TJ was so used to rejection, he was having a hard time buying into Nana’s words. And he was definitely feeling sorry for himself. “Are you sure, Nana? My own parents never wanted me. Why would anyone here care about me?”
She put an arm around his back and leaned in for a side hug, since her arm was much too short to embrace him fully. “Oh, child. You remind me so much of my grandson, Drew. He’s estranged from his parents too.”
His eyes widened at Nana’s declaration. Before he could respond, she continued.
“Yes, my own son and his wife abandoned Drew when he needed them most. And he felt unworthy of love, just like you. But then, when the time was right, and his heart was open to it, he found it. It wasn’t easy and he had to be patient. And after he found his true love, he had to let her go and trust her to come back to him. And she did. He’s now happily married with a son of his own.”
She turned to face him, joining his large roughened hands with her tiny soft ones. “Good things will come to you, I just know it.”
“Thank you, Nana. I hope you’re right.” He was reluctant to break the physical connection with this amazing woman. He’d have given anything for a grandmother like her.
She gently broke their contact and rose from the loveseat. “Now, you go get some rest. I’m sure things will look different in the morning. Your room’s all ready for you. Let me get you the key.”
17
MORGAN
Warm salty tears streamed down Morgan’s face. She was so angry at her father, she couldn’t see straight. First, because he’d withheld information about her mother. Now, he’d just torn apart the best thing to ever happen to her. To think she’d been feeling guilty about keeping her relationship with TJ from him. Now, she was boiling mad! She stomped around her bedroom, pulling her luggage out of her closet and throwing open drawers, haphazardly dumping the contents into her suitcase.
Sean burst through the door, taking in the disarray all around the room. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Planting balled up fists on her hips, she swiveled around to face him. “Leaving! If TJ can’t stay here, neither can I!”
“You’re not going anywhere!”
“The hell I’m not! Dad, I’m twenty-six years old! Way older than you were when I was born, and more than old enough to take care of myself! Stop treating me like a little girl! And stop trying to shield me from everything. She left both of us. Unlike you, I got over it a long time ago!”
Well, she thought she’d been over it, but the recent discovery of the court papers had brought the memory of her mother and the fallout raging back into her head.
“You lied to me! Just like she did!”
“I lied toyou? Let’s talk about lying by omission.Youfailed to tell me that you only recently got divorced from my mother. The same mother who left in the dark of night twenty years ago and never looked back. Not even a single phone call or letter tome, her daughter. You thinkyougot hurt? Just think about the hurt of a six-year-old for a minute. I needed my mother! Even a bad mother would have been better than no mother at all! And no matter how hard you tried, you were not a replacement for her!”
She pierced him with a steely glare for emphasis. He didn’t respond, but she spotted the shimmer of a single tear glistening in the corner of his eye.Oh, God. Now she understood. Sean’s reaction to finding her with TJ was not because he was trying to control her or shield her. It was driven out of fear. His fear of losing her. And what she’d just said to him about not being as good as a mother? She should have just plunged a knife into his heart and twisted it.
Remorse flowed through her. Speaking past the lump in her throat, she dialed down her anger and lowered her voice. She had to fix this for all three of them. “Dad, please. Let me explain about me and TJ. We never meant to hurt you. And we didn’t lie to you. I swear. When I met him at Lucky’s, neither of us had any idea you had hired him to work for you. Once we figured it out, we just couldn’t walk away from each other. I really like him, and he likes me. It’s not a fling, Dad. He makes me happy.” She touched his arm, pleading for him to listen. “Don’t you want me to be happy? And TJ was doing a great job here. You said so numerous times.”
She paused to catch her breath and to steady her voice. “And what I just said about you not being my mother, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. You have always been enough. More than enough. You’ve sacrificed everything for me. Been there for me my whole life. You didn’t walk away when it got hard.”
She didn’t realize Angela was standing in the hallway listening to the exchange, until she walked in and put her arm around his shoulders. “Sean. Listen to your daughter. She cares about you, but she is an adult. And capable of making her own decisions. You know why? Because you raised her right. So trust her now. You can’t protect her from hurt forever. And you can’t project your feelings and pain onto her. She’s got to experience the real world, and all its disappointments, for herself, just like you did.”
Angela turned toward her, addressing them both. “Now, I’ve got dinner ready. We’re going to eat as a family, and we’re going to be civil about it. No arguing at the dinner table. If you want to continue this discussion, you can do it after we eat.”
The remainder of the evening passed with no further discussion about what had occurred earlier. Once Morgan realized he wasn’t going to take the initiative to resolve the situation that night, she continued organizing her clothes and essential belongings in case she decided to leave with TJ, then got ready for bed so she could rise early in the morning. Not that she’d get much sleep tonight. The constant replay of the day’s events left her brain barraging her head with images and noise from all of the conflict. She wasn’t able to shut it off, spiking her anxiety off the charts and causing her insides to churn in turmoil.
As she reached for the switch on her bedside lamp to turn off the light, Angela knocked softly and entered, settling beside her on the bed.
“Hey. I told Sean he needs to do the right thing with respect to you and TJ. Let him sleep on it, and talk to him in the morning, okay? But please keep in mind, this is hard for him. His little girl is all grown up.”
She responded quietly, her voice raw from crying and shouting so much earlier. “I know it’s hard for him. But it’s hard for me, too. I can’t believe he kept it from me that he had been in contact with my mother recently. It makes me wonder how often they spoke over the years. And why she never tried to contact me.” A tear escaped from her eye and dripped silently down her cheek.
“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.” She stroked Morgan’s hair and leaned closer. “I’m not going to make excuses for your dad, but we both know that communication and conflict resolution are not his strengths. But, I can tell you this much. I know for a fact Sean never heard from your mother either, in all the years since she left. Out of the blue, he received a call from an attorney representing your mother about the same time as when he met me. He wasn’t told anything about her or her whereabouts, just that they were representing her, and they had the papers for him to sign to finally terminate the marriage. Even though she abandoned you both, they were still legally married all that time. I don’t know why he never took any legal action on his own. I think one of the reasons is he was afraid he might lose custody of you. And that would have just killed him. Then he met me, and as you know, things were quite complicated between us, so looking back, it’s obvious that the fact that he was still married impacted his relationship with me, as well. Heck, if it weren’t for you, Sean and I most likely wouldn’t be together right now. We both have you to thank for that. As for why he didn’t tell you about the divorce papers? I think he just didn’t know how to talk to you about it without dredging up painful memories for you both.”
Morgan snuggled closer to Angela, seeking comfort as she tried to digest what Angela had revealed. She mentally placed herself in Sean’s shoes, coming to the realization that she probably wouldn’t have shared the information either, in order to spare her any further pain. She never for a moment doubted her father’s love for her, even though he was being irrational about her relationship with TJ. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’m so grateful for you being here for me and Dad. Although I still want to throttle him, I love him, and I want him to be happy.”
“I know you do, honey. We both want the best for you, too, and your dad just needs to realize that TJ is no threat to his relationship with you. Let’s all get some rest and work this out tomorrow.”
Angela left the room, closing the door softly behind her. Morgan laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing it was as easy to switch off the clatter in her brain as it was to switch off the light.
