M7 FIC: Lies Become Unraveled- 5/7?
Title: Lies Become Unraveled
Author: Jourdana Standish
Synopsis: Ezra discovers that everything he has ever known is nothing more than a lie. How does he cope with finding out the truth about himself when a woman from his mother's past forces her to reveal the truth?
Author's Notes: This suddenly came to me and is a nice break up of the major h/c/angst of "These Five Words". I intend on working on them simultaneously. Feedback is appreciated.
Chapter Notes: Another difficult chapter but that was due to content, not writer's block. And an end is in sight! At least for this one ;-) It may take one more chapter, two more or three, but I have a thought it'll only be two more in this particular "chapter" of the saga. I might write more stories in the "Ezra and Mary are brother and sister" universe if I can flesh some things out.
~~
"Aunt Elizabeth!" Mary said, hurrying over to her disheveled aunt, hugging her close.
"Where is Maude?" Elizabeth asked, returning her niece's hug. "She hasn't left has she?"
"We are unaware of where Maude has chosen to hole herself up," Ezra said walking over to the two women. He looked at Elizabeth more closely, realizing she was his paternal aunt. He had more family and it was still leaving him awed.
"Mary's told you," Elizabeth said.
Ezra shook his head. "I overheard you and Maude talking the late night she took off," he explained. "I went to Mary for confirmation."
"I am sorry, Patrick," Elizabeth said. "I'd never want you to find out that way."
"Ezra," he said. "I am much more used to that name than I would be called Patrick." He gave her a sardonic smile. "If Maude had her way, I would never have found out at all."
"Where is she?" Elizabeth asked.
"Forget that a moment, where have you been?" Mary asked. "We've been worried that Maude did something."
"Maude may be a lot of things, but she would never hurt me," Elizabeth stated.
"She may have kidnapped me, are you so sure?" Ezra asked, his eyebrow arching.
"That, my darling boy, was a far different circumstance," Maude's voice said from behind him. Mary and Ezra turned, Elizabeth shifting so she could see the blonde woman. Josiah stood just behind Maude, the other men starting to fall in from various positions in the town. Ezra gave Josiah a questioning look.
"She came into the church," Josiah explained. "I brought her here."
"And here I thought you were running," Ezra said, his arms crossing over his chest.
Maude folded her hands in front of her. "I was," she said quietly. "And I realized it was time to stop running if I ever want to have any kind of relationship with you again."
Ezra's eyebrow arched and he exchanged looks with Mary before looking at Maude again. "So do you care to explain this entire situation?" he questioned.
"Not out here," Maude said. "The saloon?"
"Very well," Ezra said. He waited for Elizabeth and Mary to move past him into the saloon after Maude entered. He glanced at the men before they started filing in one by one. Inez took one look at the group and whistled loudly in the saloon.
"Everyone out," she said. "Saloon is closed for one hour." Those in the saloon began to groan before she lifted her hand. "First round when you come back is on the house." Those words got them moving and soon the saloon was vacant except for the seven men and four women.
"I'll go get some things done in my off--," she started.
"No, my dear," Ezra said quickly. "I want you here for this." He looked at her. "Please?" Inez nodded, moving to his side. Ezra leveled a gaze on Maude that made her wince.
"Start talking."
Elizabeth glanced at her potential nephew before looking to Maude. She blinked, noting that the other woman suddenly looked old and tired. She frowned, wondering what lies Maude had spun to keep the truth from being revealed and also began to wonder her motivations for stealing a child.
"Elizabeth's right," Maude said, her voice shaky. "You aren't my son. You and Mary are brother and sister. You're really my nephew."
Despite the fact that Ezra knew in his gut this was the truth, to hear the words pass through Maude's lips made him feel as if he had just been punched, as if the wind had been knocked from his lungs. Inez grasped his arm, worry in her eyes as she studied the handsome man.
Closing her eyes a moment, Mary had to compose herself at hearing the truth. Finally she opened her eyes, a solitary tear escaping down her cheek. Vin quickly, silently, moved over to her. He rested a hand against the small of her back. She looked at him with relief before facing Maude again.
"Why?" she whispered, pain obvious in the single word.
Maude swallowed, feeling her heart clench at the pain she had caused. "I wasn't right..."
"Damn straight you weren't right!" Ezra exploded. "To steal a child from his parents? From his sister?!" He started to advance, but Inez still had a hold of him. "And then not even give a damn when you dropped him off at unsuspecting relatives' homes and left him there for weeks."
Maude swallowed again. "Ezra, you don't understand..."
"Oh your damn straight I don't understand!" Ezra snapped. He moved forward again, this time breaking free of Inez's hold. The look on his face was so harsh and twisted that Josiah moved behind Maude in case he needed to pull her away, but Ezra stopped just short of the woman, glaring into her green eyes. Eyes like his but not.
"Do you have any idea...Mother, what that was like?" he said, his tone low and his voice a sneer. "To be thrown aside because I would get in the way of your marks. How many of them were really related to me? How many knew the truth and simply laughed at the pity that was the kidnapped son?"
"Ez--," Maude started, her voice a whisper.
"How many?!" he bellowed, startling all of them in the room.
"Ezra, back down," Chris said, grabbing his arm.
Ezra tried to shrug him off. "I want to know!"
"Please," Maude said, tears rolling down her cheeks, for once fearful of the man before her. She knew Ezra was a passionate man and often held it back, but she never had wanted to face this level of anger from him.
"Ezra, you need to calm down," Chris said. He wasn't ready to budge and finally found himself being pulled back physically by both Chris and Buck, with Chris hissing at him in a low whisper.
"You are scarin' your sister and Inez," he said. "I understand the anger you're feelin', but for their sakes calm down!"
Ezra quickly glanced to where Mary and Inez stood beside Elizabeth. Inez had her arms around Mary, the blonde crying silently as she witnessed her brother's outrage. Forcing himself to calm down, Ezra moved away from Maude and over to Mary and Inez. Putting an arm around his sister, he shot a glare at Maude.
"Talk."
Maude was trembling. She had never seen Ezra so cold, so distant, so angry. Fury rolled off him in waves and she was the cause of it. Her actions so many years before had never been meant to invoke this. Had she been in her right mind at the time, she would have realized the mistake she was making.
"I said talk," Ezra snapped, annoyance growing at her silence.
"Ezra," Elizabeth said quietly, resting a hand on her nephew's arm. "Mary and I want answers as much as you do, but please try and be calm." He nodded curtly. She looked at Maude, simply arching an eyebrow at her to continue.
Maude glanced at the others in the room and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt cold, alone and knew that it was all her fault, no matter the consequence. She took a deep breath before looking at them.
"I was sick," she started. Ezra snorted, earning a mild look from Elizabeth and Mary both. Maude was grateful for them, but knew she didn't deserve it.
"I had a baby," she said. "He would have been the same age as Mary." She smiled sadly. "A few months older. My darling sister... Katie... she wanted to come see me, but she was too heavily pregnant. Patrick wanted her to stay home. I don't blame him at all, she needed to."
She wiped at her cheek and rubbed her arms, trying to find the words to unravel the lies she had been telling others for so many years after taking Ezra.
"I didn't feel right for some weeks afterwards," she said. "Depressed. I cried all the time. My husband... he... he grew angry with how much. Said the reason the baby was crying was because I was. I started to hate them both, but I loved them both as well."
Maude walked over to the window, hoping that standing in the strip of sunlight that poured through the window would warm her. But the cold she felt went much deeper than she realized.
"He died. My boy. My darling son," she said almost inaudibly. "At first I blamed Alexander, but I knew he would never hurt his son. Not his heir. He was so... so proud of him." She bit her lip to try and quell the tears. "He blamed me. Said if I hadn't been such a mess, I would have realized something was wrong." She didn't stop the tear that slid down her cheek this time.
"The doctor told us both that it was neither of our faults. That these things happen. A child goes to sleep one night, perfectly healthy, and does not wake the next morning. Crib death, he said." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Alexander suggested I go away. To see Katie. Said that he had matters to attend to. He was so... so cold. I knew he blamed me for our son's death still. I feared he would leave me. I feared he would..."
Maude turned to face them again. "I wasn't in my right mind. I felt... detached. The doctor had warned me that some women felt depressed after their children were born. The body playing tricks after giving birth. But this felt... this felt so much worse. I shouldn't have listened to Alexander. I should have stayed home."
Josiah walked over to Maude, putting an arm around her. Worry flooded him as the normally composed woman sank against his side a bit before she spoke again.
"I arrived at Katie's. She had given birth to Mary just a few weeks prior. She was simply glowing when I saw her. Smiles and not a care in the world. She hugged me, told me that I would move past it all. I hadn't seen Ezra since he was an infant himself. He was barely two years old when Mary was born. I had just married when he was born, then settling in with my husband, becoming pregnant myself... I never got to visit till then."
Maude looked at Mary and Ezra. "I don't know what went through my mind the day I took you. I wasn't thinking clearly at all. I was so... so... lost from the loss of my son... I..."
"Maude," Elizabeth said. "Please..."
"Mary had started crying. Patrick had been playing with Ezra, but when she wouldn't stop when Katie was with her, he got up to go help. Ezra was too young to understand why his baby sister was crying, so he started to cry. Neither turned to him. As I think now, it probably had happened before, but then... I saw them ignoring their crying child. I saw how much he resembled Patrick, but he had Katie's eyes and I thought... he could be my son."
Maude wiped at her cheek. "I took Ezra into my arms. He quieted and soon fell asleep on my shoulder. I... I think my mind snapped or partially did. I barely remember, but Katie smiled and asked if I would tuck him in. I remember saying yes and leaving the study. But instead of taking him to his room... I just... walked out the front door."
Elizabeth frowned. "They never suspected you..."
"I was scheduled to leave that night," Maude explained. "I remember that much. My bag... Katie sent it to me. She knew I had been so upset over the loss of little Jackson that she never... she never questioned me leaving my bag. So much was a blur the following days."
Maude shook her head. "Alexander refused to accept Ezra as our son. He said he would never accept a child that was not biologically his and refused to try again with me since I had proven to be unstable. He had never met Ezra, so he had no idea who he was. He left us less than a week after I returned," she said. "I turned to friends. I didn't know what to do. Two days after he left us, Alexander was killed. Bank robbery that went wrong. I was suddenly a widow after my husband left me, my biological child dead and my kidnapped nephew with me. My mind snapped even further."
Ezra frowned, watching the emotions play across her face. "And?"
"That was the first time I ever left you with friends," she whispered. "They sent me to a sanitorium for a spell. I regained myself, found my strength again. That's when I became the woman I am now. Moving through circles as if I didn't have a care. And I was running."
"You feared that Patrick or Katie would put together what you did," Elizabeth said.
Maude nodded. "Then I received word about the accident," she said.
"And you never came to check up on me?" Mary asked.
"Darling, I didn't know you lived," Maude said. There was too much honesty in her tone to say she was lying. "When I came to this berg to see Ezra and I saw you when your little boy was kidnapped, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I tried to ignore who you looked like, but I did some digging and found out the truth."
"Is that why you always asked about things here and Mary when you would write?" Ezra asked. "Worried your lies would come unraveled?"
"You make me sound like a monster," Maude whispered.
"If the shoe fits," Ezra stated. Maude winced.
"Ezra," Mary said softly.
He took a deep breath and looked at Maude. "Go on," he got out.
"I am so sorry," Maude whispered. "I had... I thought..."
"You didn't think," Ezra said. "Ever." He shook his head. "Did you ever intend on telling me? Where you ever going to be honest once, especially after meeting Mary?"
"Ezra..."
"I was accused of putting Mary's honor at danger the night I found out by Vin and Chris, becuse they saw me leaving her room late at night. What if that had been the case?" Ezra asked. "What if it was I and not Vin who had designs on Mary? What if it was Mary who I wanted and not Inez?"
Maude looked stricken. "Ezra..."
"Would you have stepped in then? Stopped us from behaving incestously?" Ezra asked, not giving her a chance to step in. "Besides Mrs. Lambros' arrival, what would it have taken for you to be honest for once?!"
"Please! I thought I was doing the right thing!" Maude pleaded. "I never realized how badly entangled things became!"
"But you still intended on lying to me!" Ezra yelled. "I heard you that night, Maude! You threatened my aunt! You had no intentions of telling me and threatened her if she did!"
"I didn't want to lose you!" Maude said, her words breaking off as a sob, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in hopes to still them.
"Too late," Ezra said.
Maude pressed a hand to her chest as another sob escaped. "Ezra, please..."
"No. You wove a lifetime of lies all to keep from losing me? Well congratulations, you failed. The lies are unraveled and I am not your son. I owe you nothing, Maude. Not anymore."
Author: Jourdana Standish
Synopsis: Ezra discovers that everything he has ever known is nothing more than a lie. How does he cope with finding out the truth about himself when a woman from his mother's past forces her to reveal the truth?
Author's Notes: This suddenly came to me and is a nice break up of the major h/c/angst of "These Five Words". I intend on working on them simultaneously. Feedback is appreciated.
Chapter Notes: Another difficult chapter but that was due to content, not writer's block. And an end is in sight! At least for this one ;-) It may take one more chapter, two more or three, but I have a thought it'll only be two more in this particular "chapter" of the saga. I might write more stories in the "Ezra and Mary are brother and sister" universe if I can flesh some things out.
~~
"Aunt Elizabeth!" Mary said, hurrying over to her disheveled aunt, hugging her close.
"Where is Maude?" Elizabeth asked, returning her niece's hug. "She hasn't left has she?"
"We are unaware of where Maude has chosen to hole herself up," Ezra said walking over to the two women. He looked at Elizabeth more closely, realizing she was his paternal aunt. He had more family and it was still leaving him awed.
"Mary's told you," Elizabeth said.
Ezra shook his head. "I overheard you and Maude talking the late night she took off," he explained. "I went to Mary for confirmation."
"I am sorry, Patrick," Elizabeth said. "I'd never want you to find out that way."
"Ezra," he said. "I am much more used to that name than I would be called Patrick." He gave her a sardonic smile. "If Maude had her way, I would never have found out at all."
"Where is she?" Elizabeth asked.
"Forget that a moment, where have you been?" Mary asked. "We've been worried that Maude did something."
"Maude may be a lot of things, but she would never hurt me," Elizabeth stated.
"She may have kidnapped me, are you so sure?" Ezra asked, his eyebrow arching.
"That, my darling boy, was a far different circumstance," Maude's voice said from behind him. Mary and Ezra turned, Elizabeth shifting so she could see the blonde woman. Josiah stood just behind Maude, the other men starting to fall in from various positions in the town. Ezra gave Josiah a questioning look.
"She came into the church," Josiah explained. "I brought her here."
"And here I thought you were running," Ezra said, his arms crossing over his chest.
Maude folded her hands in front of her. "I was," she said quietly. "And I realized it was time to stop running if I ever want to have any kind of relationship with you again."
Ezra's eyebrow arched and he exchanged looks with Mary before looking at Maude again. "So do you care to explain this entire situation?" he questioned.
"Not out here," Maude said. "The saloon?"
"Very well," Ezra said. He waited for Elizabeth and Mary to move past him into the saloon after Maude entered. He glanced at the men before they started filing in one by one. Inez took one look at the group and whistled loudly in the saloon.
"Everyone out," she said. "Saloon is closed for one hour." Those in the saloon began to groan before she lifted her hand. "First round when you come back is on the house." Those words got them moving and soon the saloon was vacant except for the seven men and four women.
"I'll go get some things done in my off--," she started.
"No, my dear," Ezra said quickly. "I want you here for this." He looked at her. "Please?" Inez nodded, moving to his side. Ezra leveled a gaze on Maude that made her wince.
"Start talking."
Elizabeth glanced at her potential nephew before looking to Maude. She blinked, noting that the other woman suddenly looked old and tired. She frowned, wondering what lies Maude had spun to keep the truth from being revealed and also began to wonder her motivations for stealing a child.
"Elizabeth's right," Maude said, her voice shaky. "You aren't my son. You and Mary are brother and sister. You're really my nephew."
Despite the fact that Ezra knew in his gut this was the truth, to hear the words pass through Maude's lips made him feel as if he had just been punched, as if the wind had been knocked from his lungs. Inez grasped his arm, worry in her eyes as she studied the handsome man.
Closing her eyes a moment, Mary had to compose herself at hearing the truth. Finally she opened her eyes, a solitary tear escaping down her cheek. Vin quickly, silently, moved over to her. He rested a hand against the small of her back. She looked at him with relief before facing Maude again.
"Why?" she whispered, pain obvious in the single word.
Maude swallowed, feeling her heart clench at the pain she had caused. "I wasn't right..."
"Damn straight you weren't right!" Ezra exploded. "To steal a child from his parents? From his sister?!" He started to advance, but Inez still had a hold of him. "And then not even give a damn when you dropped him off at unsuspecting relatives' homes and left him there for weeks."
Maude swallowed again. "Ezra, you don't understand..."
"Oh your damn straight I don't understand!" Ezra snapped. He moved forward again, this time breaking free of Inez's hold. The look on his face was so harsh and twisted that Josiah moved behind Maude in case he needed to pull her away, but Ezra stopped just short of the woman, glaring into her green eyes. Eyes like his but not.
"Do you have any idea...Mother, what that was like?" he said, his tone low and his voice a sneer. "To be thrown aside because I would get in the way of your marks. How many of them were really related to me? How many knew the truth and simply laughed at the pity that was the kidnapped son?"
"Ez--," Maude started, her voice a whisper.
"How many?!" he bellowed, startling all of them in the room.
"Ezra, back down," Chris said, grabbing his arm.
Ezra tried to shrug him off. "I want to know!"
"Please," Maude said, tears rolling down her cheeks, for once fearful of the man before her. She knew Ezra was a passionate man and often held it back, but she never had wanted to face this level of anger from him.
"Ezra, you need to calm down," Chris said. He wasn't ready to budge and finally found himself being pulled back physically by both Chris and Buck, with Chris hissing at him in a low whisper.
"You are scarin' your sister and Inez," he said. "I understand the anger you're feelin', but for their sakes calm down!"
Ezra quickly glanced to where Mary and Inez stood beside Elizabeth. Inez had her arms around Mary, the blonde crying silently as she witnessed her brother's outrage. Forcing himself to calm down, Ezra moved away from Maude and over to Mary and Inez. Putting an arm around his sister, he shot a glare at Maude.
"Talk."
Maude was trembling. She had never seen Ezra so cold, so distant, so angry. Fury rolled off him in waves and she was the cause of it. Her actions so many years before had never been meant to invoke this. Had she been in her right mind at the time, she would have realized the mistake she was making.
"I said talk," Ezra snapped, annoyance growing at her silence.
"Ezra," Elizabeth said quietly, resting a hand on her nephew's arm. "Mary and I want answers as much as you do, but please try and be calm." He nodded curtly. She looked at Maude, simply arching an eyebrow at her to continue.
Maude glanced at the others in the room and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt cold, alone and knew that it was all her fault, no matter the consequence. She took a deep breath before looking at them.
"I was sick," she started. Ezra snorted, earning a mild look from Elizabeth and Mary both. Maude was grateful for them, but knew she didn't deserve it.
"I had a baby," she said. "He would have been the same age as Mary." She smiled sadly. "A few months older. My darling sister... Katie... she wanted to come see me, but she was too heavily pregnant. Patrick wanted her to stay home. I don't blame him at all, she needed to."
She wiped at her cheek and rubbed her arms, trying to find the words to unravel the lies she had been telling others for so many years after taking Ezra.
"I didn't feel right for some weeks afterwards," she said. "Depressed. I cried all the time. My husband... he... he grew angry with how much. Said the reason the baby was crying was because I was. I started to hate them both, but I loved them both as well."
Maude walked over to the window, hoping that standing in the strip of sunlight that poured through the window would warm her. But the cold she felt went much deeper than she realized.
"He died. My boy. My darling son," she said almost inaudibly. "At first I blamed Alexander, but I knew he would never hurt his son. Not his heir. He was so... so proud of him." She bit her lip to try and quell the tears. "He blamed me. Said if I hadn't been such a mess, I would have realized something was wrong." She didn't stop the tear that slid down her cheek this time.
"The doctor told us both that it was neither of our faults. That these things happen. A child goes to sleep one night, perfectly healthy, and does not wake the next morning. Crib death, he said." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Alexander suggested I go away. To see Katie. Said that he had matters to attend to. He was so... so cold. I knew he blamed me for our son's death still. I feared he would leave me. I feared he would..."
Maude turned to face them again. "I wasn't in my right mind. I felt... detached. The doctor had warned me that some women felt depressed after their children were born. The body playing tricks after giving birth. But this felt... this felt so much worse. I shouldn't have listened to Alexander. I should have stayed home."
Josiah walked over to Maude, putting an arm around her. Worry flooded him as the normally composed woman sank against his side a bit before she spoke again.
"I arrived at Katie's. She had given birth to Mary just a few weeks prior. She was simply glowing when I saw her. Smiles and not a care in the world. She hugged me, told me that I would move past it all. I hadn't seen Ezra since he was an infant himself. He was barely two years old when Mary was born. I had just married when he was born, then settling in with my husband, becoming pregnant myself... I never got to visit till then."
Maude looked at Mary and Ezra. "I don't know what went through my mind the day I took you. I wasn't thinking clearly at all. I was so... so... lost from the loss of my son... I..."
"Maude," Elizabeth said. "Please..."
"Mary had started crying. Patrick had been playing with Ezra, but when she wouldn't stop when Katie was with her, he got up to go help. Ezra was too young to understand why his baby sister was crying, so he started to cry. Neither turned to him. As I think now, it probably had happened before, but then... I saw them ignoring their crying child. I saw how much he resembled Patrick, but he had Katie's eyes and I thought... he could be my son."
Maude wiped at her cheek. "I took Ezra into my arms. He quieted and soon fell asleep on my shoulder. I... I think my mind snapped or partially did. I barely remember, but Katie smiled and asked if I would tuck him in. I remember saying yes and leaving the study. But instead of taking him to his room... I just... walked out the front door."
Elizabeth frowned. "They never suspected you..."
"I was scheduled to leave that night," Maude explained. "I remember that much. My bag... Katie sent it to me. She knew I had been so upset over the loss of little Jackson that she never... she never questioned me leaving my bag. So much was a blur the following days."
Maude shook her head. "Alexander refused to accept Ezra as our son. He said he would never accept a child that was not biologically his and refused to try again with me since I had proven to be unstable. He had never met Ezra, so he had no idea who he was. He left us less than a week after I returned," she said. "I turned to friends. I didn't know what to do. Two days after he left us, Alexander was killed. Bank robbery that went wrong. I was suddenly a widow after my husband left me, my biological child dead and my kidnapped nephew with me. My mind snapped even further."
Ezra frowned, watching the emotions play across her face. "And?"
"That was the first time I ever left you with friends," she whispered. "They sent me to a sanitorium for a spell. I regained myself, found my strength again. That's when I became the woman I am now. Moving through circles as if I didn't have a care. And I was running."
"You feared that Patrick or Katie would put together what you did," Elizabeth said.
Maude nodded. "Then I received word about the accident," she said.
"And you never came to check up on me?" Mary asked.
"Darling, I didn't know you lived," Maude said. There was too much honesty in her tone to say she was lying. "When I came to this berg to see Ezra and I saw you when your little boy was kidnapped, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I tried to ignore who you looked like, but I did some digging and found out the truth."
"Is that why you always asked about things here and Mary when you would write?" Ezra asked. "Worried your lies would come unraveled?"
"You make me sound like a monster," Maude whispered.
"If the shoe fits," Ezra stated. Maude winced.
"Ezra," Mary said softly.
He took a deep breath and looked at Maude. "Go on," he got out.
"I am so sorry," Maude whispered. "I had... I thought..."
"You didn't think," Ezra said. "Ever." He shook his head. "Did you ever intend on telling me? Where you ever going to be honest once, especially after meeting Mary?"
"Ezra..."
"I was accused of putting Mary's honor at danger the night I found out by Vin and Chris, becuse they saw me leaving her room late at night. What if that had been the case?" Ezra asked. "What if it was I and not Vin who had designs on Mary? What if it was Mary who I wanted and not Inez?"
Maude looked stricken. "Ezra..."
"Would you have stepped in then? Stopped us from behaving incestously?" Ezra asked, not giving her a chance to step in. "Besides Mrs. Lambros' arrival, what would it have taken for you to be honest for once?!"
"Please! I thought I was doing the right thing!" Maude pleaded. "I never realized how badly entangled things became!"
"But you still intended on lying to me!" Ezra yelled. "I heard you that night, Maude! You threatened my aunt! You had no intentions of telling me and threatened her if she did!"
"I didn't want to lose you!" Maude said, her words breaking off as a sob, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in hopes to still them.
"Too late," Ezra said.
Maude pressed a hand to her chest as another sob escaped. "Ezra, please..."
"No. You wove a lifetime of lies all to keep from losing me? Well congratulations, you failed. The lies are unraveled and I am not your son. I owe you nothing, Maude. Not anymore."