AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My body grows heavy and my knees weak. I climb onto the bed to cry out my tears before I start to figure out a way back home. Unfortunately, I pass out from exhaustion, wrapped in a blanket of my sorrow.
* * *
Gregor
“You love this woman?” my mother asks suspiciously as she looks at my bruised face.
“Yes.” I sigh. “I’ve hurt her repeatedly. This is my own doing.”
“I can understand her being hurt, but to place her hands on you,” my mother replies, pursing her lips.
“I deserve way more than this. She’s within her rights, believe me.”
“Nothing makes this okay,” she says firmly.
“We have a long past…” I pause. I can’t tell my mother Chloe and I were having trouble before this. I still need this engagement to look real. “We were working through that… I thought we could… I once left her pregnant, scared, and alone. She had no choice but to abort our child.”
I blow out a breath as reality bites in. Hearing the words aloud slices through me. All the money in the world could never replace what I’ve lost. I continue through my ache.
“I brought her here and within hours of our arrival, everything was turned on its head. She found out I had a child here,” I say, the words tasting like acid.
“Oh, Gregor. Did we never talk to you about condoms? I still can’t believe you would hide this child from us for so long.” My mother takes a pause, her cheeks turning red. “Okay, I think I understand why she hit you.”
I grin for the first time in days. At the moment, my mother looks like she’s thinking about going upside my head. I know Chloe isn’t the only one I’ve hurt. This has been difficult for my mother to step into.
“Everything is so complicated.” I look at my daughter. “I wanted to make sure she was mine. No, no, I think I’ve always known. There’s just something else Addison was hiding. I wanted to find out what before I entangled my family in all of this.
“I don’t remember the night we were supposed to have hooked up to conceive my little girl. We had a casual relationship prior, but I ended that sometime before we could have made a baby together,” I explain.
“Yet here she is. She looks like you when you were a little boy,” she replies.
“Grandma… see baby?” Chloe says as she holds her doll up to my mother.
“Yes, beautiful. She’s almost as pretty as you are,” my mother coos.
“Pretty baby.” Chloe nods. “Daddy, see baby?”
“Yes, sweetheart, I see your pretty baby.” I chuckle.
She turns back for her toys, ignoring us once again. She’s been occupied with the doll I bought today in hopes of making her smile. She’s too little to understand how much her world has changed. I look down at my palms.
“I can’t say that I regret her. I love my daughter. I just wish she had the mother I would have chosen,” I say.
“The one you have hurting in a hotel room?”
“Yup, the one I’m too selfish to let go of,” I snort.
“This isn’t an easy thing. You’ve hurt her deeply. Something I know is so hard for you. You’re such a loving person, but I’ve never known you to give up.” She exhales, reaching to lift my chin. “I don’t know what happened back then, but I bet every penny I have that your heart was in the right place. Explain things to her. Then, let her decide.”
I sit thinking about her words. She’s right. I’ve never explained to Chloe why I did what I did. I just told her things were ending for her good. If I can make her understand… I have to try to make her understand.
“Daddy, I sleepy,” Chloe whines, coming to climb into my lap.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly as she falls asleep with her head on my shoulder. I wish my life could be as simple as hers. I kiss the top of her head.
“She adores you,” my mother whispers with a smile.
“And I her,” I murmur back.
