Severed Mother-Daughter Ties novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Garden

"It did hurt," I said.

I let go of the bench and turned around.

Wylie stood in the path with the light from the dining room falling across half his face.

"That's not a denial," he said.

"I told you what I could."

"You told me a girl died in a ditch." He came a step nearer. "You told me about a post you were tied to. Then you stood in my father's house and drank to a name you can't stand."

"I didn't drink."

"I noticed."

The wind moved the hedges.

"Why does it hurt?" he asked.

"I lost someone, Mr. Pemberton."

"Wylie."

"I lost someone, and nobody ever put her face on a wall."

He was quiet for a while.

"My mother died when I was ten," he said. "Cancer. It took eight months. I stood in a church and my father held my shoulder so hard it bruised."

"A year later, Colleen came. She was twenty-seven, she had no family, and she cried at everything. My father smiled for the first time since the funeral."

"I tried to hate her. I really did. It never held."

"That's a hard thing to carry," I said.

"It would be easier if she were cruel."

I looked at him in the half light.

I had not expected him to be gentle with it.

I had not expected him to say it to me.

"You're tired," I said.

"I haven't slept since Tuesday."

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