“Oh, she wants to talk to me,” Wylda sneered.
“Looks to me like she obviously doesn’t, which, incidentally, is probably why she doesn’t answer your calls either,” he clipped, leaning toward her slightly. “You’ve come into her sister’s house, ordered her around, and been rude to her family, and made yourself look a complete ass. But what makes you a total bitch, is how you can clearly see the baby in the room, yet you haven’t once looked at her or asked how she is.”
“Trash,” Tabby muttered loudly.
Not backing down, Wylda squared her shoulders and glared at him. “I don’t care what you think, I care about…”
Losing it, I stood up and walked around Burt until I was standing in front her. “You care about yourself, and that’s the only thing you’ve ever cared about. Ok, I’ll give you something,” I offered, watching as a satisfied smirk appeared on her face. “I’m going to give you some home truths. You’re a shitty mother, you’ve got no morals, and you’re a shitty human being. You’ve spent your life going from self-induced crisis, to self-induced crisis, and throughout all of it you never once thought about how your actions affected anyone else because it didn’t matter to you.” When she went to say something back to me, I held my hand up and continued, “Now that you’ve got no one, you’re here begging for money, and I’m not giving you another penny.”
I was shaking with anger by the time I was finished, and there was so much more I wanted to say, so many low digs I wanted to make at her, but I wouldn’t lower myself to that level. She didn’t get that satisfaction from being able to claim that she was a victim in life. I’d also suffer guilt for saying hurtful things afterward regardless of what she’d done, because that was my nature, so I wouldn’t lower myself for that reason, too. Apparently she would, though.
“You’re a disappointment,” she hissed. “Shoulda thanked your lucky stars when you landed Larry, but, no, Josephine just had to run off crying and playing the victim. He was out of your league, anyway.”
All the other occupants of the room growled, bracing themselves to say something, but I saw her words for what they were – the last stuttering’s in my presence of a pathetic woman. “Well, by all means, help yourself to him. You’ve always been a sloppy seconds gal, haven’t you?”
“Leave,” Tabby hissed, pushing past me and grabbing her by the arm. “You’ve done just fine without acknowledging her existence all this time, so do it for the rest of your life,” she advised, pushing her out the door and slamming it in her face. Looking over at Burt, I asked the question that had been circling around my brain. “You really don’t remember her?” When he winced and shook his head, I looked at Tabby, and the full impact of what this might mean hit me and I voiced the worry I’d been trying to sweep under the rug. “We need to get our tests redone,” I told her, my lower lip trembling.
I’d expected tears, screams, maybe even an agreement, but instead she burst out laughing. “Honey, if you think we’re not related, you need your head tested instead,” she snickered finally. “Have you ever wondered what you’d look like with pink hair and fairer skin?” she pointed at herself in answer. “But you want them redone, we’ll get them redone.”
It’s not that I wanted them redone, I just wanted to make sure for their sakes.
“Uh, Jose, if I may,” Burt asked carefully, pulling his phone out of his pocket and showing me the screen. On it were both of our names, followed by a row of numbers. “Those are the results from just our DNA, not Tabby’s as well.”
Stress addles the brain, because through my mini freak out, I’d forgotten that they would have tested our DNA against each other, too. In my mind, I pictured Tabby and Burt’s DNA being tested and coming back positive, and because of the previous match between her and myself, they’d then linked his to mine. It’s a stupid way of thinking, and I blame the stressful situation for it, but now that he reminded me of this logical point… well, I felt like a twat.
The biggest thing I felt, though, was relief. In years to come when people asked what it was like meeting my biological father for the first time, I’d have this story to fall back on – fucking awesome.Chapter 21Ellis
Three weeks later…The last few weeks had been exhausting for Jose, emotionally and physically. Our approaches were very similar to things, and she’d taken her time adjusting to meeting Burt and getting over what had happened with Wylda. She’d also been Tabby’s rock as she got her own head around how shit had gone down between him and her mom, going back and forth between anger and hurt, until she’d accepted there wasn’t anything she could do to change it. With that acceptance had come forgiveness, and it had brought her back to her old self. It had only been a matter of weeks, but it turns out he didn’t live that far away, so they’d all spent some time getting to know each other and it seemed like they were making progress. It was slow, but it would all be ok.