Dark Secrets [COMPLETED]

Chapter 20: Mother

Dad agreed to drive Roger and I back home as soon as I told him the news. Roger gave me a hug, which I reciprocated, even though I wasn't upset or crying. I didn't feel much of anything, truthfully. I just felt...numb. Reality hadn't quite settled in.

We packed up my belongings and brought them down to the car garage. Dad drove and Roger and I sat in the back. I just stared out the window the whole way there, and I didn't let go of Roger's hand.

We only stopped once the whole way to get gas. After that, we drove until we arrived at Kendrick House. The gates were wide open, likely from when the police visited.

Carlos met us at the front door. He was wearing a plain grey sweatshirt, which was unusual for him. He wrapped his arms around me and cried into my hair.

I couldn't say anything to him, just "How?"

Carlos sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "They came by earlier and gave me the coroner's report. They said she'd fallen down the stairs and landed on her neck at a weird angle, and it broke." He shook his head. "My fuckin' ass."

At least he knew it was bullshit. "Where is Robert?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I have no idea. But that bastard left the day after I found her...lying on the floor like that. I know he had something to do with it."

"I want to see her."

We went down to the police station on Main Street. Another officer was there—an older black man named Sgt. Matthews. He told us that my mother's body was currently at the coroner's office down the street. He gave us the address and we went there.

The coroner was a young-ish woman with meticulously-styled black hair. She brought us into the room where my mother's body was being kept. In that sterile white room, I wanted to vomit. Everything stunk of formaldehyde and death.

The coroner went to the refrigerator at the back, where bodies were kept on trays behind the little doors. She opened one of the middle ones on the top row and slid her out. Mom was resting on the tray, under a white sheet. She looked peaceful, like she was just sleeping, but her face was pale and purple, like she was ice-cold. And her head rested at an odd angle due to her broken neck.

I broke then, and tears streamed down my face as I sobbed into Roger's shoulder. Was this what Virginia had meant, that it was happening again? Would people keep dying unless something was done about Robert? Or was this just his way of getting back at me for exposing his dark secrets?

Back at home, Dad finally sat down with Carlos and told him the truth. There was a lot of yelling and swearing, but eventually they came to an understanding. Carlos was still shocked to learn that I was only his half sister and not his full-blood sister—and even moreso that Mom never told us any of it—but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. He still loved me, just like Dad did.

If only Mom had been there to see it. Maybe we could have finally been a family again.

She'd elected to be cremated in her Will, and the coroner gave us a beautiful urn for her ashes. We kept it in her bedroom on her dresser, and planned to bring it back to Kitchener with us when we went.

Carlos decided that he wanted to go back home too. After everything that had transpired, I think he decided that Ramblewood just had too much darkness in it to want to stay.

In the following week, Dad helped us plan a tight-knit memorial service for Mom back in Kitchener. We planned to invite Abuela and a couple of Mom's closest friends. In the meantime, Carlos and I went through Mom's belongings to see what we wanted to bring back home with us, for Abuela and for our own memories. I found a pretty red dress in her closet—I think it was a bridesmaid's dress once—that I thought we could dress Mom in for the funeral.