Page 64 of His Bittersweet Regret

He hung up, and immediately Kathy’s phone began ringing. She stared at me, as if she had never seen me before, as her phone rang through to voicemail and started back up again. I punched three numbers into my cell, and got ready to hit the phone icon to initiate the call when Kathy finally turned her back on me and walked out the door. All of her boys followed quietly. None of them looked back as Marsh set the lock and closed the door tight. Then I crashed down on the couch and cried with my baby.

~*~

Two days went by, and I hadn’t heard a peep from the Kennedy household when my phone beeped with an incoming text.

Ryker: Just a heads up – Mom has been trying to get Marsh to file an injunction against you, claiming you are unfit and unstable mentally. She wants him to take Austin from you.

Opal: Thanks for letting me know, I guess.

Son of a bitch. My mind frantically began planning how to afford a lawyer, or better yet, how to pick up our lives and disappear. Marsh had returned my portion of our savings money when he stayed with me before I had the baby. It had been set aside, in addition to the other money I managed to save up, for me to purchase a vehicle. I hadn’t done that yet, because I was waiting on Beth and Vi to take me to a dealership to go look. If I was frugal, I could get something that would fit most of what we needed, and then run.

It shouldn’t have come to that, but I knew what it was like being the odd duck going against the Kennedy family’s wishes. They knew everyone in this town and had their respect. I was just the daughter of some crazy hippies who took off and left me alone in this town years ago. It wouldn’t matter that I was a good mother, and the Kennedy’s had all dived off the deep end. It would only matter who believed the lies they told.

Ryker: Accidentally hit send with my thumb. I wasn’t done.

Ryker: Marsh told her, if she kept her shit up, she would never see Austin again, no matter what you decided. He threatened to take you and the baby out of this town so you wouldn’t have to deal with any of us ever again.

Ryker: And my dad threatened to divorce my mom if she didn’t settle down and stop causing problems.

I did not know what to say to any of that, because I hadn’t seen those responses coming. Apparently, Ryker wasn’t through filling me in, as another text beeped through while I was trying to process the last few.

Ryker: Dad laid into the twins for going to see you with that ridiculous offer, to Mom for insulting the home you worked hard to put together on your own, and me and Marsh for allowing Mom to go over to your apartment at all after the hospital fiasco.

A couple minutes went by before the next message came through.

Ryker: I told Mom that if she kept it up, I would go stay with you and that I would testify in court that you are the best mom, the best person I know, and that if anyone in all this mess is unstable, it’s her.

Ryker: Dad went to check her into a clinic to get some help. The twins put their condo up for sale, since you wouldn’t take it. Don’t know where they’ve been, but they chewed Mom out for her behavior and I haven’t seen them since the other day. They told her they deserved every bit of what you said to them and more and told her that you were even respectful when you spoke to them.

Ryker: Are you getting these?

Ryker: Hopefully, you didn’t block me. Here’s your other warning. Marsh is coming over in a bit. He wants a chance to apologize for our crazy family. He also wants to see his son. Please, don’t turn him away because my mom and brothers made you cry. He deserves to see his son. I know he broke your heart, but…

Opal: I would never keep Marsh from his son. You either.

Ryker: Didn’t know I had a son, but I appreciate you!

Opal: Smartass. Sorry for kicking you out with the crazy. I just couldn’t handle anything else that day.

Ryker: Don’t apologize to me. I understood. So did Marsh, and he’s back to being angry with everyone for upsetting the balance.

I set my phone aside after that. Why did it feel like I was the girl who broke up the band? There wasn’t any one thing I did to cause any part of what was happening with that family. Logically, I knew that. Still, it felt like I was at the epicenter of their problems and my heart hurt to know that an entire family fell apart because I was once involved with Marsh. What kind of family would be left for my son, when all was said and done?

26

Marsh

My family was bound and determined to make my life as difficult as possible. There was little doubt that Opal hated me, my family, and her life in our town. We were all taken aback by my mother’s behavior. My father blamed himself. She hadn’t been the same since his little indiscretion with his secretary. My mother had been drinking, and hiding it from everyone so successfully, that we didn’t even notice she had become an alcoholic.

It made me step back and wonder what kind of damage I’d really done to Opal. She’d been pretty upfront about most of her struggles. She also never held back when she chewed me out about how my actions had consequences for everyone, whether I realized it at the time or not. I worried for her, even though I thought she was handling everything in a healthy way. There was only so much a person could take before they came out of a situation completely broken.

Seeing Opal so close to the brink, as she held our crying son that day, while my family continued to pick away at her fragile pieces, destroyed something inside of me. I had done that. I had allowed my brothers to continue to treat her like crap, for years, without really putting my foot down in any kind of meaningful way. Granted, I thought if I had spoken up, it would have made their behavior worse.

It shouldn’t have mattered. Opal should have been my priority, not the twins. It was a lesson probably learned far too late, but I was going to prove to her that things would change from here on out. That started by respecting her decisions. If she didn’t think my brothers were good enough, to come around her, or our son in her presence, then they weren’t good enough period and they would have to work at changing her mind on their own time. Opal had been right. My brother’s might not have been at fault for my decision, because I could have ignored them. They were responsible for bullying her, for years, to try to get her to break up with me and that was what they had to overcome.

I was done with them. They had good intentions with the condo, but it backfired because of their history with her, and there was no coming back from that scene. Especially after my mother added to the mix of drama.

I was going to see Opal again today, for the first time since everything went down. I’m not ashamed to admit that I begged Ryker to send her a message or call and explain what had been happening and that I was on my way. He wasn’t the gatekeeper to my son or the woman I made him with, but he was the only member of our family who she still respected enough that she would hear him out.

---