Chapter 30 Returning to Normal

As Maria kept talking about her life, Johnson finally understood why she had been so hurt by what he had said before. Those were wounds that would never heal. Accusations about drugging him, plotting against him, saying no one loved her, mocking her background, her poverty-stricken family… He remembered Maria’s words— *"I have Aunt Angela. The love Aunt Angela gave me is just like the love from biological parents!"* Johnson found himself replaying that sentence over and over. The love of biological parents. Was the love Angela gave her truly like that of biological parents? Johnson recalled that day in the morgue, when Maria had slapped him. Was it because she believed he had caused the death of her other mother that she hated him so much? Johnson’s emotions became increasingly chaotic. Killing her mother, and causing the death of her unrelated aunt—those were two entirely different things. What made it worse was that he had played a part in it himself. Thinking about this,