Betrayal by Karin Alvtegen Read Free Book Online

She was one of those children who’s like a dandelion and succeeds in life in spite of everything. Strong and stubborn.’
    ‘Does she have any siblings?’
    ‘A brother, but he lives in Australia.’
    ‘And you?’
    He turned his head and looked at her.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Your parents?’
    ‘What about them?’
    ‘I don’t know. Tell me.’
    ‘We have no contact. I moved down to Stockholm when I was eighteen, thought it was good to get away from there.’
    ‘Get away from what?’
    ‘I lived up north of Gävle.’
    ‘Yes, but most people stay in contact with their family even if they move away.’
    ‘I see.’
    Nine words his mother had said to him after the betrayal was revealed. Nine words. It was on his eighteenth birthday. He was sitting in the kitchen eatingbreakfast, had just come home from his paper round. For three months he had done what he could to win her forgiveness, but she had not been receptive. And his father had holed up in a one-room apartment in Gävle to get away from the shame that her boundless sorrow and disappointment had created. He took his clothes and one of the twin beds from the bedroom and disappeared.
    Suddenly she was standing there in the kitchen doorway. She was wearing the flowered robe that he knew smelled so good, smelled of Mamma. And he had been filled with joy and thought that maybe, maybe she was ready to forgive him now. Now that it was his birthday and she was standing there in the kitchen doorway.
    Nine words she had said.
    I don’t want you to live here any more.
    Yvonne Palmgren shifted position in her chair once again. A couple of papers from her folder started to slip, and she caught them just as they were about to fall to the floor.
    He lowered his gaze and went to sit with Anna again.
    ‘Why don’t you have any contact with your parents?’
    ‘Because I don’t feel like it.’
    ‘Doesn’t that ever make you feel empty?’
    ‘No.’
    She cleared her throat and closed the folder in her lap.
    ‘I think that will be enough for now, but I would like to continue our conversation this afternoon.’
    He shrugged his shoulders. It annoyed him that he was forced to do as they said. That he couldn’t just tell them all to go to hell.
    ‘Shall we say two o’clock?’
    She got up and went over to the bed, looked at Anna and then at him, and moved towards the door.
    ‘I’ll see you then. Goodbye for now.’
    He didn’t reply.
    He saw the door close behind her and took Anna’s hand, placed it on his crotch, and closed his eyes.

N ever in her life had she felt so alone.
    He had slept on the sofa. Took his pillow and quilt and without saying a word he had left her with all the unanswered questions that she couldn’t bring herself to ask. His last words at the kitchen table had struck her dumb.
    Anxiety like a cramp in her guts.
    Why was he so angry? Where did his rage come from? What could she possibly have done to deserve being treated like this?
    Alone in the double bed she was sorry that she had let Axel sleep over at her parents’ house. She would have given anything to have him here now, hear his breathing, reach out her hand and feel the warm back of his pyjamas.
    At four o’clock she couldn’t stand it any more. With her face red and swollen and her eyes watering, she pulled on her robe and went out to the living room. It was still dark outside, but in the pale moonlight she could see that he was lying on his back with his arms behind his head. His knees a bit bent, the sofa too short to permit him to stretch out his legs. She wondered briefly why he didn’t go and sleep in Axel’s bed. A kid’s bed, of course, but surely better than the sofa.
    She sat down in the armchair, at the very edge.
    ‘Are you asleep?’
    He didn’t answer.
    She pulled her robe tighter around her and shivered. The mullioned windows in the room needed to be puttied again. The electric heater couldn’t keep the room warm when most of the heat went straight out