Page 217 of Mad Girl

“She’s following me. She’s watching me. She took a picture of me.”

“Elliot—”

“Is she my mother?” I asked. “Is that my mom? Has she come back?”

Nic closed his eyes, jaw clenching tight. “No.”

“You forbade Casey to let me near her. Me specifically.”

“She’s not your mother.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I checked her out, Elliot. And, anyway, your mother is long gone. She doesn’t live here anymore.”

“Then where does she live?”

Nic blinked at me. “I don’t know. I have no idea where she went. But she isn’t here.”

I laughed bitterly. “I knew I couldn’t trust you to be honest with me.”

“I am being honest,” he said.

“Oh, yeah? When was the last time you spoke to her?”

Nic shrugged. “Not since you were little.”

I couldn’t believe this. The ease with which my own father could lie to my face. “You’re lying.”

“No,” he said. Still lying.

“So you didn’t talk to her when you were trying to figure out if you were Casey’s father or not? Because Casey says you did.”

Across the table, you’d closed your eyes, face scrunched up in a grimace.

Nic glared at you. “What the fuck, Casey?”

You opened your eyes. “I’m sorry, Nic. I shouldn’t have told her that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Nic’s sharp gaze held yours. “You had no right.”

“You talked to my mom,” I said, relieved I could finally confront him about it after a year of keeping all this knowledge—all these burning questions—to myself. “You’re still in contact with her. And you don’t know where she is?”

“She wouldn’t tell me,” Nic said.

“But you saw her.”

“No,” he claimed. Another lie. “I didn’t.”

“Casey says you did!”

“Casey was mistaken,” he replied tightly. “I never saw her. I only talked to her over the phone.”

“Then you know how to get in touch with her.”

“Not anymore. She disconnected that number. I haven’t talked to her in over a year.”

“When you talked to her….did she ask about me?”