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ChapterTwenty
If a pin had been dropped in that instant, the distinct clinking sound would have been heard without much effort. Neither said anything as they stared at each other, Andrea with eyes of regret and Rory with wide eyes.
“What?” she echoed again, shooting off the swing.
“I know it’s a lot to take in, sweetie, but please just let me explain to you what happened so you can understand,” Andrea reasoned with her daughter.
“You kept this from me my entire life. How could you be so selfish?” Rory returned with a guttural cry.
“I know. I’m sorry, Rory. Please let me just explain—”
Rory held up her hand, halting whatever her mother was about to say.
“I can’t be around you right now,” Rory shot before she turned and ran off the porch and into the darkness.
“Rory!” Andrea stood and called after her daughter, but she just kept going.
Andrea collapsed on the swing as her tears racked her body. She felt overwhelmed by her sadness and helplessness. She stayed on the porch until after midnight, but Rory still hadn’t come back, causing her to worry that something had happened to her. That feeling was replaced by relief when Cora came out to tell her that Rory had decided to take a room at the inn. She also felt disappointed that she didn’t come back so they could talk it over, but she knew she had to give her daughter space to come to terms with her betrayal.
“You need to get some sleep, Drea. It doesn’t make sense to punish yourself any more than what you’re experiencing now,” Cora implored even as she ran her hand over her hair as she lay in her lap.
“I lost her, Cora. I lost my daughter,” she sobbed.
“Drea, she’ll come around. She just needs time to process all that she’s been told,” Josephine spoke from the other end of the swing as she rubbed Andrea’s leg that lay across her lap.
“Come on. Let’s go inside. I’ll make you a cup of chamomile tea. Maybe that’ll help you sleep,” Cora offered.
“It’s fine. I just want to go lie down,” she returned.
The sisters stayed in her room until fatigue won out, and she finally fell asleep. When she awoke, the sun was peeking through the opening of her curtains. Andrea swung her legs that felt like lead over the edge of the bed and willed herself to get up and get ready.
When she made it downstairs, she realized that her sister had left breakfast out for her. She only managed a few sips of coffee and a couple of bites of the egg and bacon before the queasiness in her stomach won out.
She decided to go for a walk and possibly stop by the rose garden in the back. The back door was slightly ajar, and as she made her way to it, she heard voices on the porch.
“…but she lied to me, Grandma, how… how do I forgive her for this? How do we get past this? I feel like my whole life has been a lie.”
Andrea covered her mouth to stem the sobs that emanated from her as her daughter’s words hit her like a sack of bricks.
“You forgive her because she is your mother and because in all this time, she has loved you unconditionally like no one else could,” was her mother’s reply.
“But she lied to me.”
“Let me ask you something. Do you think your mother would do anything, and I mean anything at all, to intentionally hurt you?”
“Well… no,” Rory stated. “Not until now, that is.”
“Okay, that’s fair, but could there be a reason that she would deliberately keep this from you?”
“I guess to spare my feelings, or it could have been to spite my father… to get back at him.”
Andrea found herself looking through the door at her mother and daughter as they sat on the long couch.
“How will you know if you don’t let her explain?”
“I’m just so angry at her right now,” Rory confessed.
“I know you are, honey, but please give her a chance. You only get one mother.”
