Free Warning Signs (Broken Promises #2) by Alexandra Moore Page A

your hair.”
    “What the hell happened, Splinter?”
    “I can’t…I can’t tell you.” He seemed more in shock than I did.
    I slapped him, hoping it would bring him out of it. “What. Happened?”
    “She cut herself, Bea. She tried to kill herself. So much blood… so much blood.”
    Everything froze in time. I took the keys from him and made him sit in the passenger side while I drove back to Hanover and to the hospital where Mother had been admitted for her psychiatric care. When I got there, I was praying to anyone who was willing to listen as I searched for any sign of Ben. Splinter stayed in the car. He had never seen someone so near death. He had never seen someone try to take their life. He had never seen the amount of blood one shed when they’re trying to die. I decided he could sit out. I had seen blood shed. I had seen lives end like a burning flame that was snuffed out by a light breeze. I had seen death. I had been dead; this was nothing new to me.
    “Ben?” I called out. He was waving his hand from one of the first rows of chairs in the waiting room. When I approached him I saw all the bloodstains on his shirt. He was there when she did this. I had nothing to say about how he had practically ruined our first Thanksgiving together in eight years. I grabbed a tissue and wiped the blood off his cheek.
    Before I could ask any questions, the doctors came in. I grabbed Ben’s hand and squeezed it tightly. He needed it. Out of all the times he had squeezed my hand to give me strength, it was my turn to be his strength for tonight, because for whatever reason, he needed it more than I did.
    “Mr. Morrison, we…”
    “Please, just tell me.”
    “Mr. Morrison, I’m afraid to say we did the best we could, but it was not enough to save your mother’s life. She is gone.” Suddenly the air had been taken from my lungs. I can’t tell you how many times I had wished my mother dead, and now that she was, I felt so horrible. Horrible, ha. That word doesn’t even come close to what I feel. She’s gone, just like that. I hadn’t once visited her while she sought treatment here. I didn’t even ask the doctor how she was able to slice her arms open and take her own life. I wrapped my arms around my brother and let him cry today. I did this because he never really cried, and today I was his strength.
     
    ***
     
    A few weeks had passed until we were able to have our mother laid to rest. It was odd being in a cemetery with a headstone that had my father’s name on it with one right next to it that had my mother’s. Both of my parents were dead and now all I had left was Ben. He had been pretty angry lately, so I moved back into his house to take care of him. I put aside all of my feelings to make sure he could have his. Because he had sacrificed so much for me, I could sacrifice a few things for him in return. We were silent through the entire mass, and we gathered with the few people left who cared about our family and watched as our mother was lowered into the ground.
    As they piled dirt over her coffin, I walked back to the cars with my brother. Paparazzi were watching us like hawks. It was hard enough to grieve in private when we lived in an age of over-sharing and the Internet, but when you’re in the public eye it’s almost impossible to grieve. You had to be brave and unbreakable. You had to be strong and filled with compassion. Not loud, but not quite silent.
    No one wanted to hear about our problems until we decided we didn’t want to share them. Every person who owned a camera was snapping our picture as we left the cemetery and headed back to New Hampshire the same day. We wanted to live our lives as normally as possible, but they were never normal. I didn’t think it’s possible for our lives to be normal ever again.
    Ben went straight upstairs to his room where he stayed the rest of the day while I unpacked, cleaned up the house, and threw out the condolence cards and flowers. Ben had made