Page 26 of Burden to Bear

“Thanks, Dad.”

He stood from the couch, walked toward me, and held his arms out to me. And the moment I was being held in his embrace, I started crying all over again.

From that point forward, things turned around. The rest of my weekend with my family was wonderful. I’d felt better immediately. The nausea remained for a bit, but knowing that I had some support, that I had people who loved me that I could talk to about it, made a world of difference.

Two weeks after that visit with my family, I shared the news with my coworkers. While they were ecstatic, it was no surprise they had some questions that led to me admitting the truth about my breakup.

Though it had been hard to get through that conversation once more, it wasn’t as difficult as it had been the first time I shared it. And if I was honest, I felt proud of myself for sticking to my guns.

The weeks had been passing me by, and although I had the occasional feeling of despair about Todd’s lack of interest or involvement in the pregnancy, I stuck to the decision I’d made and didn’t call him. If I wasn’t important enough to him, if this baby wasn’t important enough to him, he didn’t deserve the satisfaction of knowing he ran through my mind on occasion.

And now, on a Saturday in the middle of March when I was sixteen weeks pregnant and the weather was unseasonably warm—thankfully, we’d only had that one major storm back in January followed by dustings or an inch or two of snow—I decided to get myself out of the house and go for a walk in my neighborhood. The first trimester had taken a lot out of me, forcing me to spend every free moment I had sleeping, but now that I was a few weeks into the second trimester, I was thrilled to have some energy back.

On my walk, I thought about how far I’d come in the last couple of months and where my life was leading me. With each step I took, I felt more and more relaxed about the future. It wouldn’t be perfect, of course, and it certainly wasn’t how I had envisioned things going in my life, but I started to settle into the idea of being a single mom without feeling the overwhelming sense of fear and gloominess I had months ago.

There was still a slight chill in the air, but the sun was shining and warm on my face. It felt great to be outside, to be moving again.

I hadn’t been expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen along my walk, and for the most part, it had been uneventful. It wasn’t until I was nearly back to my house when my eyes were pulled to the side at the sound of a loud shriek and a movement.

What I saw had me stopping in my tracks.

Brock was running through his front yard, and he was chasing after a little girl who couldn’t have been more than four or five years old.

Did he have a daughter?

Had I been so caught up in all that had been happening in my life over the last several months that I hadn’t realized my neighbor had a child? How had I never seen her before? Worse, why hadn’t he said anything?

Something twisted in my belly. Brock spoke to me regularly for months now. I thought we’d been having candid conversations, but maybe I was wrong. Then again, I hadn’t exactly shared all that was happening in my life with him, so it wasn’t as though I had room to feel any sort of way about him keeping his child from me.

Brock hadn’t mentioned being married, and I certainly never saw a woman at his house. But had I been paying enough attention?

Was he, like I was soon to be, a single parent?

I’d come to a stop right at the edge of Brock’s property, so it was no surprise the little girl looked up, saw me, and halted her run. She smiled brightly at me, waved, and said, “Hi.”

Brock stopped running and froze just behind the girl, and my eyes drifted to his before returning to her. “Hello,” I returned.

The next thing I saw melted my heart. Brock took the little girl by the hand and said, “Come on, Izzy. Let’s go introduce you.”

Izzy happily fell into step with Brock as they made their way in my direction. The closer they got, the easier it was to see the similarities between them. Though she had bright blonde hair that was a stark contrast to his, Izzy had the same eyes and mouth as Brock. The resemblance was uncanny.

When they came to a stop in front of me, Brock looked down at the little girl and said, “Izzy, this is my neighbor, Mia.”

“Hi, Mia.”

“Hello, Izzy. It’s nice to meet you,” I returned. “You look like you were having fun with your daddy while running around outside in this warmer weather.”

Izzy started giggling. “Uncle Brock is my uncle, not my dad.”

I lifted my gaze to Brock’s and felt the flush creep over my skin.

His lips twitched. “Izzy is my niece, my brother’s daughter.”

Nodding my understanding, I said, “I can see the resemblance.”

“Yeah, she’s got the Benson family genes, that’s for sure,” he said. “She’s a super fast runner, too, which is why I was struggling to catch up with her until she stopped at the sight of you.”

I laughed and returned my attention to Izzy. It was obvious Brock would have had no problem catching his niece if he really wanted to, but I loved that he built her up the way he did. She was standing just a bit taller with a proud look on her face. “Well, I guess what I’m curious about is why would you be trying to get away from your uncle? Were you playing tag?”

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