Jade (Wildflowers 3)

"'Nothing. I was just looking at you and thinking how pretty you are. You look a lot like your mother when she was younger, you know. She's an attractive woman, although,' he said with a small smirk, 'that's never been enough for her. It isn't even a viable compliment. She's ready to claw any man who tells her she's pretty. You're not like that. I know you're not. You're going to be all right, Jade. This will all come to an end and you'll be like a cat and land on your feet, don't worry about that.'

"'What about you, Daddy?' I asked him

"'I'll be fine. We'll be fine,' he insisted. He wouldn't consider his future without including me, at least, for now.

"What happens later when either he or my mother win the custody battle? I wondered. Would they both still include me in their lives with such passion?

"I guess what I mean to say is I stopped trusting both of them, trusting what they told me and what they promised."

I gazed at Dr. Marlowe. She nodded softly.

"What I've learned," I continued, "is that once they broke their vows to each other, they lost their credibility with me."

Star was looking at me strangely, as if for the first time she truly understood me. Misty nodded in agreement with me and Cat looked like she was poised to jump up and run from the room. I wondered why what I'd just said had affected her so strongly.

"They lied to each other. Why should I believe them? Ever," I emphasized. "Don't you all feel like that, feel you've been betrayed?"

"I do," Misty agreed.

Cat glanced at Dr. Marlowe and just nodded.

Star smiled softly. "My granny tells me we come into this world without a single guarantee and leave the same way. It's all promises, girl. Take your pick and play your chance."

"Well, I wasn't about to bet on either of them," I said. "I think the therapist making the evaluation has come to that conclusion, too.

"One day soon after I met with Daddy and his attorney, I came home from school and found this woman, Dr. Morton, waiting for me in the living room. Rosina had given her a cold soft drink and she sat with her little clipboard on the settee. As I crossed the hallway, I heard the doctor call my name.

"I paused and looked in at her, curious of course. Dr. Morton is a very short woman, probably an inch shorter than Misty, with very curly, dark brown steel-wool hair, and big almond shaped eyes, beautiful eyes.

"She has a very sincere warm smile. Even if you don't want to be cooperative, you are eventually, and that's because you can see she enjoys her work and sees herself as doing something very critical, almost as critical as heart surgery. She always concentrates on every answer I give her and she looks like she turns all the words around like some diamond cutter, studying, thinking, scrutinizing each syllable. It can almost drive you nuts!" I burst out.

Dr. Marlowe laughed.

"She has a wonderful reputation. Dr. Morton is highly respected," she said.

"I wouldn't want her job," Misty offered.

"It's like King Solomon in the Bible cutting that baby in two," Star said.

"Cutting a baby? I don't remember that," Misty said, "not that I've read much of the Bible."

"He didn't cut it. He said he would when the two women claimed to be the mother. And the one who was the mother told him not to do it. Told him to give the baby to the other woman," Star explained.

"She gave up her child?"

"She'd rather see that happen than the baby dead. That's not so hard to understand."

"My parents would rather see me cut in half," I muttered. Misty spun around to look at me. "I can't help it," I said. "That's how I feel. Stop looking at me like that. I'm not the bad one here."

My stomach tightened again.

"Talk about dynamite sticks:' Star said, looking up at me. "No one's accusing you of anything."

"Yeah, maybe not now, but soon, one of my parents will, the one who loses," I said.

"No, they won't:' Star said. "Your daddy will just accuse your mother of all that poison you mentioned before, or your mother will do the same to him:'

"Maybe," I said, "but I couldn't help being nervous when I answered Dr. Morton's questions, no matter how harmless she made them sound.