What We Called Therapy After Dark novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Wound
Mitch was waiting on the porch steps when I walked back from the office.
I sat down beside him and held out my phone.
"It's all on there," I said. "Every word, in his own voice."
He listened to the first two minutes with his head down.
When Dr. Keene said "short, light, easy to remove," Mitch stopped it.
His thumb stayed on the screen.
"Nine days," he said.
"Nine days. Nikki's boss caters half this town. I'll find out who's coming."
"You did that alone."
"You waited at home. That was the deal."
He nodded, and he did not look at me.
"Say it," I said.
"Say what?"
"Whatever you've been carrying since March. You get it out now, or you'll keep looking at the steps."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"Your mother told me what you said to her," he said. "That I watch you."
My stomach dropped.
"A week later, the sessions started," Mitch said. "I thought you handed her something to use. I thought you wanted me gone."
"Mitch."
"I've believed it for four months. I let you walk into that room anyway." His voice was flat and tired. "Every time you touched me, I wondered if she was getting the picture."
I stood up.
The porch light buzzed over us, and a moth kept hitting it.
"I told her you watched me," I said, "because you did."
He looked up.
"You watched me carry groceries. You watched me cross the yard in my cut-offs. You stopped talking when I came into a room." My throat was tight. "I was the only person in this house who noticed it, and I wanted someone else to see it. I wanted her to say it out loud, so I didn't have to."
"You wanted her to see."
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