Obedience Lessons

Chapter Forty-Nine

Dylan's POV

We met mom right where we'd left her and by then reason had seeped in and I cringed away from my father who was livid. He shook from his emotions and I could see nothing of the man who had just sympathized so perfectly with me.

Mom shot upright, alarmed when a sob broke from my throat. "What happened, are you okay?" When I didn't say anything she looked at my father and asked, "Is he alright?"

"For now he is. Your son just tried to frame me to the police."

"What? Dylan!" Her voice rose several octaves in reprimand, "Why did you do something like that? Dylan you have no idea how much trouble that could cause..."

"Trouble?" I managed to croak out. "Trouble? Mom... you don't know."

"I know about the drug trade, Dylan. I know. You think I don't know anything about this family, but I do. You and Liam... we kept you safe from that world," She shook her head and looked at me with her deep blue eyes. How could this tiny woman be involved in this?

But my mother was telling me all the wrong things. Drugs was small compared to the murder of my brother. Did she know? Was she in on it too? I pulled away from her.

"Liam can't thank you today for how safe you kept him!" I yelled. "Makes me wonder what chance I have!"

Her face set like stone. My mother was never stubborn or resolved. It was so unlike her. She looked back at my father and said, "What Liam did we had no way of anticipating. Dylan I'm sorry you feel this way. I'm not the best example myself, seeing as every year I can't seem to get over how much I miss him and how much I still love him, but we all need to accept that he's gone. He killed himself Dylan..."

I looked her in the eyes when I shook my head. She didn't know. "He couldn't have killed himself mom. He was murdered. The after death reports, the pictures and the scene it's all wrong mom. That night we all argued. Did dad tell you about it?"

"That's enough, Dylan. You'll upset your mother," He hissed through his teeth, hands clenched into fists.

Mom looked at him as telling him to leave me alone but she didn't answer me. For once I had my mother's attention. Maybe she'd had questions all along. Maybe she couldn't grieve and get over Liam because like me she needed answers. Answers that finally made sense. "Did he tell you that Liam told him that he was gay? And that he was HIV positive?"

Slowly, almost as if she didn't want to accept it my mother shook her head, no. Her eyes welled up with tears. "You're lying. He would never have hidden it from me, even you told me you were gay, and I-"She broke off then steeled herself to continue, "I would've loved him anyway. He couldn't have been positive..."

"Did you tell him that? Do you really think he knew that?" I was sorry for hurting her but she had to know. My father was growing redder by the second. Like a teapot he seemed to be whistling from the pressure within.

"Dylan." Dad's voice was cold. "That's enough I said." I couldn't look at him. If I did I would lose all my courage.

"Mom, you didn't tell him, but he loved you. He lived for you, for all of us. He loved us all so much. But we've all been lied to. He never killed himself. He was murdered by HIM-"I pointed with my entire body and felt it surge through my cells like I was passing a sentence on my father. It felt right.

My mother didn't speak. She looked as if she was incapable of words.

It was the eyes that warned me a split second before I was faced with a gun pointed directly at me. Those eyes were cold, and hard like ice. His finger toyed with the trigger with only the slightest hesitation.

"Miranda. He's a liar," the man called out to my mother. "He's always been no good, always jealous of Liam. He's never been like our son. I loved that boy. I loved him with everything I had and it killed me when I- It - it killed me when he died, Miranda. He's a liar. I loved Liam. I loved him same as you did."

"I know you loved him, Nelson." It was numbing when my mother chose him. But I knew she always would. She held out her arms to him and he fell into them. She snuggled into his neck and took a deep breath, squeezing his shoulders and caressing down his arms.

"Mom..." I made one last try in the lost battle. "Look at the bruises on my face. You know he hits me. He choked Liam, mom. He choked him, and wouldn't stop squeezing."

Bang!

I was too busy checking my own body, stunned when I felt no pain.

Then the man who was my father fell to the ground, eyes wide and casting around the room to see who had shot him. My mother had a gun in her hand, shakily. Silent tears streamed down her face as she pointed it down at him. "You're the liar, Nelson." She placed her finger on the trigger. "And I won't let you take my son away from me, again." And squeezed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: So.... what do ya think? Tell me everything!

Btw, you may have wondered why you never saw Dylan's Mom before. I thought it would have made you think she is a badass and given away my end twist. So here you go! I give you Judi Dench as Miranda Ryman. Slayer of douchebag daddies!

Stay golden.

-Ender Xen