But that was not to be. When Pete played his final card—telling her they wouldn’t leave with her, it backfired. To this day, he remembered the look of betrayal on her face before she quickly masked it. Giving a brief nod, she turned on her heels and walked out the door, slamming it behind her.
Pete had stared at the closed door, sure his daughter would come back and ask for his forgiveness. Even when night fell, he remained there, not aware that it would be the last time he’d ever see her again. Kathy found him sitting there in the morning and gently tookhim by the hand, leading him into the kitchen where she handed him a cup of coffee.
He remembered sitting at the table, numb to everything around him as he stared at his daughter’s empty chair. It wasn’t until Kathy stroked his cheek that the reality of what had happened the previous day hit him.
“She left us, Kathy…our daughter left us.”
“No, she didn’t. She left Josiah because she had no choice. He’s the one who took our daughter from us.”
“If she only had listened to us.”
“Children rarely do when they are in love.”
“I don’t understand why she left.”
“Our daughter knew it would be too painful for her to stay and see Josiah with another woman.”
“You should’ve let me kill him!”
“Foolish man. Getting yourself killed wouldn’t help your daughter or me. We both need you.”
“Not our daughter.”
“Especially our daughter.”
“What can I do to help her now? She refuses to accuse him.”
“What do you suppose will happen, Pete, if our daughter has a son and Josiah’s new wife doesn’t?”
“He should’ve thought of that before he threw her out like yesterday’s trash.”
“Yes…well, that’s all fine, but have you thought about the danger our daughter and her child would be in if that happened? Josiah would snatch the child from her and raise him here.”
“Over my dead body!”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. In the meantime, we need to stay here and keep our eyes on Josiah…and pray to the gods his new wife gives him a son.”
“Grandpa! Are you okay?” Tristan asked, alarmed at how pale Pete had become.
Returning to the present, Pete glanced over at his grandson, smiling at what he saw. His daughter had done well. Tristan was everything Josiah wasn’t, and even though his grief over his daughter’s recent death was still fresh in his mind, having part of her in his grandson helped lessen the sorrow in his heart. The gods had given him a second chance when Tristan showed up on their doorstep, and this time, he vowed to do better. “I’m fine, son…just the past coming back to haunt me.”
“Mom never focused on the past.”
“No, she didn’t…never did, even when she was a child. She was always looking to the future and couldn’t wait for it to arrive,” Pete said, chuckling.
“That was my mom,” Tristan murmured, his sorrow clearly reflected in his voice. “She was the best mother…I miss her so much.”
“She would be so proud of you now…Alpha of her home pack.”
“I don’t know about that,” Tristan said, warily. “She didn’t want any part of a pack. I never understood why, but it never really bothered me. Mom made sure I never missed out on anything, especially running with the wolves on each full moon to celebrate the Long Night Moon Festival.” Pausing for a moment as a memory from his childhood floated up to the surface, hechuckled before he continued. “I remember one time when I was about nine or ten, I told her I didn’t believe that the goddess of the moon was real and accused her of making it up.”
“You didn’t!”
“Yup, I did, and not only that, I told her the gifts kids got really came from their parents, and the goddess story was just made up to make them behave. And then I said she’d probably already bought presents for me that she’d hidden so I couldn’t find them.
“What did your mother do?” asked Pete, enjoying the peek into his daughter’s life after she’d left.
“She told me, since it was the night before the Long Night Moon Festival, to go ahead and search the house for the presents I’d insisted she’d bought. So I did and, of course, I couldn’t find any.”
