Frozen Hearts

Chapter 25

[Barry]

Through out the entire drive to the precinct Barry kept fisting and flexing his fingers. A vengeful anger boiled beneath the surface of his skin, searing through his veins and ringing loudly in his ears but this anger was a mere facade. A mask to hide his true emotions. Hurt. His mother had been senselessly ripped away from him and he was forced to watch the light fade from her eyes with each painstaking day that passed. He watched as her smile slipped further and further from her eyes. He watched as the colour dissappeared from her cheeks. He watched as she became weaker and weaker with each passing moment, diminished to a mere husk of the vibrant woman who gave him so much love. Yet through it all she tried to hide it. She joked about her situation and teased him to get him to smile. She was his greatest cheerleader and always told him to never lose hope on seeing Iris again. Nora knew how much Iris meant to Barry. He even suspected that she knew he loved her before he knew himself. That's just the kind of mother she was, attentive and always positive.

The day she died marked the birth of an incurable cold spot on his heart and over time, with each betrayal and loss he suffered, the spot kept growing and growing and now (with this new revelation) it had reached its final destination. His heart had successfully been frozen and he felt nothing but a deep, all consuming rage.

"Do you want me to go in with you?" Iris asked and he shook his head.

"I need to do this alone," he told her before he walked into the interrogation room. Patti sat, cuffed to the table, with a smirk on her face.

"Well would you look who it is? Honestly Teddy Bear I wasn't expecting you to come back to me so soon," she teased and Barry simply cracked his knuckles while silently reminding himself that she was a woman and he didn't hit women.

"Why?" he simply asked, too energised by furry to sit down.

"Why what? Why did we bug your house? Why did we hack your phone? Why did we drag you away from the 'love of your life'? You gotta be more specific babe," she taunted.

"Why did you kill my mother?" he specified between gritted teeth. A devilish grin spread on to Patti's face and she leaned back into her chair.

"Mama's boy seeking vengeance?" she teased with an exaggerated pout.

"Why?" Barry repeated, his voice dangerously low.

"You gonna cry Barry? Huh? Are you blaming yourself for being so damned stupid?" Her eyes glistened with a satisfied enjoyment at the sight of his annoyance and suffering.

"Why!" he slammed the table with his palm and Patti stood to face him.

"Because I wanted to! Because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time! Because she kept filling your head with fairytales and reminding you at every chance she got that I wasn't the woman you loved!" She yelled.

"Pick one," she spat then sat back down. Barry simply starred at her, his anger visible in the crease of his brow.

"If I'm being completely honest," she explained while seated. "Killing Nora wasn't in my plans."
Barry winced at the sound of his mother's name on Patti's poisonous tounge but held his ground and let her explain. He needed answers.

"How was I supposed to know that she would be home alone the night we decided to bug it? I thought she'd be at the game, so imagine my surprise when Eddie called to tell me that your poor mother was tied up and unconscious. I mean, she'd seen his face, we couldn't leave any witnesses behind. So I had him shoot her. She would have bled to death if the police hadn't gotten there almost immidiately, seems like your mom called them before she got caught." Patti rolled her eyes then, with disdain clear in her voice, she continued.