I nodded, my stomach churning. My legs felt like they were moving of their own accord, carrying me toward the area where I had seen him on the footage. My eyes scanned the yard, my gaze narrowing as I spotted him in the distance. He was crouched near the maintenance shed, his baseball cap low over his face. It was him. It was Raymond.
Without thinking, I started walking toward him, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. Ms. Alvarez hurried to keep up, but I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t stop. I had to know the truth.
When I was close enough, I called out, “Raymond!”
He looked up, startled, and froze for a moment before standing up slowly. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot, like he hadn’t slept in days. The sight of him sent a chill down my spine.
“I need to talk to you,” I said, my voice low but filled with fury. “You’re the one who killed my son.”
Raymond’s face went white, and I could see the guilt wash over him like a wave. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
I took another step forward, the anger burning through me. “Why did you do it? Why didn’t you stop? My son died, and you didn’t even—”
Before I could finish, Ms. Alvarez stepped forward. “Mrs. Elana, please. Let’s take a breath. We don’t need to do this right here.”
I ignored her. I couldn’t stop myself now. The pain and the anger were overwhelming. This man had taken my son from me, and now, he was using my other son to soothe his own guilt.
Raymond’s eyes filled with tears, and he lowered his head. “I… I never meant to… I didn’t want this to happen. I thought I could control it. I thought I could…”
“Control what?” I spat. “Control the fact that you were driving with a condition that you knew could kill someone? Control the fact that my son is dead because of your choices?”
He took a deep breath, his voice breaking. “I was supposed to get cleared. The doctors told me I needed tests, but I didn’t go. I couldn’t lose my job. I couldn’t lose the work. I thought it wouldn’t happen again. But it did. And I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t want anyone to die.”
The words hung in the air, thick with the weight of his confession. I could feel the coldness spreading through my body, but I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. I didn’t want to give him any mercy. Not when he had taken Ethan from me.
“You still did,” I said, my voice as cold as ice. “You still killed my son. And now, you’ve decided that using my other son to relieve your guilt is okay? Telling him secrets, making him think that Ethan came back to visit him?”
Raymond’s shoulders slumped. He wiped at his face with the back of his hand, but the tears kept coming. “I know. I thought… I thought if I could do something good, if I could help him… if I could stop you from crying, maybe… maybe I could breathe again.”
I stared at him, my heart hardening. “You don’t get to climb into my family, Raymond. You don’t get to use my son to make yourself feel better. You don’t get to tell him lies and secrets to soothe your conscience. You killed my child, and no amount of ‘good’ can ever undo that.”
He looked up at me then, his eyes pleading, but I could see the emptiness behind them. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
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