Page 67 of Forever Gone

“I just told you. Gillian Spence.”

Selena wrote it down. “Where is Gillian now?”

“Dead.”

Kelly paused. “How did she die?”

“Cancer. Must’ve been eight or nine years ago.” Boyd shifted in the chair. “I guess I can’t be angry at her now. Can’t be angry at Karen either.”

The television audience applauded.

Boyd stared at the floor.

Then his fist struck the side table.

Pill bottles jumped. A framed photograph tipped forward and fell flat.

His mother cried out.

“Everything bad in my life came from that moment,” Boyd shouted. “Everything.”

Selena remained seated, her voice controlled. “Boyd, lower your voice.”

“They threw me out of school. My dad called me a disgrace. Nobody would hire me except family, and half the town thought I was some kind of pervert because Karen couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

“Boyd,” his mother said.

He turned toward her at once.

The anger left his posture, replaced by alarm. “It’s okay, Mom.”

“You got expelled.” Her voice trembled. “I was so sad when you got expelled.”

“I know.”

“You were going to graduate.”

Boyd moved his chair closer and placed one hand over hers. “It’s all right. That happened years ago.”

“I bought you a suit.”

“I remember, Mom.”

“You said blue.”

“That’s right.”

The woman began to cry. Confusion tightened her features as she searched the room. “Where’s your father?”

Boyd swallowed. “He’s not here, Mom.”

“He’ll be angry.”

“No, he won’t.”

Kelly lowered her notebook.

The record had prepared her for volatility. It had not prepared her for the way Boyd folded around his mother’s fear, or for the old pain exposed by one damaged memory. Sympathy did not erase what he had done to Karen and Gillian. It did complicate the shape of him.