You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 860

Patricia barely waited for the baby to be born before making it clear that now, with a child in the family, he could finally step aside.

“Mom, Mom, what did he mean? What's wrong with my leg? Are you saying I’ll never walk again?”

Nick’s desperate cries filled the hospital room over and over.

Grace stood by the window, leaning against the sill, lost for words. Her fingers curled slowly into a fist. She could feel her breath coming faster, tighter.

“Mom, say something!”

“Yes. Your leg is ruined. You’ll be disabled for the rest of your life.” Grace’s composure snapped and everything she’d been holding in just spilled out. “I warned you not to go to the racetrack. I told you over and over, but you never listen. What were you even thinking?”

“You used to be so sweet when you were little. What happened to you? Now you’re like a stranger. Nick, when are you going to grow up?”

The force of her words brought Nick to a stunned halt.

He couldn’t remember his mother ever yelling like this. Grace had always been gentle, almost spoiling him. Even when he dated, got married, then divorced, she never raised her voice. Never like this.

“You’re thirty. Not a kid anymore. Your dad and I are doing everything we can to set you up for the future, but what are you doing? You’re not just wasting your time, you’ve managed to ruin yourself.”

“You’re blaming me? You always cared more about my brother. You ignored me, never gave me any real motherly love, and now you blame me for acting out?”

He remembered it all. His older brother was the golden child, always winning competitions, always traveling for school. His mom’s world revolved around Kolbey. His dad was always buried in books or locked away in his office, never at home. And every time Grace took his brother out, Nick stayed behind, alone, like he didn’t even exist.

He felt like some kind of left-behind kid.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify