Our Scars

Dream

60

Dream (Title by Imagine Dragons)

"Paola di Varese!" The woman extended a small, slightly wrinkled hand to him which he took a little distractedly. Her fingers were boney, but her grip strong around his.

"Detective Jay Halstead," he said, calling himself an idiot immediately for including his rank in the introduction.

What was that all about? Not even in front of Rianne's real mother had he felt the need to say that. Paola's shrewd eyes stayed with him for an uncomfortable while, then she let him be abruptly.

"I shood geteback home, cara! Stai bene?" Paola turned around to Rianne, who still hadn't moved from the couch.

Jay thought she really must not be feeling well to not have gotten up the minute he had walked into this awkward situation.

"Can I... give you a lift?" Jay offered, although he hoped the woman would say no.

He honestly had no desire to spend a long drive to Berwyn with a woman he felt, by the hint of sorrow evident in her stoic expression, he had robbed of her daughter-in-law somehow. But of course his polite side had gotten the better of him.

"No, non necessario. I will take ze L, thank you," the Italian accent to her English was really heavy.

Paola nodded gracefully at him, sly eyes wryly running over his frame once more. Then she took her purse that had been abandoned on the coffee table until now.

"At least let me give you money so that you can take an uber. È il minimo che posso fare!" Rianne made a weak attempt to get up, attention focused solely on her guest, but the older woman summoned her back into the furniture using a simple hand gesture.

With a determined aura about her that didn't leave any room for discussion, the woman pressed a kiss to Rianne's forehead and said something Jay didn't understand. He however noticed Rianne nodding with a teary-eyed expression and squeezing the tiny person's arm in deep affection, too choked up to respond verbally. His head was slightly spinning trying to evaluate what exactly was going on here.

Paola di Varese nodded curtly at Jay before putting on her coat and walked towards the front door, authority in her step like she'd been here multiple times.

"Care to explain?" Jay said warily when he had closed the door behind their surprise guest.

At least Andrea's mother showing up had been a surprise to him. How Rianne was involved in this, he wasn't so sure. In general he wasn't sure how he should react and what to feel. What this visit meant or why on earth was she looking so terribly sick, when she had claimed to be fine all day?

Right now he was caught in a war between worried, frightened, a little angry and certainly confused.

In the meantime Rianne had gotten up and gone to make herself some more tea.

Jay cornered her in the kitchen, noticing her slow movements and getting himself worked up, when she still didn't answer him after a minute of silence.

Before he could raise his voice and demand answers more pressingly, she finally turned around and sighed:

"I'm sorry! This is certainly not how I wanted you two to meet for the first time."

Judging from the look on her face he wasn't sure if she had wanted them to meet ever. Her voice sounded normal, but it seemed she had shed all her summer skin within the last 48 hours. Rianne's face was so ashen that he could see the blue of the veins under her eyes and on her temples shine through her skin. Jay subconsciously clenched his fists by his sides: