Anarchy Found (SuperAlpha, #1)(67)

“It’s sad that he’s in here now.”

“What?” I say, realizing she means Atticus and not the Old Man. But she doesn’t hear me because she’s walking away to grab a visitor’s badge. She prints out a card with my name on it, slips it into the clear plastic holder with a clip, and passes it through the hole in the glass. “Put that on and have a seat. Someone will come get you when she’s ready.”

I take the name tag and walk off to molded plastic chairs lined up in rows in front of a TV. I feel more like an inmate than a visitor as I force myself to sit and stare at the sitcom playing on the television.

There’s only a few people here, and no one is talking. So I get to sit there and stew in my questions. Why the hell has Atticus been coming here to see my mother? And what does that have to do with him being in here now?

I know there’s a connection, but I feel like everything about this day is hidden in some double meaning. Chief’s comment about Blue Corp wanting him to hire me. The Old Man’s comment about insanity. Does he know Atticus comes to see her? Was that comment about insanity directed at me? Or Atticus?

“Miss Masters?” a woman calls from a door.

I get up and walk over to the door. “That’s me,” I say.

“Right this way,” the older woman says. She’s wearing a white nurse’s uniform. Sorta old-fashioned, since most doctors and nurses wear those colorful scrubs these days. It adds to the horror vibe this gloomy institution already has going for it. “Right this way. She’s waiting for you in the common room. But I have to warn you, Miss Masters, she hasn’t been communicative for years. I’m not sure if you know that, since you never come to visit.”

Geez. Way to lay on the guilt trip, lady. I ignore her dig and just follow silently behind her as we make our way through the dingy hallway until I find myself in a large open room filled with psychiatric inmates. Everyone is wearing a bathrobe and most of them are parked in wheelchairs in front of the small television screen mounted high up in one corner of a room. They look drugged out of their minds.

“Here she is,” the nurse says brightly as she pats my mother on the shoulder. “Martha? Your daughter’s come to see you. Can you turn to say hi?”

My mother is… no one I recognize. Her hair is so gray, it’s almost white. Her body is thin and frail, and her bathrobe is a dirty light blue.

I lean down to see her face. “Mom?”

“She doesn’t talk, Miss Masters. She won’t recognize you, either. I’m not sure why you came today, but it’s too late.”

My face crumples into sadness. “Thank you,” I force myself to say back. “But I’d like some time alone with her.”

The nurse lifts her chin up and walks off, peeved at me for being a bad daughter. I can see her point, but she has no idea why I’ve stayed away.

I take a seat next to my mother and let out a deep sigh. I’m glad she’s not communicative. Because this will be a lot easier if she doesn’t talk back.

“I’m sorry,” I say first. “I’m truly sorry this is how it ended up. But you killed my father and I will never forgive you for that. I will never forgive you for going crazy and ruining our family. Will got into racing, did you know that? Do you even know he’s dead?”

She does not even blink. I lean over to look into her gray eyes and wonder just what is going on in that mind. Anything?

“You told Dad to do that trick. You said we needed the money to pay a debt. You told him he was the invincible Crazy Bill who could do anything. You said he could pull it off and he believed you. But you were wrong.”

Laughter from the TV show bursts through the room, and I look up at it briefly, all the years of anger and sadness washing over me.

“It’s not her fault,” a voice says from behind me.

I whirl around to find Atticus, dressed in the same light blue robe, albeit a much cleaner version.

“What are you doing?” I ask. “Why were you coming to see her?”

“It wasn’t her fault, Molly. My father made her do those things. And I come to see her because she’s my mother.”

“Mr. Montgomery?” a nurse calls from the desk. “Mr. Montgomery! You’re not supposed—”

“The Old Man is the one responsible, Molly,” Atticus whispers. His eyes are blazing with fear. “But I won’t let him get her again. I’m here now, and I won’t let him. So go. Get out before he comes to get you too and you never leave here again. I’ll take care of this.”

“Wait, you’re saying—”

“He’s your father too, Molly.”

A burly security guard grabs Atticus by the shoulder and twirls him around. “You have a talent for escape, friend.” He laughs. “Well, that won’t get you far here, Blue Boy. We like our inmates to play by the rules.”

“Inmates?” I ask, flashing my badge. “Is that what you call your patients? I want my mother released immediately. I’m taking her home.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Miss Masters,” the nurse who walked me in says as she walks up to us. “I just got off the phone with Mr. Montgomery and he’s asked for you to be escorted off the premises.”

“I don’t give a shit what that creep says. I’m her daughter and I say she’s leaving here with me.”