Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Are you even listening to me, Nicholas?” She snapped her finger in my face, and I nearly lost it right then and there.
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself because I wanted to make my words comprehensive so there would be no mistake how I felt about this. “I’ve been listening to you since I was a child. I listened when you told me that I was an ungrateful child, a recalcitrant teenager, a thoughtless son. I listened when you would guilt trip me into believing that my soul purpose was to please you. I didn’t even date until I went far away to college because any girl I brought around was never good enough. But nothing was ever good enough for you. And you made me feel less than. Is it a wonder I wanted to get as far away from you as possible?”
My mother’s mouth fell open and her eyes widened. She placed her hand against her chest. “Where is all coming from? Nicholas, what has gotten into you?”
I leaned back in my chair with narrowed eyes and looked over at her long and hard. “What kind of woman are you?”
“I beg your pardon? Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m your mother. What kind of son speaks to his mother this way?”
“Perhaps the kind who is fed up with your bullshit. The kind who finally sees the truth. The kind who realizes that you needed to be the victim so badly that you poisoned your own children.”
Her mouth fell open, and she started to tremble. Just as quickly as that look of fear had crossed her face, it vanished behind a wall of bravado. She formed her lips into a firm thin line and raised her chin in righteous indignation. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, but I suggest you watch what you say to me. You’re not too old to receive a slap for being so disrespectful.”
I chuckled humorlessly. “So that’s how we’re going to play it? You’re just going to brazen it out? I see. Well, let’s see how far you get without my financial assistance because I’ll be damned if I give you one red cent toward an attorney. You deserve every bit of what’s coming to you. You seem to think I’m stupid for thinking that all the District Attorney wants is to ask you questions. You’ve been doing business with Laski for years, so I imagine the DA probably wants to use you as a potential witness, but you fear he might learn something that would implicate you for what you’ve done.”
“What I’ve done? How could you say these things to me? Your own mother.” Her eyes rapidly filled with tears, but I remained unmoved.
I folded my hands together and placed my elbow on the table to watch the show she put on. And as if from nowhere, she produced a handkerchief and dabbed the corners of her eyes and sniffed oh so delicately. I wanted to throw up. This was a manipulation tactic, and I was no longer going to fall for it.
She cried for an uncomfortable amount of time, but my resolve would not waver. She could cry a river for all I fucking cared. I’d never felt this much contempt for anyone in my life. Even when I thought I hated Frankie that feeling didn’t come close to the disgust flowing through my system for the woman who was supposed to love her children unconditionally and care for and support them.
After carrying on, my mother must have realized that I remained silent and had offered her no comfort. Her tears magically dried up. “After all I’ve done for you, this is how you treat me?”
“Let’s not get into all you’ve done for me because I guarantee that the list of cons would outweigh the pros. Like the fact that you were making the three of us sick since we were children. Maybe I had subconsciously blocked this memory but realizing what you did to Kenny and Robin brought it back. I was about six or seven, and I remember standing at the top of the steps one second and the next I’m practically flying in the air. I land on my arm so hard it broke in a couple places. As soon as it happened, you were there showing so much concern as most mothers would, but the way you carried on in the hospital, one might have thought that you were the one to break her arm and not me. It was only when I wasn’t in a tremendous amount of pain that I remembered that someone had pushed me. I told you, and you convinced me it was all in my head. But at the time you were the only one upstairs with me.”