AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s not a very nice greeting for a man you were married to for three years.” He sat down on the couch and placed one foot over the other in a relaxed pose. Teigen wasn’t buying it.
Hands on her hips, she rounded on him. “I wouldn’t remind me of that. It was a terrible time in my life, one I’m trying to forget. I’m having a hard time getting your voice out of my head.”
A smile like the Cheshire Cat crossed his lips, but his eyes remained dead-looking. Teigen shivered at the malice she felt coming from him.
“I knew you couldn’t forget me, Teigen. That’s why I’ve come to take you back.”
Dumbstruck, you could have knocked her over with a feather, but it didn’t take long for anger to seep into her pores. “You’ve got some hell of a nerve coming here after all this time. You dumped me in that hospital and never came back to see if I was all right!”
“I knew you needed more help than I could give you. That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you.” He abandoned his relaxed position for one of supplication, his hands out in entreaty. “I need you to come back with me.”
“Not going to happen.” She pointed to the door. “You take yourself out of my house now or I’ll call the police.”
Bobby jumped up and marched toward her, forcing her to walk backward to keep her distance. He finally backed her up against the wall, where he caged her in with his arms. “If you won’t do it for me, do it for your mom. She’s dying and she wants to say goodbye to you.”
A torrent of mixed emotions descended on her. She’d never wanted to go back to Vermont, but the prospect of her mother dying and never seeing her again caused a well of grief to rise up, threatening to choke her. A familiar feeling of panic gripped her heart, and she had trouble catching her breath.
“I need water, Bobby. Please.”
He didn’t move. “I’ll get it for you when you promise me you’ll come to see your mom.”
A tinge of anger managed to claw its way to her brain. “Dammit, Bobby. Don’t be such an asshole.”
“Promise me,” he insisted.
When she forced out a breathless “I promise,” he went to the kitchen and found the water. By the time he returned, she was sitting on the couch with her head between her knees.
“Here, drink.”
She attempted to take the water but he held it out of reach. “I’ll help you.”
Deciding it wasn’t worth wrestling the bottle from him, she nodded. He brought the bottle to her lips and helped her drink, bringing to mind the vision of Ellison helping her the night before. How she wished he were here now instead of the monster who stood before her.
After she’d drunk her fill, she pushed the bottle away. “Why is she dying?”
Bobby knelt in front of her. “She’s got ovarian cancer. She doesn’t have much longer to live. She’s been asking for you. You gotta go, Teigen. She’s your mom.”
Her mom. The woman who made her feel so terrible about herself, the woman who berated her on a daily basis, the woman who forced her to marry Bobby when she wasn’t ready. But even with all that, could she turn her back on her when she was dying? If she didn’t go see her, would she regret it later when she wouldn’t be able to change it?
“Okay. I’ll go up next week when I have some time. I need to finish a few things first.” And see Ellison, but she didn’t tell Bobby that.
“No. You have to come with me now. She could die any day now.”
Her fury returned, pushing out her other emotions. “Why did you wait so long to tell me?”
Bobby returned her anger, his face contorted in rage. “You left us! We never heard from you! Your mom begged me to come see you when she knew it was soon. But we didn’t know where you were. It took us forever to track you down. It wasn’t my fault!”
He got up and started to pace the room. “We have to leave now. I’ll wait while you throw a few things in a bag, but I’m leaving in 15 minutes. If you want to see her before she dies, you’ll be ready!”
It took a moment for Teigen’s brain to engage, but she ran into her bedroom and grabbed whatever she could think of for a short stay. When Bobby shouted, “Five more minutes,” she gathered her last few things, combed her hair, and brought her suitcase out to the living room.
“I’m ready.”
Without another word, Bobby took her bag and walked out to the car. She snatched up her keys threw her cell phone charger into her purse, locked the door and followed him outside. Her bag was in the back seat and the car was running. As soon as she closed the door, he took off.
Neither of them spoke until they hit the Baltimore-Washington Expressway. Thoughts of her mother dying had tortured her, and she couldn’t keep quiet any longer even though having a conversation with Bobby was not something she wanted to do.
“When did they find out she was sick?”
