No One Came Chapter 13
Mom turned to look at him.
“What did you say?”
“I said I want a divorce.”
Dad lit a cigarette.
“Adriana is gone. There’s nothing left for us. Let’s just end it.”
He threw the cigarette butt on the wet ground, crushed it with his shoe, and walked away.
Mom stood alone in front of the headstone for a long, long time.
She didn’t leave until it was nearly dark and the groundskeeper came to tell her the cemetery was closing.
News travels fast in a small town.
Something like this was impossible to hide.
The neighbors started whispering.
Some said Mom had always coddled her son and driven her daughter to her death.
Some said Nico was a little monster, capable of killing his own sister.
Others said Dad was just as much to blame. He knew everything and did nothing.
It blew up online, too.
Someone posted the story in a local Facebook group.
Overnight, it was shared thousands of times.
The comments were a flood of people cursing Mom.
“A person like that doesn’t deserve to be a mother.”
“She played favorites so badly that it killed her daughter, and only now she regrets it? What’s the point?”
“The little brother is a killer, and the parents enabled him.”
Someone found out where Mom worked and called to complain.
Others contacted Nico’s school, demanding his expulsion.
Mom was suspended from her job.
The company told her to take a leave of absence for the time being.
She shut herself in the house, refusing to go out, answer the phone, or see anyone.
The curtains were always drawn. The lights were always off.
The entire house was dark and silent.