Chapter 3 - The Flying Monkeys
Within forty-eight hours, the flying monkeys were deployed. In psychology, "flying monkeys" are the people a narcissist sends to do their dirty work, to guilt-trip the victim into submission. For my mother, her ultimate weapon was Aunt Clara—my father’s older sister, the self-appointed matriarch of the extended Bennett clan.
It was Thursday afternoon. Lily was back at school, though she had been clinging to me every morning, asking multiple times if I would definitely be the one picking her up. I had assured her, with everything in my soul, that nobody else would ever take her from school again.
My phone rang with an unknown local number. I answered, thinking it was a client.
"Rachel Elizabeth Bennett," Aunt Clara’s booming, aristocratic voice echoed through the speaker. "I have just spent two hours on the phone with your mother, who is absolutely sick with grief in Florida. What on earth is wrong with you?"
I took a deep breath, keeping my voice level. "Hello, Aunt Clara. Did my mother happen to mention why I cut off her funding?"
"She told me Lily had a minor upset stomach and that you overreacted!" Clara snapped. "She said you threw a temper tantrum and cancelled their vacation funds out of spite. Rachel, family is family. Your parents raised you. You cannot use your corporate wealth to bully your elderly parents just because of a minor disagreement over a car ride!"
"Clara," I said, dropping the polite tone. "My mother didn't tell you the truth. They didn't leave Lily at a doctor's office. They didn't leave her with a friend. They pulled the van over on Route 83, forced an eight-year-old child out onto the sidewalk at a deserted highway bus stop in ninety-degree heat, and drove away to catch a flight to Disney World. They left her completely alone in an industrial zone."
Silence hung on the line for a long three seconds.
"Well..." Clara stammered, clearly caught off guard, but she quickly recovered her defensive posture. "Well, I'm sure they knew you were coming! And it’s a public bus stop, Rachel, it’s not like it was the middle of the desert. Your father has a bad heart, you know how stress affects him. They had four other children to think about. You've always been so sensitive about Lily, you always shield her from the rest of the cousins—"
"Goodbye, Clara," I said.
"Don't you dare hang up on me, young lady! If you don't reinstate your parents' allowance and pay for their hotel, I will make sure the entire extended family knows what a cold, heartless monster you've become! You will be completely ostracized!"
"Save yourself the breath, Aunt Clara," I said, my voice ice-cold. "Because I’m sending a mass email to the entire extended family in five minutes. Let’s see how they feel about 'family' when they see the police report I’m filing today."
I hung up before she could screech another word.
I immediately opened my email and composed a message to the entire Bennett family distribution list—uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins. I attached the photos of the barren highway bus stop, the location pin, and a drafted copy of the Child Abandonment report I was submitting to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.
May you like
I hit Send to All.
If they wanted to talk about me behind my back, they would at least do it with the horrific truth staring them right in the face.
