Chapter 123 - Regrets

NOTE: Sorry for the delay on this chapter! I had an ice storm that left me without power and internet for a while. I'll be posting chapters 124 and 125 later today to catch up!

“What kind of mistakes?” Morrigan ventured.

“To put it simply, I didn’t listen to her at times when she tried to tell me something important. Let’s just say, this happened enough times that she lost any trust in me and wouldn’t tell me anything.”

“That’s a little vague,” Morrigan said, raising an eyebrow.

Evelyn’s expression tightened. “Well… I don’t think it’s right for me to tell you certain things she might prefer to say herself or even leave unsaid altogether. But it’s enough to say she had no confidence in me.” Evelyn sighed. “She was always a difficult kid. Even in elementary school, she was always getting into trouble, skipping school, stealing… She just had this personality where whatever she wanted to do, she would do it and rarely thought or cared about the consequences or what anyone else would say to her.”

Morrigan considered that. Yeah, that sounded about right. Her mom was definitely the type to do as she pleased without a second thought.

“Her father and I had to play the strict parents quite often. Which she never appreciated, as you can imagine. However, I’ll admit we should have tried to do fun things with her and give her more credit and attention for the things she did well. Plus, she was always fighting with her siblings.”

“Wait… siblings?” Morrigan had already taken note of the fact that since Evelyn lives alone, she must be divorced, or maybe dead. Obviously, her mom had a dad, but this was the first she heard of any siblings.

Evelyn paused, surprised. “Yes. She had a brother and a sister. Anna’s the youngest.”

Morrigan blinked. “Oh. I didn’t know that.” She glanced down at her plate, hesitating before taking another bite of pizza.

Evelyn studied her carefully. “She never mentioned them?”

Morrigan snorted bitterly. “She barely told me anything about herself. I know she likes music. That’s about it.”

Evelyn’s lips curled into a faint smile. “Yes. She was always gifted when it came to music. I remember… one Christmas, we got her a keyboard. Within days, she had taught herself to play multiple songs. It was astonished by her talent.”

“Wait. My mom can play the piano?” She’d heard all about how her father was a brilliant guitarist, but her mom never said a word about her own music-playing abilities.

“Oh, yes,” Evelyn said, her voice warm with memory. “She had an incredible ear. Could pick up a melody and play it after hearing it once. We even hired her a piano tutor. He said playing by ear the way she was able to was a rare gift.” Her smile faded slightly. “But… well, those lessons didn’t last long. Your mother never was one for rules. She hated being told how to play. She didn’t speak to us for a week after we hired that tutor. Said we’d ruined it and were just trying to control her.” Evelyn sighed and took a sip of her drink with a reflective look in her eyes.

Morrigan frowned, her thoughts turning over the story. I kinda get it. If they tried to make her do something she loved in a way she didn’t want to… Still, isn’t that a bit of an overreaction? There’s gotta be more to it than that…

She could relate, though. Being told what to do made her skin crawl. Probably why she and Noir got along so well. Thinking of Noir, she glanced around, wondering where he’d gotten off to, and spotted him in a nearby doorway.

“Oh, that’s right,” Evelyn said, snapping out of her reverie. “We should get him something to eat. Do you think tuna would be okay for tonight? We’ll pick up proper food tomorrow”

Morrigan’s lips curled wickedly; hoping—praying—on everything good in the world that she’d get to see Noir eat out of a cat dish. He’d look so cute!

“Yeah.” Morrigan scratched behind her ear, unable to contain her grin. “Tuna should be fine.”

Evelyn got up, walked over to the cabinet, and grabbed a bowl and a can of tuna. A moment later, it was sitting on the floor in front of Noir. “There you go, sweetie,” she cooed.

Noir, however, didn’t move a muscle. He sat like a stone statue, his tail flicking once—slow and annoyed.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a cat resist tuna before. Maybe he’s just nervous about being somewhere new.”

Morrigan gave Noir a look as she said, “Go on, boy. It’s okay. Eat your dinner.”

He merely glared back as his tail lashed behind him. She wondered if perhaps she should avoid pushing him too far. He was, after all, capable of consuming her flesh in an instant for revenge, should he so choose. Then again, maybe his role as a reaper’s assistant kept him from causing her any harm. With that in mind, Morrigan thought it would be fine to continue testing her luck. If he could do anything, he likely would have by now.

“Well, I’ll just leave it out,” Evelyn finally said as she walked back to the table. “He’ll eat when he’s ready.”

Morrigan looked back at her plate. She just had the crust left from her first slice, and when she looked into the box for a second slice, she decided she didn’t feel hungry enough to eat another. “So… she was seventeen when she moved out, right?”

“Well, yes, she ran off one day. We eventually figured out she was staying at Nan’s house”

Nan huh? At least I have a name to go with a… Oh, wait. Well, at least I have a name.

Evelyn continued. “We had a bad argument before then. I didn’t like the idea of her staying with Nan, but it was clear we wouldn’t be able to force her to come back”

Morrigan felt something bristle inside her. “I know my mom took care of her,” she said, her voice carrying a subtle edge of defense.

“She did,” Evelyn replied, her tone softening. “And I thank her for that—at Nan’s funeral.”

Morrigan’s frown deepened. Yeah, she thought darkly. According to Death, Nan left the house to Mom. But before Death reaped her, she stuck around—specifically to make sure her will was honored. Why? Because she was afraid this lady sitting across from me would screw Mom out of the house.

The changeling stirred under its seal. She wanted to call Evelyn out, tear through the veneer of politeness and demand the truth. But she couldn’t—not without putting words in her mom’s mouth or, worse, explaining how she came by this knowledge from a conversation with the Grim Fucking Reaper.

“What was the argument about?” Morrigan settled on, figuring she could at least get this lady’s version of events.

“I’m not sure if I should get into it.”

“No, I want to know.”

Evelyn studied her for a moment, then exhaled slowly. “Well…” She chose her words carefully. “We were worried about… drugs. And her boyfriend.”

Morrigan raised an eyebrow. “You mean my dad?” She knew he died of an overdose, so that checked out. But there was still one more pointed question she’d like clarified.

“Yes, of course. Your father.” She said it in an odd way, then just as quickly moved past it. “We were also worried they were taking advantage of Nan. She was so old and… well, I do believe our fears turned out to be wrong. You can imagine the accusation, however, only drove the wedge further between your mother and me.”

“Yeah, I can imagine so.” There wasn’t much sympathy in Morrigan’s voice.

“I didn’t know she was pregnant until some time later. Actually, it was at the hospital, a few days before Nan passed away when I saw Anna and realized she was pregnant.”

“But you still didn’t try to be in her life.”

“That’s not true. As I said, I did try. I offered to help her, but she refused me at every turn. Ever since then she refused to have anything to do with me.”

“It doesn’t seem like  you tried very hard.”

“I did. And it hurt—” her voice dipped, tight with something raw, “—that I never got to lay eyes on my granddaughter.”

“So what? My mom was just being stubborn?” Morrigan asked. “She’s the one who cut you out for sixteen years, and you’re totally innocent?” She wasn’t buying it.

“I said I made mistakes.”

But you won’t admit to the big one. Just vaguely alluding to some, and others that can reasonably be seen as not greedy but an unfortunate misunderstanding.

“Let’s say…” Morrigan began carefully. “I happened to stumble across a diary from uh… Nan. I got the impression she was worried about you taking the house from mom.”

The silence that followed was absolutely deafening.

Wellp, that confirms it. Guess I’ll stick around for a night or two, then get out of this lady’s life. Fuck it. What was I even thinking coming here? I should have shadow-stepped my way to freedom the second their eyes were off of me.

“I… didn’t think you knew about that.”

Double confirmed.

Morrigan stood up. “Well. Good chat. Thanks for the pizza.”

“Morrigan, please wait a moment.”

“No. That’s messed up! My mom was seventeen, pregnant, and basically not getting any help from anyone. Then, the one break she got, you tried to steal from her. She earned that house because she was the only one helping the old lady at the end of her life. You tried to dishonor Nan’s will by taking the house away from my mom. That’s more than just a mistake!”

“I didn’t trust her boyfriend,” Evelyn blurted out. A flicker of regret then flickered in her eyes. “Your father. I’m sorry, but at the time, I didn’t trust him. That house was worth a lot of money, and your mother was so young and with… with someone who had known drug abuse problems. I do not wish to speak ill of him, but handing something that valuable to a teenage couple seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. That was my reasoning at the time.”

Morrigan scoffed. “Right. So, better in your hands than theirs? How noble of you.”

“I wasn’t trying to steal it,” Evelyn replied with a clipped tone. “I was going to let her keep the house—just under my name. To protect it. So I knew it would be safe.”

“Sorry if I’m not exactly buying it.”

Her tone changed, her expression much more pointed, unflinching, as she stared Morrigan down. “You can think what you want, but that’s the truth.”

Morrigan shook her head and turned away. Noir was still sitting in front of the bowl of tuna. Morrigan briefly pondered over if there was popcorn in that bowl instead that even Noir wouldn’t be able to resist considering how dramatic things had just gotten.

“I’m sorry,” Evelyn said. “I didn’t want to get into all of this. Especially not on your first night here.”

Morrigan shrugged a shoulder, not turning around to look at her. “Yeah. Well. Hard not to, I guess.” She wasn’t sure what to think. Part of her clung to not trusting Evelyn; another part thought that the look in her eye was honest. It was hard to be certain, though. “I think I should just go to bed. I’m pretty tired anyway.”

“Alright. Just know that I do love your mother. Things getting so bad between us is the deepest regret in my life. If you don’t trust me on anything else, please just trust me on that.”

Morrigan paused, her hand twitching at her side. She gave a small, stiff nod. But didn’t turn back.

Her eyes flicked down to Noir.

The tuna bowl was empty.

Her brow furrowed. When the hell? When did he—

Noir sat smug, stretching his claws and squinting with amusement.

Morrigan’s lips tugged up despite herself. You little shit.

She jerked her chin toward the door. “Come on, Noir. Let’s get to bed.”

With Noir trailing behind her, Morrigan walked away. She felt like there was more, but figured it was best to leave it for another night.

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Chapter 124 - Worst Mascot Ever