Chapter 72: Seeking Truth

The house was quiet and empty at last. Some of the family lingered, most to offer Mom support, which was nice. I wondered about the rest of them but let it go, especially when several of them escorted the distraught James and his back-to-sleeping daughter home.

You'd think they would have learned their lesson already and just freaking trust her judgment. It made me furious.

Quaid was one of the last to go. He waited until Erica hugged Mom to approach us. Erica smiled first at him then at me and left.

I hated the assumption in her eyes.

"I wanted to say I was sorry."

He wasn't talking to me. That would have produced an instant aneurysm.

Quaid was looking right at my mother.

She didn't say anything, just leaned forward and hugged him. He hugged her back, no reservations. When she pushed him away again, she held onto the leather of his sleeves in both hands and smiled up at him.

"You're getting taller," she said. Leave it to Mom to break out a space of normal when the whole world