My Lovestruck Mother

My NFL dream was within reach, a scholarship to A&M, a future as a star quarterback.

Life felt perfect under the Friday night lights.

Then, one night, after a showcase game, I was dragged behind the bleachers.

Blinding pain ripped through me, a sound like splintering wood from my throwing arm, then blackness.

I woke up in the hospital, my body broken.

But the true nightmare began when I overheard my mom and sister, supposedly my heartbroken family, plotting.

They had hired the thugs who attacked me.

It was all to "slow me down," to "clear the path" for my half-brother, Caleb.