Page 12 of Shot Through the Heart

One thing Greyson always complained about was the lack of affection his mother shows. He once described her as an ice sculpture come to life. The fact that she is here, hugging me, must mean something is horribly wrong.

“It’s all right, everything will be okay.” She soothes, pulling me back down to the couch.

“What did he say?” I say between sobs, desperate to understand what’s actually happening.

“He didn’t take the news as well as I would have hoped,” she tells me softly. Sitting back, she holds up a small, folded up piece of paper that I didn’t notice her come in with. “I’m sorry. He asked me to give you this.”

I frown as I take it from her. Holding my breath, I unfold the paper. It takes a second of staring and shaking my head for me to process what I’m looking at.

“What is this?”

“Stella, I’m so sorry. Maybe he’s not thinking clearly and just needs time or?—”

“Tell me what he said when you told him.” My words are sharp, harsher than I ever would have dared to speak to Greyson’s mother before. But with every shallow breath I take, every inch of my body is screaming at me to get out of here.

“Repeating what was said won’t do you any good,” she says hesitantly, watching me with a pity-filled expression.

Standing abruptly, I’m about to march upstairs and demand he say everything to my face when Mrs. Moreno grabs my hand.

“That will only make things worse, dear. You’re both emotional. If you insist on talking to him, at least take a couple days to calm down and think with a level head. After all, you have to think through your actions beforehand now. You can’t go off and let emotions make your decisions. Plus, stress isn’t good for the…” She motions to my stomach and just like that, all the air leaves my lungs.

“You’re right.” Yelling isn’t going to solve anything. I should let him have time to process this and just come back in a few days. “I’m sorry you’ve had to be the middleman in all this.”

She waves a hand in the air, dismissing my apology. “It’s all part of being a mother.”

It isn’t until Mrs. Moreno has walked me to the door and is about to shut it that something dawns on me. I pause and hold up the check. “I deserve to at least know what his intentions behind this are.”

“Stella.” She shakes her head, but I stay put in the doorway and simply stare at her until she sighs and tells me what I want to know. “He said it was for you to decide how you want to…make it go away.”

My heart freezes before plummeting to my stomach. “He wants me to get rid of it?”

Her lips purse into a thin line as she pulls out a business card from her pocket. “I’m so sorry, dear. I wish there were more I could do to help you through this. If you need more than what he suggested or anything, here’s my email. Going through him won’t do either of you any good, but I can help.”

A piercing screech pulls me from the memory, and I try to shake it off as I watch the girls tackle Eva into the giant pile of stuffed animals and pillows they had made at some point.

It’s been years since I thought about that day. I had sent his mother ultrasound updates throughout the second trimester from New York, and even passed along a few pictures after Harper was born. She mostly offered to send more money, never once mentioning Greyson or asking any personal questions. She even mailed me another couple checks throughout the first year of Harper’s life.

I never cashed any of them. Not even the one Greyson gave me.

Instead, they sit in a box under my bed with a few of her rare responses printed out and some failed letters I tried to send Grey, waiting for the day I have to tell my daughter about her father.

Shortly before Harper turned one, I stopped sending updates. Every email that went unanswered only hurt me and since she never asked to meet her granddaughter…

“Earth to Stella,” Eva says, waving a hand in front of my face. I hadn’t even noticed her slip away from playing in the other room.

“Sorry,” I mumble and reach for my glass of wine.

“So what are you gonna do?” she asks and I shrug.

“Exactly what the contract says. I’ll show up to the events, be completely professional, and leave. It will probably be a little awkward, but that’s the job.”

And that’s all this needs to be. A job.

There is absolutely no reason we need to make it anything more than that.

“If the conversation does stray away from what we’re actively doing, I’ll shut it down.” I decide, feeling a bit of more resolve slip into place as I watch my daughter play happily. “I won’t bring up Harper. And if he tries to ask about her, he’ll get one warning to stop. He chose to walk away from her. I can ignore the fact that he broke my heart, but I won’t let him do that to her.”

ChapterFive

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