Dare To Love Again

I stopped in front of my dad’s mom, not quite knowing what to say, but when she opened her arms, I just fell into them with a deluge of tears. My heart broke into a thousand pieces at the feel of her arms coming around me. I wept for her, and me, and for the man that we both once loved and who had been so heinously taken from us.

I was vaguely aware of Calen and some of the men talking in hushed whispers but was not yet ready to leave the matronly warmth of my gran’s embrace. It’s only when I heard one of them. I think it’s the one who called himself my uncle Gordon, say that it’s about time, that I tuned back into their conversation.

“How sure are you that she’s not going to run?”

“It doesn’t matter if she does; I have someone on her; she won’t get far.”

“Good, it’s almost over. I never thought I’d live to see the day.” I realized that she had hurt all of these people by what she’d done, not just me. But I’m a part of her, how could they bear…?

“No little one, whatever you’re imagining that’s putting that look on your face, gets it out of your head. You bear no blame for any of this. Your dad would’ve been so proud of the woman you’ve become. And I hear I have a great-grandson, you must bring him to meet the rest of his family; we must make up for lost time.”

I smiled through tears at Calen, who watched the two of us while listening to the men who were giving their opinions on what should be done to Ann.CalenIt’s been a hell of a week. I laid in bed wide awake in the deep dark of night while my wife slept beside me. She’s been acting very strange, and out of character since the day it all went down. I don’t know what I expected, for her to break down, I guess, but instead, she’s been on autopilot around here. When she isn’t tending to our son, she’s bending over backward to please me.

I think she’s trying to make up for the two years we’d lost. Funnily enough, I don’t want her to. I find myself thinking these days that I’m the one who owes her. The dust has yet to settle, there’s still a lot that needs taking care of, but the two of us are fully mended as far as I’m concerned.

We’ve spent the last week talking, reforging the bond that had been broken and me most of all, apologizing tirelessly for the way I treated her when she came back. If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never be able to make it up to her. Since I can’t touch Dana legally, as there’s no law against what she did, I had to find other ways to make her pay.

It was as simple as outing her to all of her friends and family. Her parents, who are just as narcissistic as she is, are trying their best to stay in mom’s good graces while turning their backs on their own daughter. Mom, who I have only lately come to realize is a sadist, has been eating that shit up and milking it for all its worth.

With the way she’s been acting, you’d think Dana’s sins were against her and not my wife and I. According to her, there’s nothing Dana can do in this life or the next to repay her for missing out on the birth of her first grandchild. And whenever she thinks I’m softening in my stance, which isn’t true, by the way, she reminds me of the hell my wife had to face on her own, alone and pregnant with my child.

So, mom has decided to make it her mission in life never to let anyone forget what Dana had done and how she’d betrayed my wife and I. As if to add insult to injury the way only a female could think of, she has asked Giselle to take Dana’s place on the charity board, something I’m wholeheartedly behind. But when she tried to talk my wife into coming to work for the company, I put my foot down.

Thankfully Giselle and I are on the same page when it comes to me keeping her barefoot and pregnant, something I’ve been working very hard at as well this past week. I haven’t spoken to nor seen Dana, and neither do I wish to, but Donovan has been keeping tabs on her, and last I heard, she’s checked herself into rehab. I’m still reeling at the fact that she’d kept a drug habit so well hidden all these years. I would’ve cut her out of my life long ago if I got even a whiff of that shit.