Page 462 of The Sinner: James

“Yup.”

“What happened?”

I stay quiet, taking a drag off my cigarette and pushing the smoke out before speaking.

“My mother was here.”

“So she did show up after all.”

“Yeah, she did,” I say solemnly.

“How did it go?”

“It was... I don’t know,” I say, running the hand holding my cigarette through my hair. “She gave me an explanation for all these years of silence, and I sort of bought it, but it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“How does she look?”

“She looks good. She’s as hot as you remember her,” I say, grinning.

A laugh travels to my ears.

“That’s not why I asked.”

“I know you had a crush on her, Preston.”

“When I was eleven.”

We both laugh.

“She looks good,” I say in a different tone. “She’s single, regretful. Doesn’t know if she’ll ever come back. She’s built a life here, so it’s understandable, in a way. There’s something else...”

I pause.

He doesn’t say a word.

“I have a brother.”

“Wait… What? Seriously?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Is he like a teenager or something?”

“He’s a man.”

“How can he be a man?”

“He’s twenty-one years old but looks like he’s twenty-five. He’s, um... He’s a bare-knuckles fighter and fights in the underground clubs in London.”

“No.”

“Yes. And he’s missing.”

“Shit. That’s why she wanted to talk to you?”

“Precisely.”

“Perhaps she thought that asking for help under these circumstances would make you more lenient toward her.”

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