Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,80
safe.”
Still, she doesn’t utter a word. Instead, confusion floods into her eyes. “What...?”
“Mia?” Nicky whispers, alarm in her voice.
“Aunt Nicky? What’s going on?” Mia croaks, obviously confused.
Just like that, everything goes incredibly still in the room.
The thing in my chest stops.
My breath stutters to a pause and a heavy silence falls over the room.
I see the bandages wrapped around her head. Her face is not as swollen as it was before, but the nasty bruises are now a sickly yellow. It makes my rage spike all over again.
From the corner of my eye, I see Nathan’s fucking smirk fade from his fucking face.
A growl works its way from the pit of my stomach but before it can go anywhere, Dad clamps a hand on my right shoulder again in silent warning, but fuck that.
“You sonofa—” I start but dad stops me before I say something I won’t be able to take back.
“Easy,” he says under his breath for my ears only. When I glance up at him, he’s watching his asshole stepbrother too. “Now is not the time.”
Nathan looks at us, then in an act of obvious calculation, he scrunches up his ugly mug in our direction. “What are they doing in here?”
The fucking audacity of this jerk! He’s the one who thought accusing me of shit in front of a comatose Mia would work in his fucking favor but now, things might have just flipped for the fucker.
“Mr. Montague—” one of the detectives starts, but he cuts them off.
“Get them out detectives! They’re affecting my daughter.”
“Oh, shut up, Nathan! You’re the one who shouldn’t be here,” Dad says calmly, but I can hear the barely restrained rage laced in his words.
For the past two weeks, he’s been livid and under fire with all the headlines in the papers attacking us like an uncontrollable inferno hellbent on consuming our family.
Before this, he and I had a discussion where we laid out all the possibilities and options on the table. There weren’t a lot, but he once again brought up the most extreme one. Depending on what happens right now, I’ll make my decision.
“I’ll have you know something, John. You don’t have any authority here. Both you and your murderer of a son!” Nathan shouts.
“Mr. Montague, please calm down,” one of the detectives who’s name I’ve already forgotten says. “Allow us to do our job.”
“But—”
“Nathan, shut up! This isn’t about you!” Nicky snaps. “Doctor, please continue.”
“Mia, do you recognize anyone in this room now?” the doctor questions, a frown on his face.
Mia winces, and then she reaches up to touch the bandage wrapped around her head.
She looks around the room, her gaze passing over everyone again, but she doesn’t look at me or so much as give me a furtive glance like she did before.
It’s almost as if I’m not even here.
That fucking hurts.
Mia shakes her head slowly, her chest rising and falling faster as the tension mounts in the room.
“Who?” she croaks. The anxiety and confusion are clear in her voice. And so is the fear. “Who are they?”
“Mia? It’s me, your Mom, Nicky.”
My baby shakes her head just barely, looking up at Nicky, thoroughly perplexed with sadness brimming in her beautiful eyes. “My… mom?”
“Yes, baby.”
This the moment of truth.
I hold my breath, waiting for what Mia says now. It was fucking hard for her dealing with the truth about Nicky being her mother but her reaction now is…
“No, you’re Aunt Nicky,” Mia croaks, her voice hoarse. And there it is. “Where… where is my mom?”
Ah fuck.
Her memory… it’s gone.
Mia would never forget that Nancy is dead, especially when she blamed herself for how Nancy passed. Hell, she was beating herself up and harming herself over it and now…
“Auntie?” Mia croaks, her eyes widening with confusion.
For a moment, no one moves. No one says a word as the situation sinks in.
Something in me starts to fucking die the longer she lies there, waiting for someone to answer her. In the tense silence I can’t help but wonder. If she forgot Nancy, is it possible that she’s forgotten me too? No, she saw me. She recognized me. I saw it in her eyes.
“Doctor, what’s happening?” Nicky whispers almost inaudibly.
Tears race down her face as she begins trembling. She reaches for Mia’s hand, and grips it tightly. My own fucking fingers start itching with the same need. But I can’t.
It’s like we’re worlds apart and I’m hanging on a precipice controlled only by the look in her eyes.