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“What’d you tell the doctor?”
She grows stern again. “There was nothing to tell.”
“Bumped into a doorknob, again?”
His mom sighs. “Seriously, Zach. What’s eating at you this morning? Why can’t you let it go? It was simply a harsh grip. Sometimes he loses control. He’s stressed. He has a –”
“A company to run, I know.”
She huffs. “Yes, and a sick wife. And a son who doesn’t mind him.” She looks him up and down. “Why don’t you wear some nice clothes? At least wear them for the parties. Your father hates it when you run around in such tattered clothes. You look like one of the staff.”
“I don’t care what father wants, Mother,” he replies back caustically.
His mom looks at him in outrage. “For the love of God, Zachariah, stop being such a brat. I can’t believe I made the case with your dad to let you stay. Especially after what you did to him. Especially after all the times you’ve let me down through the years. Don’t make me regret letting you stay.”
Zach chuckles harshly. “You made the case for me to stay, Mom, because you knew that your husband wouldn’t stay by your side now that you’re not pretty and shiny anymore. Now that you’re sick and it takes an army to make you perfect for his little parties, Dad doesn’t want you anymore. He won’t even come home because he doesn’t want to see what you’ve become. The man you love doesn’t want you, okay? Isn’t that why we keep it all hidden? Like cancer is some sort of a crime. So you made the case for me to stay even after everything because you don’t want to die alone.”
His mom looks at him with a trembling chin and so much hatred and heartbreak that my eyes fill with water.
“But let’s not dwell on such things,” Zach repeats, sarcastically. “I think I like this movie too.”
And just like that, all conversation is gone.
Even if I stand here for years, I know they won’t talk anymore. All the things they could’ve said to each other, they already have.
This is it.
This is the whole reason why Zach hates love, isn’t it? This is the whole reason why he’ll never love anyone.
A self-absorbed mother who probably didn’t care when her son was getting bullied. A hateful dad who should’ve supported him but chose to beat him down, instead.
How can Zach want love – any kind of it, really, either familial or romantic – when he’s seen things like this?
I wonder how many times his parents rejected him before he realized that love hurts. Before he stopped trying and became a cynic.
They say love is the most powerful thing in the world.
But even love dies when you stomp on it enough. I don’t think it is capable of living through something this toxic and dysfunctional.
Something this violent.
My eyes go to Mrs. Prince’s wrist again, the one Zach asked about.
It’s the same one that Mr. Prince was holding on to the night of the dinner with the Howards.
The night I found out how fucked up Zach’s parents are.
