Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
SIXTEEN
After putting my car in park again, I rolled down my window.
“I’m so happy to see you, Haley. We were all so worried,” Smiley’s other server Honey said.
“No need to worry anymore.” I waved a hand toward the window. “I see I’ve been replaced.”
“Yeah. Amber’s not you, but she’s a good kid. I should get going. I only came to get my check.” Honey sighed. “Do you think Smiley will ever do direct deposit instead of checks?”
We laughed. “Anyway, I have an Uber pickup at the base. I’ve got to get going.” She winked.
“Uber?” I teased, though I was sure her wink was about going to the military base not too far away where hot guys would be in abundance.
“I’ve got bills and my car didn’t start this morning. I’m borrowing one so I can work Uber during my diner break. It’s a whole thing. I’ll catch you later.”
I waved goodbye and felt a little lighter. As much as I wanted to leave Mountainside, there was one other thing I had to do. It wasn’t long before I stood in front of a door to see a person I really didn’t want to see.
“Haley,” Mom said with open arms.
I didn’t leap into them. In fact, I didn’t move at all. “Mom.”
“I didn’t know you were back.”
“Of course you didn’t,” I snapped. “You couldn’t be bothered with anyone but yourself.”
“That’s not true.”
I crossed my arms. “Really? Did you once call about your granddaughter after dropping her off with total strangers?”
“Haley, what did you want me to do? I had to work. Agan only paid me for two weeks.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Do you even hear yourself? Someone had to pay you to watch your granddaughter.”
Finally, that lit a fire under her. “Now listen here. I’m hanging by a thread. Did you want me losing my trailer like you lost yours? I don’t have options, Haley, and when I had you, I didn’t have help. It was the price I paid for getting knocked up. Now you’re paying the price for your actions.”
I laughed bitterly. “You know what? You’re right. And I’m not here to argue with you. You have my things.” Her mouth snapped shut, and she nodded. “You can keep Zoe’s stuff. She doesn’t need it and on the off chance I ever let you see her again, she’ll have a few things here. But where is my stuff?”
She pointed in the living room. I brushed past her and stopped. There were three modest-sized boxes that represented my whole life. It was truly sad. I opened each until I found the one with my clothes. I hauled it out to my car. After removing the tags on the new stuff, I mixed it in with my old clothes that were worth sharing. The rest I put in bags to be tossed. Then I brought the box back to Mom. “Give these to Amber.” When she looked lost, I pointed at my old trailer. “Your new neighbor. And give her my household stuff, too.”
When I turned to leave, what Mom said next froze me in my tracks. “Your father wants to meet you.”
I didn’t turn back until I closed my open jaw. “You knew where my dad was all this time,” I accused. Mom had always said she didn’t have a clue where my father was. In fact, she’d claimed she only knew his first name. That was most definitely a lie.
She shook her head vigorously. “No. Once you were gone, I looked him up.”
“So you knew how to find him?”
Mom looked exasperated. “No. But technology has changed. I took a chance and searched up his name when you were missing. And I lucked out and found him.”
“You knew his full name, not just his first one, all this time.”
“What? You wanted me to tell you he had a wife and a whole other family? Is that what you wanted to hear growing up? I let you believe I was the bad one to spare you and now you point fingers at me like I didn’t spend my life protecting you.”
There was so much to unpack in her statement, I didn’t have the time nor the desire to do so. “Bye, Mom.”
She held out her hand. “Wait. Just take this. You can decide if you want to get to know him.”
I wanted to walk away. But the curiosity that had lived in my gut for as long as I could remember had me snatching the card before I got in my car and drove off.
It wasn’t until I was back at the ranch, still sitting in the jeep, that I looked at the card and read my father’s name for the first time. Tim Roberts. Considering Mom had lied about not knowing who my father was all these years, somehow, I was sure that this man was likely the sperm donor who’d created me. Especially, considering I could easily find out the truth if I contacted him.