Side Chick Era... Over

Loving Mom 190

Chapter 190

It was that awful Matty again-him and his dad.

And… his mom.

Sharon was holding Matty’s hand, leaning close, talking to him with a soft, warm smile on her face.

It was so different from the cold, distant look she always gave him.

Theo felt something stir, faint and blurry, like an old photograph half-lost in memory. She used to smile at him like that too, didn’t she?

When had that stopped? When had her eyes turned so cold?

He followed the three of them from a distance, watching as they rode the Ferris wheel, the carousel, the pirate ship.

They even played the balloon shooting game.

Matty won a stuffed animal, then grinned like an idiot as he handed it to Sharon.

took it with a laugh, gave him a thumbs up,

Theo scoffed.

better at shooting than

seeing that smile on his mother’s face-it felt like something sharp

seconds… What’s there to be so happy about? Matty can only win some cheap stuffed animal. I could’ve won that crystal music box instead. If I gave that

His voice faltered.

remembered-he’d already given

and said thanks, polite and indifferent. Not like

Mom was that easy to

the music box. He’d given his mom’s birthday

crept up from deep inside-a

could make his mom smile like that at

Theo kept following them.

keenly, that every time they needed water, food, or help carrying things, it was Matty’s dad who stepped

sat on the bench,

his mom went out with him, Dad, and Kelly, his mom was the one

went out, his mom ended up sweating through her shirt, and never

the happiest moments, his mom would always remind him-don’t eat this, don’t touch