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“I’m not going anywhere, and I don’t care if I make a scene.”
Tara lets out a long sigh and smooths her hand over her ponytail. “The kid came at me, talking about me being her mother and asking where I’ve been for the last fourteen years. She was loud, and she wouldn’t leave me alone. So, I told her: I’m no one’s mother, and I’m not looking to be.”
Adrenaline courses through my veins. “Y-you said you didn’t want to be her mother?”
“Look, I made a stupid mistake fourteen years ago, and if I could go back in time and undo it, then I would. But I can’t.”
My mouth hangs open. “Youtoldher that?”
“What else was I supposed to say?” She lifts her hand and lets it fall and smack against her thigh. “I didn’t want to lie to her and make her think this was going to be some fairy tale reunion.”
“You didn’t have to lie to her, but you could’ve let her down gently. You could’ve said…literally anything besides what you said to her!” My jaw clenches as I force my breathing to even out. “She’s a kid, and she just found out that her mother is alive after fourteen years. She’s in shock, and she’s confused.”
She scoffs. “That’s her father’s fault.”
I ignore the jab at Grant. “She just wanted to know you…to hear that you didn’t want to abandon her like you did all those years ago.”
Tara shakes her head. “I can’t give her what she’s looking for.”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
“Both. Now you and your little family need to leave me the hell alone.”
Disbelief slams into me. “She’s your daughter. Don’t you care at all?”
A short man in a white button-down shirt with black slacks walks over to us. “Is everything okay here? Is there anything I can help you with, ma’am?”
I stare at Tara, searching for some sliver of humanity inside her. A sign of remorse. A modicum of understanding. But she gives me nothing.
“You know what?” A tear streams down my face as my lips quiver. “You don’t deserve to know her.”
I spin around and slam right into Grant’s chest.
He engulfs me in his arms, holding me tight as he sets his eyes on Tara. His icy glare says everything his words don’t.
I clutch his jacket like a lifeline, and Grant ushers me outside.
When the cold air hits us, he turns to face me. “You okay?”
I let out a disgusted noise from the back of my throat. “I cannot believe that woman. It’s one thing to not want children. But who tells a child that you don’t want them? Who looks her in the eyes and says that? God, I could strangle her.”
“There’s a reason it wasn’t hard to cut her out of Noah’s life, and it’s because she didn’t want to be a part of it. Forget about her. We have to be here for Noah and help her get through this.”
“How are you the calm one right now?”
“It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’ve been carrying around this lie for so long, wondering if and when this day would come, wondering if Tara would ever show up on our doorstep and ask to be a part of Noah’s life.” He hikes a shoulder. “Now that it’s over, we can move on.”
“And what about everything Tara said to her?”
Hearing something like that has to damage a kid permanently. I know the nasty things my father said to me growing up left scars.
“If she’s willing to go, I’d like to take her to therapy.” He glances at his daughter through my windshield. “I think I could use it as well.”
I nod. “I think that’s a great idea.”
“Remember what you said to me? People are going to come in and out of her life, and some people are going to hurt her. But she has me, and she has my mother, and she has you. All this love has to count for something.”
He’s right. No matter what bad things she’s experienced in her life, she’ll always have a support system to help her cope.
