Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
She was her usual put together self. Her hair was pulled back into a severe bun and her makeup was impeccable. She wore a power suit, and anyone would mistake her for powerful executive.
She smiled as I took my seat. “Sweetheart, thank you for coming. When you called to say you’d meet me here, I was so pleased. There’s so much we need to go over. I have been in discussion with Ethan Harrington. I believe the two of you went to high school together. I still talk to his mother on occasion, but apparently like you, he made a name for himself in the city at some hot shot law firm. But he’s come back home to start his own firm. I hear he’s quite good at what he does, and he only requires a 5000-dollar retainer which is more than reasonable. I just need you to transfer the money into my account, or if you’d like to handle the details yourself, I can give you the information.”
Not so much as a how are you. My mother was an audacious woman at times, but now knowing what I did about her, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I didn’t even have the words to express the contempt I felt for her, the absolute loathing I had for her.
It didn’t help matters that I’d received a package at my office this morning from Frankie. Normally I let Cheri open my mail, but she thought this particular item should be opened by me. I was surprised that Frankie had sent it to the office. I hadn’t seen her for a couple days because I needed to sort some things out first, but I had every intention of seeing her again.
Inside the package was a thumb drive similar to the ones that I’d found with the rest of Kenny’s belongs. There was also a note that simply said: I thought you should know. I kept this because Kenny didn’t want you to find out, but now that you have, you should learn the whole truth. Frankie.
I immediately plugged the thumb drive into my computer and realized it was another one of Kenny’s journals, and it was far more damning than the others I’d read. This one centered on my mother, Kenny’s suspicions of her deliberately getting him ill. His sense of betrayal when he’d learned that the medication he was taking was doing more harm than good. He had even suspected that she was putting something in his food to make him sicker. Kenny had said that every time he would assert his independence, he’d mysteriously get sick. This passage stuck out to me the most.
Is it a sin to feel so much resentment towards your own mother? I know what she’s doing to me, but I can’t help but wonder if she’s doing this because she’s a sick woman or just loves people feeling pity for her. It could be a little bit of both. Robin tried to warn me, and I wish I had listened. I tried to tell Nick, but he’s too wrapped up in other things. I just want out of this mess. I’m so thankful to have Frankie in my life. Without her intervention, I wouldn’t have found a way out of this mess.
That appeared to be one of the last entries on this drive, so it appeared he knew what my mother was doing. I couldn’t imagine what he must have been going through, and I hated that he felt that he couldn’t come to me. Maybe I was too wrapped up in my company and Frankie to not see what was really happening. I’d failed him and had taken that out on the only person who’d actually tried to help him. And I’d always have to live with that guilt.
Regardless of whether my neglect of Kenny had been intentional or not, there was no way I could ever make this up to him now that he was gone. I could still do right by his memory by making sure the people responsible his suffering pay for what they’d done.
I thought long and hard about my mother’s role in this, and while Kenny and Frankie believed she was a sick woman, she knew right from wrong and had a firm grasp on what she was doing. When I think of all the time my mother had guilt tripped me into believing I was a horrible son for daring to move away for school and pursue a career far away, my angry grew to a boiling rage. She made it seem as if I was wrong for abandoning her even though she’d spent most of my life telling me what a useless ungrateful son I was. There was only so much I could take before I had to get away. Looking back, had I known what was going on, I wouldn’t have left Kenny. I would have protected him and Robin from what my mom was doing.