My jaw dropped. Mom had called Laura behind my back and Laura had defended herself? I was damn proud of her. That’s my girl.
Dad still looked stubborn.
“Look at all we’ve already missed out on with our grandchild,” Mom went on. “And think, honey…how much our son has resented us. Would you rather have a political career or a son who loves you? And he wouldn’t be a very good senator if he hated his job now, would he?”
This last part was said teasingly, but I remembered what Della had said on the docks, how important public service was to her. That was the kind of dedication needed for this job, and I simply didn’t have that.
“Dad, it would be unfair to my constituents and all my coworkers if I went into politics. They deserve people who care about them and want to do their jobs well, not someone who’s phoning it in because he wants to impress his father.”
Dad sighed heavily, and now it was his turn to sit down on the couch.
“I really love her, Dad,” I added. “I really loved her back then and I continue to do so now. She was the one thing I wanted in my life and I gave her up. Twice. To try and protect her from the life you’d designed for me. There wasn’t room for her in that life. There wasn’t even any room for me. The real me. I’ve been cursing myself for leaving her this whole time, and I don’t want to end our relationship, but I will if that’s what it takes. If you can’t see that I’m going to forge my own path—including marrying whoever I want— then fuck the scandal.”
Dad looked up at Mom, and then stared down at the floor for a long time. I felt sick. Was I going to lose my relationship with my father? I didn’t want to abandon him. I didn’t want to have to choose. I wanted to be able to forge a real relationship with him, one where I could be myself and finally get to connect with him as a person and not be the vessel for his own plans.
But between my father and Laura, I knew what my choice would be.
Mom threw her hands in the air. “For heaven’s sake, Neal, I want to see my grandchild and I want to have a relationship with my son. Get over yourself! We want him to be happy. That’s the most important thing.”
She took his hand in hers, then reached out and took my hand in her other hand. “We’ve messed up, big time. We’ve been messing up for years, it seems. But thank goodness for the chain of events that’s led us to realize it and given us a chance to fix it. I want to start over and be a proper family, one that can love each other unconditionally and be honest with one another, without fear. What do you say?”
It was moments like these that reminded me what a good actress my mother was. Nobody could deliver a heartfelt line with such simple sincerity as she could. For the first time in years, all of my mother’s spoiled, dramatic trappings were gone, and all I could see was a woman who wanted her family to be together.
At last, Dad sighed. He squeezed Mom’s hand and stood up, looking at me. “I’m sorry, for my part in this. I…it will be an adjustment. But I, too, would like to know my grandchild. And I want you to be happy, Cade. I would have been…devastated if I had allowed my father to split me and Melinda all those years ago. I can’t do the same thing to you. If you love her, then you have my blessing to be with her.”
Relief flooded me and I yanked my father into a hug. I hadn’t hugged him in years, not properly, and I certainly hadn’t meant it earlier. Now I gave the hug all the love inside me.
Dad cleared his throat when I pulled back, clearly a little embarrassed. “Yes, well. I’ll…find a way to deal with the press. They shouldn’t be swarming a child like that. Especially not my grandchild.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Mom smiled at me. “You know what you have to do now, honey. I’ve been in enough films to know what comes next.”
“What…?” I asked, confused.
Mom winked. “You go and you get your girl.”
32
Laura
Caitlyn and I got through the day as best we could despite the reporters outside. We just didn’t leave the house and played with Drew all day, keeping him happy and entertained so that he wouldn’t look out the front window and ask questions. The reporters, thank goodness, didn’t try to go up the driveway and knock on the door or peer through the windows, not after Caitlyn had called the police and then whacked a reporter’s camera right out of their hand so that it went smashing to the pavement.
The message was clear: come too close and Caitlyn was going to whack you and she wasn’t going to care all that much about legal ramifications. She’d also been taking pictures of the reporters and blasting them by name on social media, calling them out for their behavior and dragging them through the mud.
I was incredibly grateful to her, especially since I was too exhausted, emotionally, to do anything about it. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but I couldn’t really do that in front of my son. I had to be a mother, first and foremost.
We got through the day, somehow, and I went to bed feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. At Caitlyn’s insistence I took a sleeping pill so that I could actually get some rest instead of tossing and turning all night.
The next morning, I woke up to blessed silence.
At first, I didn’t think that there was anything odd about that. I had just woken up before Caitlyn and Drew, which was normal. Yesterday, waking up after the two of them were already up and about, had been unusual and a testament to how poorly I’d slept.
But then I got up and realized that I couldn’t hear any sound from the
front lawn.
The reporters had given up yelling at us or wasting their film on photographing the front of the house, but they still made noise. There would be the sounds of people walking around, the sounds of quiet conversations between reporters, the sounds of van and car doors opening and closing, or takeout food and coffee being handed out.