Free Unforgivable by Amy Reed Page B

out she had a secret life and identity she told me nothing about, and now I’m standing in my living room looking at my mother who I haven’t seen in almost two years since she ran off and abandoned us. She’s sitting on the couch across from my father, and they’re drinking coffee like she’s any old guest, as if that is a place where guests sit, as if this is a house that is used to having guests. That must be her car with the Washington plates in the driveway.
    â€œHi, Marcus,” she says, and the sound of her voice sends dull knives through my rib cage.
    â€œWhat the fuck is going on?” I say.
    â€œMarcus,” Dad says. “Why don’t you sit down.” He is too calm. I don’t understand how he can just sit there with the woman who left him and took half his money and destroyed his family.
    â€œNo,” I say. “This is bullshit. What the hell is she doing here?”
    â€œMarcus,” she says, her voice too calm, too controlled. She’s sitting so still, so upright. “I know this must be difficult for you. It’s understandable that you’re upset.” She should have fallen into her usual histrionics by now. She should be spewing indecipherable tear-drenched words. This is some weird, restrained version of my mother, with a simple chin-length haircut instead of the long blond I remember. Her face is clean and without makeup. A sweater, jeans, and clogs have replaced the kind of outfits that used to embarrass me, the low-cut blouses and too-tight pants that screamed Look at me! How perverse that she finally looks like someone’s mother now that she isn’t.
    â€œWhy are you here?” I growl. “I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to talk to you again when I didn’t return any of your calls.”
    She nods and looks down at her lap. “Yes, of course,” she says. “That was absolutely your right. I knew it would take you a long time to forgive me.”
    â€œWell, keep waiting. It’s never going to happen.”
    â€œMarcus, will you please sit down?” Dad says. “Your mother’s here because I invited her.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI think it’s time for you to let her back into your life.”
    â€œHow are you the one who gets to decide that? Oh wait, I forgot. You’re the boss of everything.”
    â€œYou sound like a child,” he says.
    â€œWhy are you on her side? She left you too, you know.”
    Dad sighs. He should be yelling. Mom should either be curled into herself while he rages, or drunk and raging right back. But they’re both so . . . relaxed. This isn’t my life. These aren’t my parents.
    He stands up. “I’m going to leave you two to talk. I’m sure you have a lot of catching up to do.” Really, Dad? What a fucking coward. “Do you need anything, Renae?” he says. “More coffee?”
    â€œNo, thank you, Bill,” she says. “I’m fine.”
    Who are these people?
    â€œI’ve been living in Seattle, you know. Where your aunt Katy is?” Mom says after Dad leaves the room to go hide in the kitchen. “Your father and I have been in contact.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œI respected the fact that you weren’t ready to talk to me, but I still wanted to know what was going on with you. If you weren’t going to talk to me, I could at least talk to him.”
    Like he has any idea , is what I want to say. Like he even cares . But I know that would open more floodgates I don’t want opened.
    â€œHe’s worried about you.”
    â€œSo he calls you here to talk to me about it? He’s that much ofa chicken he has to call his ex-wife to talk to his son?”
    â€œHe said he’s been trying to talk to you, but you keep pushing him away. He thought I’d have more luck.”
    â€œYeah? What do you think? Do you feel lucky?”
    â€œCan we try this without