Harkham's Corner (Harkham's Series Book 3) (35 page)

“What do we do?”

“Invest it?” She shrugged. “I have no idea.

“What if we get a bigger house?”

“Um, yeah, okay, yeah. That sounds like a great way to . . .” She drifted off. Her brow wrinkled. All at once, she looked deep in thought and distracted.

“Should I give it back? If thirty thousand upsets you, then I don’t want it.”

She turned in a split second and yelled, “No!” Her eyes flashed wide. “That’s yours!”

“But you look like sadness.” His stomach tightened. Was he misunderstanding?

“I was just thinking how if my dad was still alive, I could’ve helped him out some with money like that.”

Adam smacked the table. “You know he had the money to fix up his house. He chose not to.”

“I know, but if I’d . . .”

“What’s going on really?” He swiveled around, swinging his legs toward her. He patted his lap. “Sit down and tell me.”

She scurried over to him, took a spot on his legs and said with a sad smile. “It’s Thomas.”

“What about him? I just talked to him last week. He sounded good.”

“Oh, sweetie—he’s anything but good. He’s gotten way worse, and today the in-home nurse you got him said he needs to be switched over to hospice. He collapsed this morning, and she was worried when it took a while before he woke up.” Mari’s eyelashes moistened. “What if we lose him? We just got him back into your life a few weeks ago. And the holidays are right around the corner. I wanted him here for Christmas with us since he doesn’t have anyone anymore.”

“I . . . We’ll do all that. He’ll be fine.” He hugged her, holding her close to his chest. “He’s not going to die. He’s strong and stubborn, and we share donuts now.”

“I know you do, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a very sick man with a tumor-riddled body. Lung cancer is scary.” She cupped his cheeks, kissed him, then whispered, “I love you. And he loves you, too.”

“I know he does. And that’s why I have faith in him.”

“Adam . . .” She said his name like she was going to say something very hard to hear.

“We can’t say he’ll die. That’s not nice.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. I said it once, and that’s enough.”

“Then what?” His heart sunk into his lap, right under where she was sitting. His legs were knotted up, and he could barely breathe.

“I think maybe you should visit your mother and let her know how bad off he is. She should be made aware.”

“Zach can tell her.”

“Both of you can do it together. Just in case.” Mari slid off his lap and leaned up against the table.

“Mommy! Button’s hiccupping. It’s too loud!” Meg called from the living room.

“Be right there,” Mari answered. She looked at Adam. “It’s a good idea to have your brother there, in case she goes psycho like Samara did. They’re not too far off from each other. You know that, right—that she’s equally dangerous for you?”

Adam nodded. Well, not really. He didn’t really know that, but he believed his wife. She was always right.

“Okay, I will. Zach needs to face her as well. He never did with Sam, so this time, we’ll both be strong.”

She gave him a parting kiss, then left to go help Meg deal with a hiccupping disaster of a brother.

* * *

Zach groaned. “She’s a nutjob. Is she even going to understand or care about what we tell her?”

Adam spun on him. “She’s our mother, no matter what happens. We can’t act like we don’t love her.”

“I’m not acting anything. I’m just not sure she deserves to know about Thomas.”

“It doesn’t matter if she deserves the air in her
room
.” Adam blinked away the formation of tears. There was no reason to cry, other than his brother was hurting his heart. It was difficult to see his brother in pain, and it was clear Zach was very deep in it.

“She left me, too, you know. It wasn’t just you. It was Samara, Dad, me,
and
you. We all felt it. I was little, but I remember feeling like my entire world was yanked away.” Zach stopped walking toward the entrance. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Yes, you can.” Adam tugged on his arm.

“Why are you so sure?”

“Because you help everyone. You did the right thing with Ryan, even when you knew it would hurt Lorraine and possibly Jill a little, and look how well that all worked out.”

“Yeah, but Mom isn’t going home with me where we can talk it out, and there’s no love there. Not anymore.” Zach squared his shoulders and brushed Adam’s hand off his arm.

“Stop it. We’re going. I need you.
She
needs you. We’re a family. We choose to be there for each other because there is nothing worse than a family that holds grudges and won’t forgive. It’s not worth living that way. Mari regrets every day that she wasn’t able to repair things with her dad before he passed. Thomas is about to die. I’ll have one less father. I have a sort of mother with Amelia and with our mom. Let’s make it better. We can
do
that.”

“I don’t want to say anything to her, though. I’m only there for moral support for you. You’re welcome to speak for me, but I’m not going to admit that I care about her. I won’t do that. She’ll just have to take your word for it.” Zach’s eyes were like a lost kid.

Adam remembered saying the same thing to their mom when they visited Samara in France in the mental hospital.

It hadn’t worked how Adam thought it would. He doubted very much Zach would be able to keep quiet either.

They went through all the usual procedures before being allowed in to see her.

With Sam, he had seen her outdoors, but with their mother, they had to visit her in the rec room.

Adam’s eyes filled with stinging tears immediately when they fell on her.

This woman could
not
be his mother.

She was all skin and bones, her hair was gone and there were claw marks all up and down her cheeks that looked angry, red and some of them infected.

It looked like she kept picking the scabs.

Zach moved behind Adam. Was he as horrified as Adam was?

“Hi, Mom,” Adam said upon approach.

She was seated at a table with a practice keyboard that was dented on both ends, missing some keys and dirty as hell.

Adam stiffened when she hugged him back, because there were socks on her hands, tied at the wrists.

What in fucking hell was going on here?

“Did someone attack you?” he whispered in her ear.

“Yes. Love attacked me.”

He pulled away and sat down.

Zach made no move to hug her and was silent. He stood behind Adam, almost looking like a worried bodyguard.

“Is that someone’s last name? Like Jennifer Love Hewittt or something?” He searched her eyes.

“It’s your name—both of yours.” She leaned forward, gripping the table as best she could through her gloved hands.

He grimaced. “Mom, we didn’t attack you. How could we? This is the first time we’ve seen you.”

“You attacked me with hate and venom in your spines and blood in your eyes. You all want me dead. But Samara—she knew. She understood. I should have stayed with her in France. She loved me.” Her face ticked on the right side, making her eye twitch and her lip dance at the corner. A little drool escaped as well.

“Fuck, Adam . . . She’s completely bonkers,” Zach whispered.

“Mom . . . Samara. Is. Dead. You know this.” Adam took a deep breath.

Her nostrils flared. “No!
You’re
dead. You’re the one! She’s alive. She escaped. She’s going to save me and then I’ll show Thomas and Dustin and Neil and Stacy. They’ll all see,” she said, grinning with a wicked gleam in her eye.

Drool fell out of the corner of her mouth and hit the keyboard.

“Oh no!” she cried out, spotting the saliva. She used her cloth hands to wipe it up meticulously. After she realized there was a clean spot and the rest was filthy, she leaned over and licked, then wiped. Licked, then wiped.

Adam’s stomach knotted and felt about ten thousand shades of pukey green.

“Stop! Too many germs.” He yanked the keyboard toward him.

“Mine! I had to earn that. It’s mine! You can’t have it! Sally, he’s taken my toy!” she screeched louder than Adam had ever heard from her.

Including the time he’d accidentally hurt her, shoving her into the broken, splintered piano bits he’d made in his fit. And that had ripped up her arms like crazy.

“Sally, they’ve taken my ring, too. It’s gone. Oh no! It’s gone. They’ve fucking robbed me. My money is all gone!” She rocked in place, banging her head pretty forcefully with her hands.

Adam’s eyes went wide, he shoved the piano back toward her. She was completely unhinged.

Zach raced over behind her, grabbed her wrists to keep her from hurting herself. It was a good thing because her entire body was jerking around—her legs stomping and her head flinging back, knocking into his stomach hard.

She was worse than a toddler having a tantrum. This seemed borderline suicidal.

“Sarah, shhhhh, it’s okay,” one of the female employees there said, coming to her side.

She did nothing to remove Zach’s hands off their mother. She merely crouched down beside her, patted her leg soothingly while someone approached on the other side of her. They shoved a pill in Sarah’s mouth in a flash, then covered her mouth and plugged her nose until she was forced to swallow.

No wonder they didn’t mind Zach binding her that way.

They needed him too.

Fuck. This was serious.

Adam wanted to push away from the table, flee this place and never return.

How was he supposed to tell her Thomas was sick and about to die when she was so out of it?

“She has bad days sometimes. This one’s been her worst yet. I told her that family was coming to visit and she became hysterical this morning. She was ripping her hair out and trying to strangle herself with it. I had to shave her head to keep her from doing that.” The woman stood up. “I’m Sally. I’m so glad to meet you both.” She smiled, offered her hand to Adam first.

He shook it.

“Is she okay?” His brows slammed together. “She seemed completely disoriented. Does she have hallucinations often?”

“Yes, pretty often, but if we’re on top of her meds, then she’s usually fairly calm and even happy. She gets along well with most of the others here, except one woman who likes the piano, too. They fight over it sometimes, so I had to make a chart so they both get equal time. I don’t know why Sarah wants it, though. She doesn’t seem to know how to play, and she rarely does anything with it other than stare at it. She says two names over and over when she has it.”

“Is it Adam?” Zach asked, still holding his mom’s wrists, but looser. He rubbed along her wrists with a soothing touch.

“No. She says,
Thomas, he’s Dustin’s
. Then she switches and says the opposite,
Dustin, he’s Thomas’s
.” Sally shook her head. “I have no idea what it means, but she seems stuck on those ideas.”

“Basically she’s talking about my brother here, Adam,” Zach explained.

Sarah went limp and tried to drop her head to the table, forcing Zach to almost land on top of her back.

He released his grip on her and stroked her bald head as if it was nothing at all to see her this way.

How was Zach doing that? He didn’t seem repulsed at all.

“Ah, I see. I heard she’s had quite the past, being with a lot of men. I had no idea it was like
that
.” Sally smiled.

“She didn’t know who my father really was. We found out recently,” Adam told her.

Her eyes softened. “Oh dear. Well, I’m glad
yo
u know.”

Adam was about to ask Sally if they should tell his mother, along with the news about Thomas being near death, but he didn’t get a chance.

Zach picked their mom up, sat down in her seat, then set her in his lap.

He held her like a small child he was about to read to.

“Mom, it’s Zach. I’m your little boy—your youngest.” He patted her back and ran lulling circles on it.

She seemed to move in the pattern of his hands, switching directions so she circled her body with his motions.

“I love my little Zachy. He’s so sweet. Always so good to my Adam. Such a good boy,” Sarah said in a happy-sounding whisper.

“Yes, it’s me. I love you, Mom, so much, but I have to tell you something, and you have to stay calm.” Zach caressed from the nape of her neck to her waist.

She sagged into his touch. When she was completely placid, Zach said, “Adam is Dustin’s biological son. We had DNA tests run. Dustin is happy, Thomas is sad, but he accepts. And he kind of has to. Adam’s been good to him, giving him money, taking care of him. Thomas’s real sick with lung cancer. He could die very soon, and he wants you to know you’ll always be in his heart. He loves you very much.” Zach kissed the back of her shoulder.