This Is Where We Stop novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: His Mother

His mother lived in a yellow house at the end of a gravel road outside Eugene.

There was a porch swing, a vegetable garden gone to seed, and a dog asleep on the steps.

The dog was the one Ben had painted, I found out later, in a canvas that hung over the stove.

She opened the door before we knocked.

She was small and gray-haired, in a cardigan with the elbows worn through, and she looked at me for a long moment.

"You're Mara," she said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't you ma'am me. Come in. You're thin, and it's raining."

She put her arms around me in the doorway.

I had not planned for that.

I had planned a speech, in the car, over two hundred miles.

I stood in her hall with my face in her cardigan and could not remember a word of it.

She made tea and put out a plate of shortbread nobody touched.

Padraig sat beside me at the kitchen table, not touching me, so that I would know I could do this alone.

"He told me about the log," his mother said. "He drove down Sunday and told me all of it. I've watched that video over and over."

"I'm so sorry," I said.

"I know, honey. Say what you came to say."

I put both hands around the cup.

"I was Ben's surgeon," I said. "I took him into the operating room at ten past midnight. He was already bleeding into his chest, and I couldn't stop it in time."

She nodded slowly.

"He never woke up. He wasn't in pain. A nurse held his hand until I could, and then I did."

I made myself keep looking at her.

"I should have written to you six years ago. I wanted to, and I didn't. I was told not to, and I let myself be told. That's mine. I'm sorry, and I'm not saying it so you'll say it's all right."

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend