A chilling thought.
But Hannah didn’t say any of that. She’d tried it already, and it ended in hours of near shrieking sobs from her mother and her father slinking out of the house and disappearing for half the day.
As much as she loved her sister and as big as the hole in her heart had grown, part of her remained furious with Mary Anne for dying and leaving Hannah with this mess. For bringing Kayla into their lives only to have her gone months later. For abandoning Hannah to their mother’s increasing mental fragility.
“I know this is hard to hear right now, Mom, but Mary Anne was the one who screwed up here. Not JP.”
Her mother’s mouth opened, and her gaze filled with fury.
Hannah spoke before her mother could lambast her. “I loved her as much as you did, and I miss her as much as you do, Mom, but we can’t ignore the truth. Mary Anne made some terrible choices after her diagnosis. Conscious choices. She owned those decisions, and Kayla’s father having custody now is her trying to atone for her mistakes.”
“No.” Her mother shook her head while her father stared off into space. “I can’t accept that. Mary Anne was out of her head with fear and shock. She wasn’t in her right mind when she had s—when she was with that man. We are the ones who love Kayla and want what’s best for her.” She slapped a hand over her heart. “Your father and I are the ones who should be raising that baby.”
So you can smother it with ridiculously stifling rules?
So you can avoid facing your grief and get a redo for the child you lost?
Her heart ached. Hannah had no idea how to get through to them. She never had. It was always easier to give in and toe the line rather than fight against their overbearing nature. “I’m sorry. I know you’re hurting, but I can’t do it. I won’t go to Vermont under false pretenses and try to take the man’s child away. Finding out he has a seven-month-old daughter he knew nothing about must have flipped his entire world upside down. He deserves time to find his footing without someone trying to take his baby from him.”
They’d actually asked her to befriend JP on the sly, then dig up any dirt on him to have him declared an unfit father. Her mother went so far as suggesting she set him up if she couldn’t find any evidence to present to their attorney. Hannah found the idea as horrifying as having her toenails pried off.
What her mother failed to realize was that raising a rule-following, good girl who never once strayed across their inflexible boundaries meant she couldn’t possibly pull off the devious plan they begged of her.
“Hannah, please. Our attorney says our hands are tied unless we have proof, physical evidence that JP is an unfit father or Kayla is being mistreated. We have no idea what they are doing to her right now.”
Rolling her eyes, Hannah bit back a nasty retort. Her mother had always been dramatic in her worry, but this was taking it to the limit. “You know, no one has said you can’t be in the child’s life. You’ve seen the pictures; family seems very important to JP. I’m sure he will be thrilled to have Kayla’s grandparents play an active and appropriate role in her life.”
“Don’t speak his name to me,” her mother snapped. “That baby belongs with us here where we know she will have a good, safe, respectable upbringing. Not one where she’ll be influenced to defile her body or act in countless immoral and dangerous ways.”
Tattoos and piercings beyond a single hole in the lobe were defiling in her mother’s opinion. A way to invite riffraff into one’s life. A straight shot to drugs, overdoses, and death. And so much for their ability to mold their children into the perfect specimens of morality and safety. If they had, maybe Mary Anne wouldn’t have tricked a man to get pregnant.
“Did you see who is in so many of his pictures? That actress. The one who has been in the news so many times for her philandering ways and drug addictions. What’s her name? Scarlett? Is that the kind of trash you want influencing your niece?”
Michaela Hudson, known during her Hollywood career as Scarlett, was a woman who owned her mistakes and turned her life around in spectacular ways. That’s who her parents feared? A hardworking woman with insight and drive to change her life for the better?
Seemed like a pretty good role model to Hannah.
“Please, Pickle,” her father slid off the couch onto his knees as he grabbed her hands. “We’re begging you. We’d never ask this if we weren’t hurting so bad.”
Her mother sniffed as she nodded. “Please,” she whispered. “I lost my cousin. I lost my daughter. I can’t lose my grandbaby, too.”