“Yeah you love me because you have to,” Hanna spit out, and she was crying now, chest heaving with the fear she’d buried long ago. She could feel the questions that were going to fight their way out.
“Oh my girl, yes, because you’re our daughter.” Her father paused as if waiting for her mother, but Hanna couldn’t see their exchange. She was focused on her hand in her father’s on the kitchen table. She held on to it as if she’d blow away if she dared let go.
“Hanna, of course I love you, I just—this is your life, and you’re not thinking?—”
“Mary.” Her father’s voice was a warning.
“Do you both regret it?” Hanna said softly, her mouth thick with saliva.
“What do you mean?” Evan McAvoy asked, squeezing her hand.
“I mean,” Hanna took a breath and looked up through her tears at her parents, “are you upset that I am your daughter now? Do you think–” She took a moment to work through another wave of tears and sniffled. “Do you feel like you picked the wrong kid?” With her last fear bared, she put her head down on the table and sobbed.
Never letting go of her hand, her father suddenly crouched down beside her, pleading “Hanna, Hanna, look at me,” but she couldn’t. She thought if she saw the slightest bit of confirmation in his face, she really would shatter and blow away, never to be seen again.
“Okay, okay,” her father said as he enveloped her. “You are my daughter, and I know, there is a lot going on right now, but that will never change, will it Mary.” Her father raised his voice on that last bit.
There was a long pause as he stroked Hanna’s shoulder and rested his head next to hers.
“You are our daughter,” she heard her mother quietly say, as if resigned. It hurt like hell to hear it the way her mother had said it, but she had said it.
They sat like that for a while, Hanna crying and her dad rubbing her shoulder. Eventually, she felt her father pull away from her and then his steady hands in her hair, guiding her to lift her head from the table. When she did, she saw that her mother was no longer in the kitchen with them. She turned to face her father, tears still making their way down her cheeks, but she had stopped sobbing. At the sight of her mom’s absence, she thought she’d start again.
“She just needs some time, okay? This is new for us, and we are processing. Your mother just has a different way of doing so. I hate to ask this of you, but please just give her some time?”
Hanna let out a shuddering breath and nodded.
Her father pulled her in for a hug. “Listen to me Hanna, you are our daughter, that will never change okay? Give it some time honey, just give it some time.”
40
MAYA
Lilith
Where are you Papaya?
Hanna Banana
I told her to wait but…you know what that’s like
Papaya Maya
Just finishing up and about to head out now, my mom is already outside
Lilith
MOVE THAT SWEET ASS THEN
Better yet….
Hanna Banana
Don’t…
Papaya Maya
Hanna just take her phone away?
