Page 20 of Whatever You Want

She seemed surprised by my retort. “Are you even going to give me an apology?”

“I didn’t realize I owed you one,” I shot back. I didn’t know what her problem was; but she was pissing me off. “What exactly are you insinuating, Karen?”

“We agreed to watch our granddaughter so you could go out for drinks with your friends. If we would have known that you would…” she paused. “If we knew what was going to happen, we never would have offered.”

“Please enlighten me on what you think happened?”

“You obviously had sex with another man.” I cringed. “I thought you valued my son’s love and your reputation more than that.”

It took me a minute to get my bearings. I glanced in the other room to make sure Madison couldn’t hear us.

“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

“David and I fully expected you to move on someday, we just assumed it would be in a respectable manner.”

My father-in-law came storming into the kitchen, his rolling suitcase behind him. “That’s enough, Karen.” He stood there shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his wife’s mouth. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, not looking too happy with the conversation he just walked in on. “Drew would not want you to treat Ava this way.”

“Well, Drew probably didn’t expect Ava to turn into a whore either.”

I gasped. My body raged with shock and fury. I’ve seen Karen snap at people over the years, but I’ve never been on the receiving end of her assaults. This was a woman I’d respected and cared about. While we were never close because she lived on the other side of the country, she was always kind to me. This woman standing in front of me might as well have been a complete stranger. I wanted to blame it on her grief and justify her actions, but that didn’t give her the right to disrespect me like that.

This entire week has been a giant shitshow. I didn’t want to send her back to Colorado like this, so I would take the high road and show some empathy.

“I understand that you are still hurting, but I will not allow you to insult me in my own home.”

“This was my son’s home too. Maybe you should remember that.”

David walked over and grabbed his wife’s elbow. “Karen, please stop this. You are going to say some things you can’t take back.”

“You know nothing about what I’ve gone through,” I said, feeling moisture spring to my eyes. “You don’t get to make assumptions about the kind of person you think I am. You are doing a dishonor to your son by flying off the handle and calling me names. You talk about setting a good example for Madison. Maybe you should take a look in the mirror.”

“Ava,” David’s eyes filled with shame, “I’m very sorry about all this.”

“Don’t you dare apologize for me,” she snapped. As angry as she was, it broke my heart to see her this way. “I’m going to say goodbye to my granddaughter, and if you know what’s best for you, you’ll be right behind me.” She swung her arm back and stormed across the room.

David pinched the bridge of his nose and blew out a heavy sigh. “I’m not making excuses for her, but she’s been struggling and refuses to seek help.” His shoulders shook, and his eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help her. Just please don’t keep Madison from us. She is all we have left of our son.”

“David.” I stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Drew’s father was such a strong man, so seeing him so broken was tearing me up inside. “The last thing I would ever want to do is keep Madison from her grandparents. She needs that connection just as much as you do. I loved Drew with everything I had, but Karen needs to understand that I can’t continue to live the life that Drew left behind. I’m not saying I’m ready to move on, but when I do, I would like your support.”

His hand reached out and cupped my cheek. “My son loved you until his last breath. I know that you will never try to replace him, but I hope that someday you’ll find someone to fill in those cracks that he left behind. You and my granddaughter deserve to be happy.”

He gathered me up in his arms. I held on to him as if he were the last thread holding me together. Drew was always close with his dad, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that his spirit wasn’t in the room with us. Don’t ask me how I knew that, but I felt it deep down in my soul. So, I sent up a silent prayer that he would somehow help his mother heal, so she could get back to a better place.

“I’m sorry, she said what?” Kara spat out her coffee in disbelief. I’m not sure how either of us was even functioning today. Thankfully, my first appointment wasn’t until noon, so I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours after Drew’s parents left for the airport.

“She’s just angry and lashing out, but she needed to know that I wasn’t okay with her taking it out on me.”

“She should know you well enough to know that you won’t just roll over and take her shit.”

I took a sip of my iced coffee and set it down. “I don’t think she cares at the moment.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Nothing. I’m going to give her time to cool down and hopefully realize that she was out of line.”

She shook her head and started going through her purse. “So, tell me again what happened with Logan after you kissed him?”

“I’d rather not. It’s embarrassing.” I ran my fingers over my lips at the memory of throwing myself at him.

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