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.

it with a laugh, gave him a

Theo scoffed.

way better at shooting

smile on his mother’s face-it felt like something sharp lodged in

to be so happy about? Matty can only win some cheap stuffed animal.

His voice faltered.

already given that music box

and indifferent. Not like

was that easy

box. He’d given his mom’s

strange feeling crept up from deep inside-a

wished-really wished-he could make his mom smile like

Theo kept following them.

every time they needed water, food, or help carrying things,

just sat on the

mom went out with him, Dad, and Kelly, his mom was the one doing everything-carrying, buying, running

sweating through her shirt,

his mom would always remind him-don’t eat this, don’t touch that. One thing after another, all forbidden. It ruined