Page 91 of Please Remember

Karla looks almost pained to be there, but she's put in more of an effort lately. I think losing Allie put things into perspective, and if she doesn't want to lose more time with her, she has to accept Allie’s decisions. Starting with the fact she loves me. I'll never be a loved son-in-law, but I hope she can accept the fact that no one will ever love Allie as much as I do.

"Happy birthday!" everyone shouts as we walk up.

"You're late," her mom says.

Rolling her eyes, Allie shakes her head. "Jax gave me my present before we got here, Mom."

"And it only took twenty minutes? Not that great of a present," Benji says, and Allie almost chokes on her laughter when her mom glares at him.

"What'd he get you?" Sage asks, kicking Benji under the table.

She shrugs. "Nothing much. Just this," she says and holds our hands up to show off her engagement ring.

The entire table bursts into excited exclamations, including her father, but her mom just sits in her seat while everyone else jumps up to hug us and check out the ring. After I hug my parents, Karla stands and catches my eye. She tilts her head, indicating she wants to talk to me away from everyone else.

I brace myself but meet her outside. "What's going on, Karla?"

"I want to pay for the wedding" were not the words I expected to come out of her mouth.

Shaking my head, my jaw drops. "Huh?"

"I want to pay for the wedding. Whatever Allie wants, Allie will get."

"Thank you...?"

She sniffles and looks at the ground. "I know I haven't been the most supportive person when it comes to your relationship since... forever. When Allie chose not to come home with her father and me, even though she had no memory of any of us, I had to take a hard look at things. Even when she didn't know herself, she knew you were the one she should be with. I'm not going to stand in the way."

"Thank you, Karla," I say.

"You were right, Jackson," she says, and she looks at me with tears in her eyes. "I did give up on her."

Damn it. Now I feel guilty. "I shouldn't have—"

"It was less painful to believe she was dead than to think she was living where she was. Hope was impossible for me. I've never been an optimistic person, and you called me out on it. I deserved it."

"No, you didn't. I was angry and lashed out."

"I tried to tell the world you hurt my daughter, so I think it was justified."

The feelings her accusations and repeated slander may never fully heal, but for Allie's sake, I'm willing to try and move past it. "I would never—"

"I know," she says and takes my hand, another thing she's never done. I'm not sure she even shook my hand when we first met. "I spoke with Detective Parsons."

That took a turn. "About what?"

"I had to know about the place she was kept. He showed me pictures they took, and he told me how upset you were when you learned what Allie went through. How you blame yourself because it was Laura who did this. This is not your fault, Jackson."

"Laura did this because of me."

"She did this because she's sick. Demented. I will put every effort I have into making sure she never walks the streets again. Sounds like I won't need to put in that much effort, though, from what I'm told."

Hearing Karla, of all people, tell me it's not my fault makes me feel a little less guilty about everything. "I'm in therapy," I admit.

"You are?" she asks, looking shocked.

"I saw the cellar. Listened and watched Allie walk the detectives through what she went through that last day. I have nightmares about it. And one of the things we're working on is getting rid of my guilt. It feels like it's all my fault, but you telling me it isn't helps more than you could ever know."

She wraps her arms around me, pulling me into a hug, and I hug her back out of both surprise and relief. "I was wrong about you, and I'm sorry."

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