Page 131 of Unapologetic Obsession
“Not in time!” Joe shouted. “He intentionally brought her too late to save her.”
My face was impassive as ever, giving nothing away. Once more, he was right. It was interesting how my parents always knew exactly what I was, but Damon refused to see it.
Damon shot up from his seat, furious. “Mom overdosed! Caden found her on the floor and rushed her to the hospital. It wasn’t his fault that the doctors couldn’t save her.”
Joe stared me down with venom. I quirked an eyebrow, challenging him to find a crack in the story. I had made sure this couldn’t be traced back to me.
“He hasn’t shed a single tear for his dead mother.”
Damon closed his eyes. “That doesn’t mean he isn’t hurting, too.”
Oh, yes, it does.
“Everyone experiences grief differently, Dad.”
We were in the medical suite where my mother had taken her last breath. While we were waiting for paperwork and for the body to be released, my father had devised a plan to send me away to boarding school. Boarding school was a fancy term for a mental institution, and knowing my father, probably the worst of its kind. However, Damon insisted on going with me. Joe lost it at that suggestion. For one, he didn’t want to send away his heir. Secondly, Joe wanted to ship me off to a place grimmer than a mental asylum, where I would never see the light of day again. Joe’s hands would be tied if Damon joined me, and he would have to send us to some fancy school in Switzerland instead. Damon knew it, too. He was diplomatic, not obtuse.
“I see evil in that boy,” my father murmured, speaking about me as if I weren’t here. “He has to go. I can’t look at that boy anymore.”
“We just lost our mother,” Damon told him, exasperated. “Act like the grown-up for once, Dad. Console your sons. Don’t blame us for Mom’s death.”
Joe reeled back like he had been slapped. “I know you would never hurt your mother.” He reached a hand to comfort his favorite son.
Damon stepped out of his reach. There was a sneer on his face. “Then stop trying to send my brother away. Because if you do, I’m going with him. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. I hate to burst your bubble, but twins are a package deal.”
Joe was visibly hurt by Damon’s words, but not enough to deter his intentions. “I know you’re a good boy, Damon.” He looked right into my soulless eyes. “But I have to sendhimaway. The doctors said your mother could’ve been saved, and I just know he purposefully brought her here too late. I can’t look at him anymore, not after he killed your mother.”
Once more, I was impressed by my imbecile of a father. He wasn’t generally this sharp.
Damon, on the other hand, was too distracted to see what was right in front of him. “Enough.” He slashed a hand across the air. It was so unexpected from my even-tempered twin that my father quieted, and I glanced up at him.
Hm. Our mother’s death must be affecting him more than I had expected. Oh well, in time Damon would see this was for the best.
“Please, Damon. Don’t go with him,” was my father’s desperate plea. “You should be here with your family at a time like this.”
“So should Caden.”
“He doesn’t care about us.”
It was true.
I had returned home earlier than expected and found my mother mid-seizure. See, that was why you should never mix drugs with alcohol.
She stared at me helplessly, her eyes widening when she realized it was me, not Damon, that had found her on the floor. She silently pleaded for help, though we both knew the chances of me helping her were slim to none.
Sure, the hospital was only a five-minute drive, and she had at least thirty minutes before the symptoms kicked in and caused brain damage, possible cardiac arrest, and eventually death. I was almost fifteen and knew how to drive. All I had to do was grab a key and throw her in the back seat of one of our cars. Hell, I could have even called an ambulance.
But I had to play the odds here.
It just so happened that I had walked in on her while she was having a seizure from an overdose. Since my mother had no interest in changing her ways, this would likely happen again, and she would die regardless of my actions today.
Our mother’s debilitating addiction had turned into a real inconvenience. Damon had personally taken her to rehab four times in the span of two years. She couldn’t bear to be apart from her golden child, so my brother and father often opted to stay at nearby hotels.
My twin and I had our differences, but I had always admired his mind. He was tech-savvy and could achieve great things if he focused on them. Instead, Damon let our mother drag him down with her into her spiral of demise.
I was on track to graduate from high school in six months. Damon could have been on that path, too. Unfortunately, he had missed too many classes playing our mother’s emotional support human during her recovery. Except she never recovered and returned home just to restart the same vicious cycle. It was affecting Damon’s future. He should be working on his craft, not living out of his suitcase at remote mountain resorts.
Letting her die was a necessary but calculated risk. Although I was doing my twin a favor, it couldn’t look like I was involved.
