Dustin. "Don't do this. We can go to marriage counseling. I'll cut my mom off! I'll never let her near Dustin again!"
I stopped in the doorway, looking at the man I had shared a bed with for two years.
"You stood in my living room thirty minutes ago," I said softly, "and told me to apologize to her after she starved my son. You didn't protect him, Parker. You didn't even try to protect him. You looked at a helpless seven-year-old boy holding a cold potato and decided it was easier to side with your mother than to be a real father."
"I was confused!" he pleaded, stepping toward me with tears streaming down his face. "She’s my mother! I've spent my whole life trying to make her happy!"
"Well, now you can go make her happy in Columbus," I replied coldly. "Because you are done living off my hard work."
"I love you!" he choked out.
"If this is what your love looks like," I said, my voice as firm as granite, "then my son and I are far better off without it."
At 2:25 PM, three taxicabs—which I had called and paid for myself just to ensure they actually left—pulled up the gravel driveway.
Alana dragged her heavy luggage across the porch, her head bowed low, completely stripped of the arrogant posture she had worn two hours earlier. She didn't look at me. She didn't say a word. She practically threw herself into the back seat of the cab to hide her face from the driver.
Ellie dragged a crying Mason by the hand, her face blotchy from tears, her phone still buzzing incessantly in her pocket with notifications of her social media ruin.
Parker stood on the porch step, holding his duffel bag, looking back at the house one last time.
"Clarissa..." he started.
"Goodbye, Parker," I said.
I didn't wait for him to get into the cab. I stepped back inside, pulled the heavy oak door shut, turned the brass deadbolt, and flipped the switch for the security system.
The loud, reassuring BEEP of the alarm system locking down the perimeter echoed through the quiet house.
I leaned my back against the closed door, closing my eyes, letting out a long, deep breath that I felt like I had been holding for three long years. The heavy, suffocating air of parasite control was finally gone.
"Mommy?"
I opened my eyes. Dustin was standing at the top of the stairs, holding his dinosaur book against his chest, looking down at me timidly.
"Are they gone?" he asked softly.
I walked to the stairs, pulled off my shoes, and held my arms open wide.
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"They are gone, baby," I said, a genuine, radiant smile breaking across my face. "They are gone forever."
Dustin ran down the stairs and threw his little arms around my neck. I lifted him up, spinning him around in the sunlit foyer, his clear, beautiful laughter filling every room of the house that was finally, truly ours.
