“No, it really fucking doesn’t. I thought it did at the time. I thought if I could keep an eye on her until we had a paternity test done, that I could at least protect the child in case it turned out to be mine. There was no point in time where that woman received an ounce of my attention outside of me trying to demand a paternity test and making sure she was alive and well for the baby’s sake. Turns out, there may have never been a baby to begin with. That’s my fault for not having it verified by a doctor of my choosing.”
“None of that explains why you never spoke to our daughter after all this time,” Mark said from the doorway. His wife, Wendy, nodded her head as she entered the room with him.
“Actually, your wife can probably explain that better than I can.”
“What? How would I know?” she asked, but the nervous way she bit down on her bottom lip said everything to Mark.
“What did you do, Wen?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You told me not to contact Violet. You said it was her request that I give her time to heal. Every time I reached out to you to ask about her, I got the same response.”
“Are you serious?” Drake asked. The kid sounded pissed. “Violet freaking cried her heart out for months, especially after the divorce went through and you told him not to contact her?”
My heart plummeted about five thousand feet in a second. I thought I was doing as Violet requested. It didn’t seem as though that was the case.
“She told us at the baby shower that he hadn’t called, texted, or talked to her at all since the night of the party and you sat back and looked shocked. All the while, you told him not to contact her?” Mark asked. He seemed completely gutted by the news, and I had to say, I felt the same.
“It was for her own good. How was she supposed to get over him and move on? We all know she would have caved and gone back to him.”
“She should have caved and gone back to him,” Mark yelled. “It’s what she wanted all along, she just had to work through how to trust him again.”
“Once trust is broken, you can’t get it back,” Wendy argued.
“I want you to remember those words, Wen. They’re about to bite you in the ass.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Do you think our daughter will thank you for interfering the way you did? She’s been going through an entire pregnancy on her own when Ridge could have been by her side every step of the way.”
“He didn’t deserve to be there. He took that hussy to Australia with him.”
“And you know why he did that,” Mark added. He looked ready to throttle his wife.
“Mom?” Drake called out.
“Yes, honey?” she asked. Wendy moved closer to his bed, which put her nearer to where I sat in the chair. I didn’t want to be near the woman, but I would have to deal with her because no matter what she was Violet’s mom and our baby’s grandmother.
“Get out of my room and don’t come back,” Drake shocked us all as he made the demand.
“Drake! You don’t mean that.”
“I do. My sister is in the hospital, in surgery because you meddled in her business. I’m here because you couldn’t be bothered to pick me up and sent your pregnant daughter to do it instead. I hope your hair looks real good when you’re talking to yourself in front of the mirror because no one else is going to care.”
“Drake, I see that you’re mad, but this is not okay.”
“No, what wasn’t okay was keeping Ridge from Violet. She needed him. He needed her. You had no right.”
“Well, you are a minor and I’m your mother, so I have every right to be here.”
“No, you don’t. Dad can be here, but I don’t want you in my room.”
Mark turned on his wife then. “You need to go home. I’ll call if there are any updates.”
“Mark, you can’t be serious.” Wendy’s face turned red. “Drake is my son. Violet is my daughter.”
“And they’re both old enough to choose if you’re allowed in their lives. Violet can make that choice later, but your son made his right now. I’m going to see that it is respected while he’s healing. When we are all back home, we need to work on things. I suggest looking for a good family therapist.”
