AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bernadette’s head rose in alarm as Mia’s eyes grew genuinely concerned. “Wh— why?”
“Your mom is on her way back to Boston.”
“What? How?” Her face grew tight again, and her eyebrows furrowed in anger. “Omigod, did she steal Angus’s car?”
Outside of being a mangled sheet of metal, her leaving town in the Scot’s vehicle wasn’t a remote possibility as the car had been impounded, now in the possession of local police. Namely Grant.
“No, she…got a ride.” He wasn’t sure how much to share before he had a chance to determine next steps. Or if there were any.
“A ride?” Bernadette huffed with her hands on her hips. “Stop story’n boie.” Her Gullah-Geechee always came out when she was stressed.
What could he tell her? He wasn’t even sure what was happening. Hell, in less than a month, he’d learned he had conceived a daughter with Birdie only to learn it wasn’t Birdie but her sister Maisie.
How does a man conceive a baby with someone with absolutely no recollection of the act?
And what in the hell was going on with Birdie?
Had she been planning to marry that sorry excuse of a man all this time? Errol Shepherd was thin and pasty, didn’t appear to have worked a day in his life. A man who merely flicked his Rolex-encircled wrist and shouted orders.
Nope. No. No way. He didn’t believe it. Especially after witnessing her poor attempt at subterfuge. But what was he to do? He couldn’t very well stop them. Couldn’t pull the man out of his ludicrously expensive car and pummel him within an inch of his entitled life.
“I don’t understand. Who did she leave with?” Mia asked, equally confused.
“A friend.” He pulled her blanket up and tucked it around her, not sure what to do, or say. “She told me to tell you she loved you and she would be in touch.”
Small white lie.
He would find her, wrestle her to the ground, and make her press the phone keys if necessary. Intuitive parenting skills wasn’t a strength of his, but even he knew Mia had lashed out, saying things she didn’t mean. Birdie needed to give the kid time to chill out and come to reason after hearing all the details. Not instantly bailing before clueing everyone in on the backstory.
But history repeated itself, as she jumped a ride with the nearest Mercedes and headed out of town.
Déjà vu. On steroids.
“I don’t understand,” Mia said, shaking her head. “She doesn’t have any friends. Except for Angus.”
“I’m…sure she’ll be fine.”
Ignoring Bernadette’s wide eyes, he watched Mia turn her head to stare out the window with pursed lips. It was obvious she wanted to ask more questions but managed to keep them to herself, as it would give the impression she cared. Cared about the woman who she had only just discovered wasn’t her biological mother.
Mia was fighting valiantly to save face.
Just like her mother used to do, years ago, when faced with the consequences of her actions.
Owning some, resignedly accepting others. Nevertheless, the similarities were staggering.
“I want to see Angus,” she said, still gazing out the window.
Thankfully, Bernadette responded as Lucas tried to navigate his own shell-shock. “Let me ask the nurses if he’s up.”
After she’d slipped out of the room, he sat next to Mia, who refused to look at him. “I don’t know or understand all the details, Mia. I’m just as shocked as you are. And I’m certainly not going to tell you how you should feel. But personally, I know your mom well enough to know I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt before banishing her forever from my life, casting her as the villain.”
Her body stiffened. “First off, she’s not my mom, and this isn’t a Disney movie with a sure thing happy ending. Second, I could care less what the details are. She lied. Period. End of story. And third, how are we going to learn any details if she’s left town?”
He couldn’t argue with that logic as it seemed his life was stuck on a single chapter, one on loop, where Birdie skipped town, taking all the answers and her secrets with her. The never-ending chapter beginning to feel like his life’s story.
