Page 55 of The Wrong Side Of Us

What if he didn’t want me to go see my mom, just like he didn’t want me to see Hannah?

“I’m very sorry, Evie,” he murmured, kneeling in front of me. His gray eyes met my own, cupping my face in his hands. When I didn’t say anything, he placed a kiss to the back of my hand. “I booked us a flight for tomorrow at noon to Pennsylvania. There wasn’t an earlier one.”

“Really?” I asked, awestruck at the man in front of me.

“Of course,” he replied, gaze soft, tender. “It’s your mom. You deserve to be there.”

“This is it, isn’t it? I’m never going to have a relationship with her.”

Wordlessly, Nathan pulled me into his arms, where I found more comfort than I ever thought I would.

Chapter 21

Evelyn

It was too late.

We were too late.

By the time we arrived in Pennsylvania, my mom had already passed away. Now instead of saying goodbye, I had to prepare a funeral. If life was fair, things would have been different. If wishes came true, then I would have been able to ask questions my mom would have been able to answer. We could forgive and forget.

But life wasn’t fair.

There was no wishful thinking, no way to change reality.

This was mine.

Everyone could call this my mother’s karma. Everyone could say that she deserved it. To me, though, she’d always be just my mom, no matter how horrible she was, no matter how much she hurt me.

“Baby?”

“Hm?” I blinked a few times as Nathan’s voice brought me back to the present. The doctor shot me a compassionate look, and Nathan squeezed my waist in comfort.

“Doctor’s asking if you have any questions, babe.”

“No,” I replied, looking between them. It’s not like I hadn’t done this before.

“Would you like to see her?”

I felt Nathan tense next to me at the question.

Did I want to see her?

“Yes. Alone, though.” Without giving Nathan a chance to say anything, I told him to wait and followed behind the doctor. I felt his piercing gaze on me as I walked away but couldn’t bother to turn around.

If I thought I was cold before, I was freezing now.

“Be warned that she doesn’t look like you last saw her,” the doctor said softly.

I nodded as everything seemed to move in slow motion.

A door opened.

I took a few steps forward, eyeing a body covered with a white sheet.

Did you ever love me?

Would you ever be proud of me?

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