"Can you leave here, though?" I asked.
"Oh, yes," she assured me. "I left a note saying I was gone shopping with Rio."
So it wasn't that she was locked in. Cathy, Rio, and Anna had all recently spent time with Tori.
It was me.
"Sorry about this, I guess I..."
"No, no. It's fine."
Tori looked at me, searching for something. "It's not you."
"What?" I asked. I didn't understand.
"Mother does not hate you. She is just concerned about me being... with someone."
She sighed, and turned around as we walked in the cold darkness.
"That is only because of what happened to my sister Lori and... my nephew."