AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I swallow. “Goodbye, Mom.”
She and Vincent leave. I stay sitting. Sydney stays standing.
Once they’re out of sight, I glance at my sister.
“Did you get what you needed?” I ask her.
“I-I don’t know.” She’s staring at the closed door where our mom disappeared.
“There’s no happy ending here, Syd.”
Even if our mom beats the odds with her illness, she’ll never beour mom. We’ll never spend holidays together. She’ll never meet Sydney’s kid. My kids. There will never be a time when she’s in the audience at one of Sydney’s plays or in the stands at one of my games.
She picked a different path.
And resenting her—judging her—will never change that choice.
I call Cassia after dropping Sydney off at the condo. She’s spending the night in Pembrooke and taking the train back into the city first thing tomorrow. I have to get back to campus for a weight session.
“Hey.” Her tone is soft when she answers on the third ring, already knowing what I’m calling her about.
“Hi.”
“How…how did it go?”
I exhale, flipping on a blinker before I turn onto the highway.
“It sucked. She has a year, probably less. She looked terrible. Basically ignored Sydney, at first.”
She says nothing, letting me rant.
“It sucked,” I repeat. “Every time I see her, it feels like I lose her all over again. Why can’t she change? Why can’t it end? Why can’t sheapologize? Just once. Admit she made mistakes. I mean, she’s dying. If there’s ever a time to swallow your pride, that’s it, right?”
“I’m so sorry, Holden. I wish I could fix it all for you. Is there anything I can do?”
“You’re doing it. But you have to go, right? Don’t you have your study group at seven?”
“You memorized my schedule?” She sounds surprised.
“Wasn’t that the point of you sending it to me?”
Her laugh still has some shock in it. “It was for reference. I wasn’t planning on testing you.”
“Well, I’d get an A.”
“I told them I wasn’t coming this week,” she tells me.
“Why?”
“Because I was hoping you’d call me after and I wanted to be able to answer.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Iwantedto.”
“We met her at Roxbury Diner, you know.”
“Oh, yeah. I haven’t been there forever, not since I stopped chauffeuring Regan to her dance classes.”
