“It’s really not the same thing as your brother.”
“Isn’t it?” Dollie holds Duggan a little tighter, and Annabelle slouches over the view ahead—a twenty-five-year-old woman clutching a soft toy like it’s a lifeline.
“No,” Annabelle says in a careful tone. “This guy would deserve it.”
“And… what about Ambrose?” The way Dollie says my name has the hairs on my arms rising. I wanna hear her say it again, but all I hear is the irritating buzz of my phone against my leg.
“I feel the same as you do regarding that. Ambrose wasn’t in his sane mind. He didn’t do what he did because he got caught doing something shitty. He did it because the voices in his head told him to. Yeah, he deserved sentencing, but in an institution, not a prison. What happened to your parents was awful, but your stepbrotherismentally ill. He’d only been home from the institution for about six hours. It was obviously too soon for him to have been released.”
“Yeah. I know.” Finally, another forkful of chow mein makes it to Dollie’s mouth. “Can we just talk about something else?”
“Yes,” Annabelle says with a big smile and no noodles in sight.
Thank fuck.
“I have an idea to get you over your shitty boyfriend. That way, you can stop checking your phone every two minutes to see if he’s apologized yet, which I don’t doubt he will. But by that time, you won’t wanna hear it.”
“I’m not checking for an apology. I keep hearing a phone buzz.”
Shit. I pull my phone from my pocket, muting the sound as Valaria’s name and number flash on my screen again. The urge to turn it back up and down again wins out, and I do it twice, praying it won’t be heard.
“It’s not mine. Or there’d be a tacky early 2000s playlist blasting in here. I like statement sounds.”
“I remember the one you had in high school.”
“It’s the exact same one.”
“I could probably guess the songs.” Dollie smiles, and I find myself smiling as well.
“Probably.” More noodles enter Annabelle’s mouth.
“I actually have a message.”
“Tell me it isn’t from him, or I might just gag on dinner.” She at least has the decency to cover her mouth while she talks this time.
“It’s from his mother.”
“Coincidence?”
“No. The woman hardly ever spoke to me until she found out we were coming here.”
“I thought you used to drive her places?”
“I did, back when I had a car, but when my usefulness faded out, so did our relationship. She never texts me.”
“So, what does it say?”
“It’s long.”
“We have all night. Read it out loud. We can plan our hexing later. Your crystals are already out.”
Out and gathered around them as they eat because Dollie feels like she needs protection from Dad.
The only person she needs it from, well, those crystals won’t help with him.
“Okay, here goes,” she begins. “I just heard about what happened from Shane. I don’t have time to argue. I’m busy at work. Some of us have real jobs, you see.” Dollie pauses, the words hurting her. “All I have to say is I can’t believe you sent him back to sleep on our sofa. It’s so convenient how you throw him out now after he’s helped you do all that work there.”
“Send her a photo of this fucking mess. Show her what he’s actually done here.”
