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“We ran a few tests, and I am confident we can rule that out. She appears to be dehydrated and anemic and that may have caused her to faint. I am waiting for more results, and we’ll keep her overnight, but she will be able to go home tomorrow.”
Perhaps I should have felt happiness at hearing of my mother’s good health.
But all I felt was anger. I was sure she’d fainted on purpose in a desperate bid to get my attention. I didn’t want to tell Lauren what the doctor had said. I felt too much anger towards my mother. There was frustration too, with the fact that she had ruled my entire life and had one way or another, always found a way to get me to do her bidding.
But not this time.
It was time I started living my life, for me.
That would start right now.
Chapter 23
Lauren
“Tell me everything!” my mother demanded that evening.
I was waiting for her at home, with a takeaway curry from our favorite Indian restaurant. I had ordered extra poppadums and mango chutney as well as naan bread. I bought bottles of wine and laid the table, waiting for her to come from work. I hadn’t told her I was coming and when she saw me in the kitchen, she squealed with delight and came to hug me straight away.
“I was wondering when you’d be back!” she beamed at me.
“So, how was Colorado?” she asked, helping herself to a glass of wine and sitting down at the table to nibble on a piece of naan.
We had not really talked about my father or me meeting my half-siblings. I didn’t want to talk about them while they were around, and during the day my mother was at work. I had known she would expect a full report, and I’d been thinking about what to say to her.
But then everything had happened with Matthew and thoughts of my father had taken a backseat. My mind was filled by the incredible romance of the last couple of days, our secluded getaway at the forest lodge, where we’d finally found each other, and he had told me he loved me. Everything else seemed to pale into insignificance for me, but for my mother, I knew I had to talk about my father first.
“I can see why you fell for him,” I said.
“Oh?”
“He’s charming, funny and a great guy.”
“What does he look like now?”
I showed her some pictures on my mobile.
“Oh, my God, he’s so old!” she cried out and I had to scold her.
“He’s still good-looking, though!”
“I don’t know,” she said and pulled a face.
I told her how he’d made me feel welcome, fetching me at the airport and preparing the guest room for me with fresh flowers. I described the meal he, Vern and Ava had cooked for me and how well I’d gotten along with them. She was especially interested to hear about his wife and their divorce, about his various infidelities. When I confronted her about him calling her after she got pregnant, she became thoughtful, playing with a strand of her hair.
“Why didn’t you tell me he tried calling you?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t know why he wanted to talk to me. I thought maybe he wanted to hook up again. I didn’t know he wanted to talk about the pregnancy.”
That made sense.
“He could have tried harder, you know, come round to see me? But he’d left it at that.”
She was right.
“He had a bit of reputation, even back then. I always knew that he wasn’t relationship material. When I got pregnant, I knew from the start that whatever decision I made, I would have to make by myself. My immediate thought was of my own baby and how lucky I was that this was not my situation at all.
“He wants to be a part of the baby’s life, as a grandfather,” I said, watching expressions change on my mother’s face. I could see that it wouldn’t be easy for her to have John being a part of my life. She didn’t like him being back in my life.
