Secrets and Lies
Chapter 7
He put the phone down and stared silently at it for a long minute, before his mother disturbed his reverie.
"Bad news?"
She said, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. He nodded, still silent. The news hadn't quite filtered in all the way yet, hadn't quite had time to get so under his skin he could have any kind of emotional reaction.
"Didn't you used to work at County?"
Sam's voice had been a heavy blow from the past. He may have pretended not to recognise her, but how could he have forgotten her? She hated him, and she made only a thinly veiled attempt to hide it during their conversation.
"Yeah, a few years back,"
He answered his mother's question, turning to face her at last.
"Why did they call?"
A long sigh escaped him, as he tried to formulate a suitable answer. His mother knew very scant information about his time at County. She certainly did not know all that had gone on, though she would probably recognise Abby's name if he mentioned it.
"Abby. You remember her right? She's dying,"
He watched the shock cross his mother's expression at his bluntness.
"What? What of…?"
"Liver failure. She was…she is an alcoholic,"
He corrected automatically. Never recovered, always recovering, hadn't she once told him? He'd seen her begin to descend back into it. He'd seen her get ill. He hadn't stuck around to watch though.
"Are you going back? Shall I get your things?"
"Do you mind?"
The head shake was small but genuine. He wished this had happened at any other time, so he hadn't had to involve his mother. But he knew he had to go back. It wouldn't be easy, he was under no illusions there, but if Abby wanted him, she had to have her reasons for that.
"I know how you felt about her."
He allowed himself a half-smile. How he'd felt? Yeah, he remembered that. He remembered the bitterness, the anger, the guilt, and the pain he'd left in his wake. He struggled to remember what the good times had been like, though he was sure there must have been some.
"I'll drive you to the airport,"
His mother added finally.
He talked his way onto the next flight into Midway once they got to the airport, charming the girl at the airline desk, and said a swift goodbye to his mother. In reality, he was sick with fear at the very idea of going back, but for once in his life he was utterly determined to do the right thing.