Sam folded his forearms over the banister of the lookout point in the park. It was late, the day had been an emotional mess, so it was strange that he'd decided to come here out of all places. Where he'd come the night he'd found out about Christine and Harry. Where he'd considered throwing himself off the ramp to end it all.
"It's a beautiful place," Skye whispered from his left.
He gave her a sideways glance. She wasn't sarcastic and didn't appear bothered that he'd asked her to join him there. The truth was, after the funeral and the whole legal business, he needed someone to talk to, someone who wasn't a family member ready to fly off the handle. He was one second away from doing that himself.
"I used to live around here," he says.
She read between the lines with ease. "With Christine."
"Yep."
She was probably inside his apartment right now. Or maybe out partying again. The thing was, for the first time in what felt like years, he didn't care. Sure, the thought of Christine and how their relationship ended still hurt, but he wasn't the least bit tempted to see her, speak to her, yell at her. What would be the point anyway? Love hadn't changed her so he doubted hate would.
"You know you have to see her again, don't you?" Skye asked, her eyes taking in the lights of the city. "Harry, too."
"Why?"
"Because you didn't get closure with either of them." She turned to him, determination in her eyes. "And because you will run into them, on the street, high school reunions, maybe weddings or funerals. I can't consider you fully healed until you're somewhat able to function around them."
It was an interesting thought. Christine surely knew his father was dead, the papers wouldn't shut up about it, but she hadn't stopped by. Tina hadn't either. Maybe all the better since Jerry was with Sarah now, but it was still a little strange. Had they been afraid they would be thrown out? Was it really that bad that they couldn't come down to offer their sympathies to the family of someone they knew? People they supposedly still cared about? Hadn't Christine claimed she wanted them to work things out?
"You're thinking that Christine didn't come to your father's funeral, aren't you?"
"Sometimes I think you're a mind reader," Sam mumbled.
"I did say funeral, so of course your mind would go there. How do you feel about it?"
"What, the funeral or Christine not coming to it?"
"Both."
He let out a sigh and his eyes went astray. The city lights blurred together in a mesmerizing dance of a billion shades of gold. He really loved this place with the overhead foliage, the decorative fountains at the bottom leading into a busy city street and the entire skyline spread out before him. Even if it could be considered a height, he wasn't afraid, wasn't nauseous. He just felt... Free.
"I don't know," he finally said. "I have two completely different images of my father which I can't reconcile. The man from my childhood, the one who raised me and who would challenge me and ask goofy questions, and the man he turned into over these past years."
"Do you really think he turned into someone else?"
That was an interesting question, but he shouldn't be surprised. Skye knew what to ask to get his mind working. "I'm not sure, because the more I find out about his past, about what he used to be like when he met my mother and this whole Snitch Gravel thing started... I think this part we've seen in recent years just resurfaced. This is who he was and, for a while, his family tamed him."
YOU ARE READING
Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)
Adventure"It's never going to end, is it? The rivalry, the hatred, the madness. Not even now. Not even after so many years." It has been three years since the last jewel was recovered, and the Agency seems to have put the project to rest. They have a new tar...
