CHAPTER 86

Alex

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It’s been four days since Uncle Niall arrived, and the air in the house didn’t seem to get any lighter. He was always in places he shouldn't be—my father’s room that no one had entered since he died, my father’s favorite gazebo in the far corner of the property, that it felt forgotten, the study room that missed my father’s presence—Uncle Niall was everywhere like he was trying to rewrite my father’s existence with his.

Stepping into the entryway, my mother's sobs slipped into my ears. I quickened my pace, and on getting to the living room, my eyes fell on my mother sitting on the couch, her head buried in her hands. And Uncle Niall, as usual, his hands always touching things that weren't his. His right hand wrapped around her, his fingers sinking into her upper arm, and the left brushed against the cartoon colored jeans trousers he wore.

Irritation knitted my brows together as I headed towards them, my pace faster than my tired legs could keep up. Before my mother, I lower