Page 245 of Obsession

He didn’t move after he turned off the engine.

I’d never seen him so exposed, a storm of emotions raging on his face, and I could read the tension, the fear, the helplessness, and most of all, the pain.

I hoped Harris had played a bad joke by bringing me here, because I couldn’t even mentally spell the name of this place without shaking.

“Harris, what are we doing here?” I barely whispered, praying he’d laugh and say it was just a joke, but his face remained unchanged.

“This is where my mother lives.”

I turned my gaze to the iron gates that housed Lake View Cemetery. Any theory I had about his family shattered in seconds, leaving nothing but a cold shiver behind. It was much worse than the harsh father and abused mother I had imagined.

God, much, much worse. I’d thought of almost everything, but not this.

Harris turned around and grabbed a leather jacket from the back seat, then got out of the car and I saw him take a deep breath.

I got out of the car too and felt my knees go weak. I slowly walked towards him and looked at him reluctantly as he put on his jacket and left the zipper open. He caught the black strands that fell over his face and pushed them back, his hands not letting go of his hair as he closed his eyes.

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I saw him struggling to control his emotions.

“You always talk about her…”

“In the present tense?” he added when I couldn’t say it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“I haven’t accepted her death yet, and I don’t think I ever will, even though five years have passed.”

The blood in my veins ran cold as I remembered that Iolanda had spoken about her the same way.

“Let’s go,” he said slowly, letting go of his hair and taking my hand in his.

I was so unprepared for what followed and imagined how hard it must have been for him to be here, to expose himself to me like this, to show me the most vulnerable part of himself.

I walked behind him as we passed through the gates, and he held my hand as we stepped slowly between the headstones. The wind was barely noticeable, but it still ruffled my hair and made it stick to my face. We could still see where we were stepping, but the darkness would probably swallow the light in less than an hour. We walked deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless mortuary space. I couldn’t see the car or the gates, or the fence that surrounded the cemetery, but it wasn’t a good time to ask him how much longer we had to walk.

We passed statues of angels, magnificent crypts and plain headstones as I watched Harris intently; he was activelytrying to suppress his pain, showing a serious, somewhat hard expression, which would have scared me if I didn’t know what was hiding behind it. I felt his steps slow down, and I looked around, searching for that something I didn’t want to find. Tears rushed out when I saw a white tomb plate, surrounded by fresh white roses, with the name “Samantha Stone” engraved on it.

The pain I felt was indescribable, and I felt the need to fall to my knees and cry, but I stayed by his side. I let go of his hand when we stopped in front of the grave and I have never been so unsure of what to say as I was at that moment.

He leaned down, propped his elbows on his knees, and brought his hands together under his mouth.

“Hi, mom,” he whispered slowly, his voice pulsing with pain as he gently stroked the white plate, engraved with his mother’s name and a few dates. She had died at the age of thirty-two.

Extremely young, too young.

A little further down on the plate was written:

You are now free to fly, mom.

My head fell back, and I closed my eyes as I tried to suppress the tears, then I leaned carefully next to him. I noticed how he slowly calmed down and forced himself to smile a small, pained smile. Muffled thunder sounded above us.

“I want you to meet someone, mom. This is Katherine.”

I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks and I leaned my cheek against his shoulder.

“Katherine, this is my mom.”

He turned to me, and for the first time I saw tears forming in his eyes. A frightening shiver ran down my spine as the drops gathered in the corners of his eyes. I didn’t know what to say as the greeting I had been repeating in my head was not applicable.

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