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“Ah--are you sure?” said Gina. “It wouldn’t be any trouble.”

Hector decided to intervene. “Mom, you should accept her offer.”

“I said no.” She walked away.

Hector gave Gina an apologetic look and then pursued his mother to the other end of the garage.

She’d climbed into her car to lie down.

“Mom...”

She didn’t bother to sit up again. “What?”

“I’m... I’m worried about you.”

“You’re wasting your time on me.”

Hector had no idea what to say to that.

“You should have just left me to die,” she said.

“Mom... don’t say that...”

“Why not?”

“B-because... how could you think I would ever just...? Agh...”

“It has nothing to do with you. I just don’t care.”

“Mom...”

“The only person I’ve ever loved is gone,” she said. “What difference would it make if you’d let me die? I’m already dead, anyway.”

“Agh, Mom. Stop. You’re not--”

“Tell me. Do you even care that your father is dead? That you got him killed?”

Her words might as well have been knives. “How can you--? You don’t even know that I--how much I--?” He choked on his own breath, feeling his throat swelling up. He squinted, suddenly having to fight the gathering tears.

She sat up to look at him now. “Wow,” she said dully, “so you really do have emotions. I was starting to think you were some kind of monster.”

Hector couldn’t stop the tears at all now and just tried to hide his eyes with a hand.

‘Fuck, I hate this woman,’ said Garovel. ‘Hector, please stop talking to her.’

But Mrs. Goffe wasn’t done. “All this time, you’ve been off doing whatever you want, getting into more trouble, trying to be a hero. And you’re worried about your family now? It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think? You don’t honestly expect me to forgive you, do you?”

He couldn’t even respond.

“If you’re going to do something, then you might as well do it all the way, Hector. Just leave me be. Worry about your fight with Abolish or whatever it’s called. If you get me killed, too, then at least you’ll know that it didn’t matter.”