Anabel Unraveled by Amanda Romine Lynch Read Free Book Online Page A

trust Mr. Sorensen at that time, and now I know I was right to trust my instincts.”
    “You know, you need to grow up, Anabel.” He sounded exasperated.
    Sam shook his head. “I think we need a break, Ms. Fischer.”
    “Very well,” she said. “Fifteen minutes.”
    Sam was still looking at me. I was studying my nails.
    “How long have you known?” he asked in an undertone.
    “Kevin told me. I figured it out right before they shipped him off.” I sighed. “Look, Jared did something right for once. We couldn’t go on pretending anymore, anyway.” I stretched a bit. “I have to use the little girls’ room, excuse me.”
    “Anabel—”
    “Let’s not do this.” I turned from him and walked away, feeling guilty. It was unfair of me to take out my temper on him, but it was also profoundly obtuse of Sam to think that I wouldn’t put two and two together.
    As I left the hearing room, I noticed the guy who Sam had been talking to on the first day followed me out. I shook my head at my own paranoia. “The world,” I told myself, “does not revolve around you.” So I made my way to the ladies’ room, locked myself in a stall, and vomited until it didn’t hurt anymore. Sighing heavily, I sat back against the wall, feeling the same pain I had when Jared had first asked me about my mom’s death.
    Kevin had approached me one day when I was sitting at the public library, reading. I had convinced myself on that particular occasion it would do me some good to have a change of scenery. The loss of Miss Marilyn had hit me very hard, and I was lonely. I was struggling through a European History book when I looked up and saw Kevin standing there.
    “Hi,” he drawled.
    A Southern accent? Really? I ignored him and stared at my book. I was not supposed to talk to inmates; they were not supposed to talk to me. Those were the rules.
    “It’s Anabel, right?”
    “Yes.” I didn’t look up.
    “I’m sorry to bother you, it’s just I couldn’t help but notice that you look just like your mother.”
    That made me drop my book. “What did you say?”
    “I said you look just like your mother. I used to love to watch her movies.” Kevin sat down next to me. “Is it okay if I sit here?”
    And thus began our star-crossed friendship, which was doomed from the start. Nobody, not even Marilyn, dared speak to me about my mother. I think they were forbidden by Jonathan. Of course I was curious about her, but all I had to go on were her movies and an occasional search on the internet. When I found out the details of her death, I was horrified. My father and brother had let me live in happy ignorance as to her lifestyle, and it all came as a shock the day that my brother told me she was dead. I hadn’t even known she’d been ill.
    Cassidy had realized that she had made a horrible mistake in cheating on my father and losing her precious baby girl. She tried for years to get Jonathan to reconcile with her, but he refused to take her calls, let her talk to me, or let her near the island. So, she started doing drugs. Cocaine, mostly. And she started going around with the wrong sorts of people. As a consequence, about two and a half years ago, she was in a hospital bed, dying.
    She was in a lot of pain, from what I understand. She could barely move, and her digestive tract no longer functioned of its own accord. She kept a picture by her bed of a beautiful baby girl, which caused her eyes to fill with tears every time she looked at it. She had sores all over her body that could barely stand the touch of her hospital gown.
    What follows next is a sore subject with all of us. You see, my mother begged and pleaded with a doctor to put her out of her misery. That doctor knew she would be spending months and perhaps years in this state, with no possible cure, and so he overdosed her on morphine and let her pass quietly into the night.
    My brother called me crying that night. I had never heard him cry before.
    How did my dad take this?