Mom Cooked Only for Bella, So I Found My Real Mother novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: One Question

I went to see Brenda on a Tuesday.

Luke drove me and stayed in the van with the engine off.

Her sister's house was a pale brick ranch with a ramp by the door.

Brenda's sister let me in without a word and pointed down the hall.

The guest room door was open.

Brenda sat on the edge of a narrow bed in a gray cardigan I had never seen.

There was no apron, no lipstick and no hairspray.

She looked up.

"You came."

"I came for one question."

"Sit."

"I'll stand."

She nodded and folded her hands in her lap.

"The plea is Thursday," she said. "Eight years, my lawyer thinks. Maybe less with the nursing board hearing after. I won't practice again."

"Good."

"Yes."

"Is that what you want to tell me?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'll answer what you ask. I promised."

I had practiced the question in the van, in the mirror, and half the night in the yellow room.

I had a list.

Why me.

Why the food.

How could you look at me and never once.

I put the list away.

"In eighteen years," I said. "Did you ever once cook something because I asked for it?"

Brenda looked at me.

She looked for a long time.

"Once," she said.

I waited.

"You were six. You came in from school with a cold, and you said Mom, I want pepper on my eggs. I don't know where you'd even had it. A neighbor's, maybe."

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