Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Ch 115 (Nate) - Tight Squeeze

With the music off to assure minimal noise, Nate's head felt as if it was about to explode. Voices ran through his brain like the succession of an automatic weapon. Each voice had a different pitch which gave the impression of men and women conversing all at once. These back-and-forth trips to Washington were starting to tear at his psyche.

The roads were still thick with snow, but his trip back to California was taken with the same fast speed he had always used. Nate was in his warm luxury car with the heater up higher than he ever needed. It wasn't the outside of his body that was cold as much as it was his insides. He was sure his heart was pumping ice-water through his blood.

The mess his father got into was making hiding his crimes almost impossible. He needed to make sure Colin got to the island safe where he can spend months in bed after surgery. There is no way anyone would expect him of killing anyone. Ever. Nate just had to make sure he wasn't accused of anything either.

All he could think of was his father's confession. Nate knew there was more to the story but what he got from it was his father fell in love with a whore and tucked his mother Dana into a cabin in the middle of nowhere. He loved his father more than anyone on this earth, but he couldn't help feeling that Colin could have saved her. Nate's suspicions that Colin drowned Dana had haunted his dreams for years. When he had started killing girls, his dreams replaced Colin with himself. Too many times he watched his hands holding his mother down under cold icy water. Waking from those dreams were the worst, and his bad mood usually lasted all day from them.

It was easier to be mad at Tessa than it was his father who had helped give him everything he ever needed and more. The doll that Colin kept in a secret room of his closet shocked him. She had looked so real that he was sure she was. He never would have imagined his father would have such a weird niche. He knew his father had gone through such an emotional roller coaster after Tessa's death, but he moved to Colorado with Anna to get away from his memories at home. It was when Nate started to work in the Colorado resort that he heard rumors. That was where he saw the picture of his mother Dana. It took some research, but he was sure back then she was his biological mother because he looked so much like her, except he had his father's eyes. He had seen pictures of Tessa also which made everyone pale by comparison. Often Nate wanted to choke the memory of her to death also.

At least his father was taking a safe angry outlet, instead of taking it out on someone else like Anna. Nate couldn't imagine if Colin would have laid a hand on his sister, what he would do. He would have to step in then because Nate related to Anna more than he could anyone else. He knew what it felt like to have everything, but the parents that brought them into the world. Nate loved his adoptive parents as much as he loved Colin, but it was different to have unanswered questions. As much as all of it was for Anna's and Nate's protection, he feared having his mother would have been a different outcome than Anna's. Tessa was a terrible person, but from what he heard about Dana, she was an Angel.

It was a trip that Detective Kyle, the father of who Anna is following, oversees Jolene's murder case. It wasn't going to be long before Tessa came up if they are investigating Anna. Nate was worried about his father. He agreed with Colin that Anna didn't need to know more than he told her. He wished Anna wasn't hanging out with Kyle's son. After what happened to Stacy, there was going to be a manhunt for sure. Nate needed to get the cops off his father's and his own trail.

If Jolene didn't look like Tessa so much, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone looking at Colin. It freaked him out at the bar when he saw Anna wearing a short black wig the same style his mother wore in a picture. And when Jolene, who looked like Tessa slapped Anna, that made things worse. He shouldn't have followed Jolene and killed her, but Nate couldn't control his anger.