The Arrangement 23 (SERIES FINALE - The Ferro Family Novel) by H.M. Ward

Author:H.M. Ward [Ward, H.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781630351328
Publisher: Laree Bailey Press
Published: 2017-03-27T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

My voice cracks as my eyes sweep over her emaciated body. Her once smooth skin is covered in grime, old wounds, and dried blood. The skin hangs off her bones as if she’s not had enough to eat in months. I forget everything in those seconds, the lighter, the sick bastard still in the room—all of my attention is on the woman facing away from me in that chair.

It can’t be Mom. There’s no way. I saw her dead body…wait. No, that’s not true. I didn’t. I saw Daddy’s twisted lifeless form and refused to look under Mom’s sheet at the morgue. I saw her feet poking out from beneath the cloth. I wasn’t the one who identified my mother. The doctor did—said it was her—that they were together. They left the house together. They went to get ice cream. I was supposed to be there. The memories drown me in a deluge of rapidly firing images and voices that sound like clipped recordings.

A scream lodges in my throat, choking me. There’s no air. I stagger back a step. This can’t be. It’s possible it’s someone else. The only way to be certain is to step to the side and see her face. It’s not her. There’s no way. I inch over and gape at her profile. My gaze sweeps over the curve of her cheek and the sunken eyes. A single birthmark is on her neck, just above her collarbone. A memory surfaces of an eight-year-old Avery wrapping her arms around Mom’s neck—seeing that mark. She smelled like vanilla and summer flowers. The perfect mixture of warmth and sunshine.

The scent of the room hits me like a hammer to the face. It’s nostalgic, intentionally. Vic planned this. He did it on purpose. That’s my mother’s perfume filling the air.

The woman in the chair, the woman with my mother’s face and withered body slowly lifts her head. When our eyes meet her features crumple in horror. “Avery?”

Her voice is a dry husk of what I remember. Is it her?

Wide-eyed, I gape at the woman, heart pounding, feeling everything. The emotional assault begins in my chest and rips through my body like a cleaver, hacking me to bits. I stand, too stunned to move, too shocked to flick the lighter. I had no hope, and never imagined she could be alive. My mind is arguing with me, telling me that this cannot be my mother, but my heart protests—and to my surprise is not dead. My heart’s very much alive and trying to fill with hope.

I can’t allow that.

I can’t fathom this.

I can’t light this.

But I can’t let Vic live.

I can’t do anything until I’m certain.

I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. Those two words repeat in my mind as I stare blankly, feeling the slick plastic casing in my palm. There are a million reasons why I’m stuck in this loop. I cried at her grave. I wore her cross. I stole her ledgers. And, I paid for her sins. I missed her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.