“Better. Now that you’re home.” His mom held him tight.
Chase waited for any of the anger or resentment he’d bottled up and pushed down over his lifetime to spread through him. He braced himself for it. But instead of any negative feeling bubbling to the surface, Chase just felt…happy. Happy to be here. With his mom. Home.
“It’s good to be back.” Chase rubbed his mom’s back and waited for her to release him from her iron grip.
When she did, he pulled up the chair beside her. Looking at her today, light streaming in through the windows, he saw that, although there may be a few more wrinkles gracing her face, she still looked the same. She’d been seventeen when she’d had him, so she was in her early forties but looked about ten years younger than that. When she had been in her early thirties, she’d looked like she was in her twenties.
He watched as her eyes searched his face as if she were trying to commit every line, every inch, to memory. Tears began to brim as she took in a shaky breath.
“I can’t believe you’re really here.”
He nodded as a lump rose in his throat. He’d missed his mom. All the years he’d stayed away, he’d made himself become numb towards her. It was what he’d had to do when his dad had been alive. There was no way he’d been able to come visit her then. Not that he had even after Roger had passed. It had just become habit.
“How long are you staying?” He could hear the desperation just under the surface of his mom’s timid voice. It was as if she were terrified to hear the answer.
That was the second time he’d heard that question today. And just like the first time, he still didn’t have an answer. “I’m not sure.”
Abby’s face fell in disappointment, but she tried to answer him in an upbeat tone. “Okay.”
Seeing her struggling to hide what she was feeling broke Chase’s heart. He’d seen her do that with his dad his whole life. Whether she was scared, sad, mad, hurt, she put on a brave face and covered all of that up.
“Don’t.” His tone came out much harsher than he’d meant it to.
She froze and some of the color drained from her cheeks. He wanted to kick his own ass for speaking so gruffly to her.
Reaching out, he gingerly covered her hand as he apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’ll be here until I know you’re okay.”
At his calming tone and comforting words, her face lit up again.
She started telling him how proud she was of him, how much she’d missed him. He’d heard those same words on messages she’d left for him over the years. Seen those words on e-mails and letters she’d sent him. But there was just something so different about sitting in front of her and hearing them. They washed over him like they never had before.
As he moved the topic along, asking her about her life, he couldn’t believe how much Krista’s name came up. Krista this. Krista that. Chase wasn’t sure if his mom was just strapping on her bow and arrow to play cupid or if Krista was actually her only form of social interaction.
After seeing the condition of her house yesterday, he didn’t think she was in the habit of having people over. When he was growing up, Chase’s mom hadn’t been allowed to have friends. His father had strictly forbidden it.
For some reason, Chase had just assumed that after his dad died his mom would move on with her life. She would be free. Free to have her own life. No one to scare her, hurt her, keep her under lock and key.
Now, he was starting to get the feeling that, even though that might be the case, his mom had still lived like it wasn’t. Guilt began to creep up as he spoke to his mom and got an idea of what kind of condition she was in.
Yes, she’d told him to get out and not come back. Yes, she hadn’t left his asshole of a father. Yes, he wished his childhood would have been different and his mom was partly to blame for that.
But Chase was a man now, not a boy. He was successful. He was wealthy. He’d been living a privileged life for years and his mom, it seemed, hadn’t been living at all.
Before Chase made any decisions about the future, he needed to get to the bottom of this, find out what was really going on with his mom. And he knew exactly who to ask.
Krista.
Chapter Nine
A loud growl sounded, vibrating off the walls of the elevator. Krista’s hands flew to her stomach. She was hungrier than she’d originally thought.
Just a few moments ago, she’d been on her way to the cafeteria to grab a sandwich when she’d been called to a meeting in the north wing of the hospital, where the admin offices were located. Her supervisor Marina had been very vague with the details, but when she’d asked if she could run and grab something to eat, she was assured that there would be food provided.