Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
At all.
“Later, chicka. Good luck,” she said.
I laughed as I pressed the ‘end call’ button and dumped the phone into my bag.
Making a mental list in my head of things I needed to get, I quickly started for the front door, stopping when I reached the very corner of the awning in the front.
Which was why I saw my dad, who hadn’t seen me.
He was with a woman…a woman that was not my mother.
And I couldn’t tell you why I stopped and listened to their conversation instead of saying hello like I usually would have.
Instead, I moved until I could just barely see my father’s back, but I could hear everything he was saying to the pretty blonde-haired woman in front of him.
“I’m sorry, Judy. I didn’t mean to string you along. I never would’ve done that intentionally. It’s just that my ex-wife and I decided to give it a second go, and I’ve wanted that since we’d divorced six years ago. I’m so sorry I hurt you,” my father said, touching the woman in front of him on the arm.
My heart sank.
“If you loved her, why’d you leave her?” This Judy chick hissed at my father.
I stopped behind the huge red pillar at the front of the Target and waited to hear his reply.
“After my daughter went to prison, my wife and I took a break. My wife decided that the break needed to be permanent when she and I had a difference of opinion where our daughter was concerned,” he admitted.
It all finally made sense.
Were my parents ever going to tell me this?
Or was I supposed to go on blissfully unaware?
Getting back to the truck wasn’t very hard.
I just pulled my hood high over my head, tucked my bag back into the crook of my arm and walked slowly back to Silas’ truck.
The moment I was inside, I pulled my phone out and called Silas.
He was the first one I thought to talk to, and that no longer made me nervous.
Because I loved Silas.
Even if he hid stuff from me.
“Did you know?” I asked, tears coursing down my cheeks.
“Know what, baby?” Silas asked worriedly.
“About my parents,” I answered.
“What about them?”
“That they were divorced,” I cried.
I could tell he paused in what he was doing. “Yeah, I knew.”
My eyes closed. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did I have to find out because I listened in on a conversation between my father and his ex-girlfriend in front of Target?”
He cleared his throat and said, “Because it’s not my job. They’re your parents, baby. It wasn’t my place.”
“God,” I breathed. “They divorced because of me.”
“They divorced because they were both hardheaded and wanted to divorce. Talk to them. I have no answers as to what they were thinking when they did that,” Silas said. “But if you talk to them, then you’ll get the answers you need. I’m sorry you found out that way, baby.”
Oh, I’d be getting answers all right.
A lot of them.
***
My gut was churning as I made my way up my parents’ front walk six hours later.
I looked longingly over my shoulder at Silas’ place, then waved at the man on the motorcycle that was parked under the tree across the yard.
He waved back, and I walked into my parent’s house without knocking.
I found my mother at the kitchen sink, and my father sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper.
They both turned in surprise when they saw me.
“Hey baby,” my mother said. “Are you hungry?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not.”
I hadn’t meant for my voice to sound so forlorn, but I couldn’t help it.
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the fact that my parents had divorced.
“What’s wrong, baby?” My dad asked as he stood up.
I looked at my dad as he walked across the room towards me.
He was a big, burly man with a pot-belly that confirmed his love his of beer and cake.
But he was still so handsome with his brown hair and his honey brown eyes.
He had a killer smile that was still the same as the day he married my mom.
“I…I overheard you today at Target,” I said, eyes on him and his reaction.
He froze and looked over his shoulder at my mother.
Had he told her what he’d done?
That question was answered moments later when my mother said, “You saw him with Judy.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She sighed and turned the water off, grabbing the towel beside the sink and drying her hands as she went to the table.
“Come sit,” she said, patting the seat. “Seems we have quite a bit to talk about.”
I could tell she wanted to talk about the whole Silas situation, too.
She’d been calling me since the night I’d found out about my prison sentence being for naught.
My brother had a big mouth and had probably told my mom the instant we’d left.
“How about we just get it all out on the table,” my father said without preamble. “Your mother and I divorced because we couldn’t get over the fact of how much we’d failed you. She wanted to keep fighting, but I forced her to stop the only way I knew how. By divorcing her.”
I blinked. “What?”
He nodded. “Without both of our incomes, she couldn’t keep it up, and she was forced to stop beating the dead horse.”
My mother’s eyes filled with tears.
My father’s head dropped. “We couldn’t afford anything else.”
I blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“Your mother and I always believed that you were innocent of the crime they’d accused you of, but we had no way to stop what was happening. We’d used our entire life savings, and all of the money in our 401Ks. Every penny we had, we used, and we just couldn’t do it anymore. It was already a struggle before, but after that, with the lawyer’s fees, we couldn’t do it and stay afloat.” My father’s voice cracked, “You’ll never know how truly horrible it was to do that to you…to your mother. But we just couldn’t do it anymore.”
I closed my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered with devastation evident in my voice. “I’m so, so sorry.”