He Watched Me Freeze Now He Begs For My Return Chapter 06
I hauled my suitcase onto the California Zephyr bound for Chicago. The train pulled out of Denver just as night was falling.
At that same moment, my family was accepting congratulations in the hotel ballroom.
My parents, Robert and Elaine, warmly greeted local officials, charity heads, and reporters, drinks in hand. Paige stood near the head table, waiting to use her “family laugh history” reel to show everyone how I cried, how I broke down, how I feared.
Caleb kept glancing toward the entrance.
“Is the video ready?”
“Of course.”
“Then why isn’t Nora here yet?”
Paige didn’t look bothered. “She’ll come.”
She glanced at Caleb and smiled.
“Do you know why I’ve been able to bully her for all these years?”
“Why?”
“Because she was never the center of this family. She wanted my aunt and uncle to accept her so badly that she kept trying to please them, please you, and please me.”
Swirling her wine, Paige sounded utterly certain.
“Even if I stomped her into the ground, she’d come back smiling and ask if my foot hurt.”
The gala officially began, and my seat was still empty.
Caleb called five times in a row, each one going to voicemail. Elaine’s smile began to stiffen. Robert muttered at them to keep it together.
“Play the video. She’s probably just stuck in traffic.”
The host was already on stage.
“And now, Paige Bennett will introduce a special presentation prepared by the family—*A History of Family Laughter*!”
Applause rang out.
Paige swept onto the stage, gave a smug little wave to the cameras, and personally hit play.
The big screen went black.
What appeared was not my humiliation reel, but a bedroom in the middle of the night. In the shaky GoPro footage, Robert and Elaine sat on the edge of a bed.
Robert’s hushed voice echoed through the ballroom.
“I’d been drinking that night. I’m the one who killed Paige’s mother.”
The applause died as if it had been strangled.
Robert and Elaine’s faces went white. They collapsed into their chairs.