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24. Diary #6, The Fifty-Seventh Entry
August 21, 2013
I was wrong, my mother wasn't losing weight merely because of Lyle. Cancer was eating her up from the inside for months and she only endeavored to tell me now. And now she's telling me to go away.
"I hate you!" I scream at her, "Are you insane? I'm not going to leave now. He...you know what he's done, Mom, and he threatened to do it to you, too! Do you really think I'm going to leave you here with him? He's going to kill you!"
My Mom smiles at me sadly, "Does it matter, Ari? Does it really matter when I'm already there?"
"Mom, please, don't say that." I plead with her.
"It's true, Ari." she responds, "And you know what? It's freeing, in a way. And that's what I want for you, too. To be free. This is my last gift to you. Not that I...not that I have been thinking of your welfare these past few years. I've only been thinking of myself, huh? Bringing you into this hellhole.
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