The Boy Next Door

Chapter 28

Chapter 28:

"It was very hard to move on. We were heart broken. First Harry and now Mum. It was worse for me than Dad, all my friends were no more there for me. I was rejected. They used to whisper about me in front of me and act as if I didn't exist. My studies and health were effected badly. I used to get fever every week. Dad finally decided that we'll move to Leeds, in Yorkshire.

I remember visiting Harry's room for the last time, kissing his photo, sobbing. I remember walking in the backyard where Harry practiced his skills and Mum's little garden which had pretty flowers of all types, roses, jasmines and many more. It was where we had luxurious teas. 

I remember Dad sitting on Harry's bed and kissing him in the picture. Him going to his room, and saying 'Carly, I'm sorry but we have to leave, for Stuart's sake I'm doing this even though it kills me, I'm acting on what I promised you my love, I'm sorry,' with that he kissed Mum in their wedding picture. I saw tears in his eyes.

We travelled for like 5 hours, leaving behind the place which had memories of me with my mother and brother, two people whom I love the most. Both Dad and I hoped that we'd have a new start in a new place. 

Leeds was great. I made new friends and earned good grades, my health improved and I remembered what happiness was.

One sunny day of April, almost a year to Mum's death, Dad came home with an auburn woman. 'Tasmin' was what she was introduced by.

'Like the place in Australia?' I had said, innocently since we had learnt about it that day. Both laughed.

'Yes, sugar-pie!' Tasmin, 'Tammy' replied. She was sweet and I liked her.

'She'll be your new Mum,' Dad had said once she left.

'What?'

'You heard me,' Dad replied.

'How could you, Dad! How could you!' I yelled.

'Calm down, son,' he replied calmly.

'Calm down?! I thought you loved Mum! I thought you loved Carly Neesham! She loved you to bits! How can you do this to her?! You wanted her dead didn't you?! Or did you kill her? If you wanted to have some one who wasn't paralyzed as your wife, you could have told then, Mum and I would have left you! You aren't the Felton Neesham she loved! How could you? You both loved each other ever since college! I though you cared and loved her! How would she feel? How would her soul be feeling?! How selfish!' I cried.

'You don't know, you don't understand! I love her and always will. This is for you, I promised her!' He replied.

'To replace her by another woman?! I won't bear her! I swear I won't have her under this room in place of my mother! I'll leave the very second she comes! If I'm a burden, tell me!' I replied. Dad started to cry.

'I promised your mother to do anything for you, before she died,' he says.

'Why she could hardly move!' I say.

'Months before, she knew she wouldn't make it, she knew she'd leave us, she knew that we both would be left a lone, she made me promise I'll do anything for you because she loved you very much and after losing Harry, she'd give away anything for you! She didn't want to lose you!' Dad replied. 'She wrote this months before for you.' He hands me an envelope. I take it.

'To be read only by my youngest son Stuart Mitchell Neesham' it read in her tall, small, pretty handwriting. I tore the envelope open.

'Dearest, sweetest, Stuart,