Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 97364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Of course he did. Wanker.
“My mother seemed …” His lips twist to the side.
I hate how he keeps baiting me with fragmented sentences that leave me hanging. It’s like he’s waiting to see if I will jump in and … what? I don’t know for sure.
“Different.”
“Different how?”
Nolan shrugs. “Normal. Too normal.”
I laugh a bit. “Too normal? I’d consider that progress, a good thing. Isn’t it?”
“I know you’re going to take this wrong. My intention is not to sound like an awful son who doesn’t want to see his mother get better, but … I don’t want her memory of the incident to come back if it means she could spiral out of control to the point where we could lose her forever.”
“This incident. I don’t understand this ‘incident’ that you and your father seem so determined to keep from her and everyone else. You’re so afraid of me triggering her memory, snapping her out of her delusional state, but you won’t tell me what it is you don’t want her to remember. So how can I tiptoe around some invisible trigger?”
Resting his elbows on his knees, he cradles his head in his hands. “I don’t know,” he mumbles.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know!” His head snaps up.
I flinch.
The last time I saw so much agony etched into Nolan’s face was when he told me about his ability to sense other people’s pain.
“My accident. That’s what caused my mother’s condition. She thought I died and something just broke inside of her. She doesn’t remember it. Not once since her mind has gone to its ‘safe place’ has she mentioned it.”
“But if it was an accident—”
He shakes his head. “It was her fault. I still don’t know all the details because my own memory of it is so sketchy. I have these fragments, but when I try to piece them together, they don’t make sense. We were going somewhere. My father was out of town. She needed to make a quick stop.” He shakes his head some more. “I waited in the car. It was taking her too long, so I went to look for her.”
I wait for him to continue, but he doesn’t. His eyes remain fixed to his interlaced fingers.
“Where were you?”
“I don’t remember where we were. My father said it happened at home. That doesn’t fit with what little I do remember—or think I remember.”
“So he’s lying?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me what happened, Nolan.”
He nods slowly. “I was shot. I lost a lot of blood. I died on the operating table. But they brought me back to life.”
“Nellie shot you?”
He nods.
“Why?”
“My father said it was an intruder. She grabbed a gun from their bedroom. When I walked around the corner at the top of the stairs, it spooked her. She shot me.”
“What did the newspapers say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? That doesn’t make any sense. The only son of a prominent family gets shot by his mother and nothing gets printed in the newspaper?”
He shrugs. “My father didn’t want her to end up in prison for an accident. He didn’t want it to tarnish our family’s name. He made it …”
“Go away,” I whisper.
He nods.
“So, you live or come back to life, with an abnormally heightened sense of feelings, only to discover that your mother has lost it.”
“Yes.”
“So your father stays with her, in spite of what seems to be a broken marriage, because he wants the money.”
“Yes.”
“And when did he start cheating on her?”
“I’m not sure. He claims it didn’t happen until several years after the accident.”
“You’re pissed off he cheated on her.”
“Yes.”
“But you think she still loves him and it would crush her if he left?”
“Yes.”
“And he gets the best of both worlds—the money and other women. Tell me, what does she get?” Revenge. She gets revenge, but I don’t know how or why … yet.
“She gets peace. Peace of not remembering what she did to me. Peace of knowing her family is still together.”
“This is messed-up.”
Nolan doesn’t respond.
“I did not tell my dad to keep Nellie company for me. He bullied his way to work with me a while back. I introduced them. Your mother—the innocent doe-eyed Nellie? She took an instant liking to him and he to her.”
“That doesn’t make sense. My father said she’s like a child when it comes to intimacy. That’s what drove him to cheat on her.”
“Oh yeah? Well, the British bloke I sadly have to claim as my dad, he’s corrupted that child you call your mother and as much as it disgusts me, she’s enjoyed every bit of it.”
Nolan narrows his eyes. “What? You’re saying—”
“Yes. Please don’t make me go into detail. But … yes.”
I told him Father Christmas does not exist.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
He didn’t see the epilogue of the loo scene like I did. Clearly, he doesn’t understand how lucky he is at this moment.
“Is Oscar at your house right now?”