Page 2 of Keeping Promises

“Me too,” I whisper as I wipe my tears with the back of my hand.

“Hey, baby, who’s that?” a tall brunette woman wearing the highest heels I have ever seen asks as she enters the front door and walks up to Colin. He wraps his arms around her waist.

“It’s nobody,” he responds with no emotion to his voice. “This little girl was just lost.”

I spin around so fast and race out of the building that I worry I left smoke in my wake.

Once I’m outside, the cold air stings my tearstained cheeks. I reach into my backpack and grab the invitation. I tear it into pieces, ashamed I ever wanted to know that man. I’ve dreamed of the day I might meet him, but he turned out to be nothing like the man I imagined. He was cruel and cold, and I don’t know what my mother ever saw in him.

By the time the bus takes me back and I walk back to Grams’s small cottage, it’s well after the time that school would have ended. As I walk up the sidewalk, I see two police cruisers parked in the driveway with their lights flashing. Grams is standing on the front porch with three officers.

“Oh, Hadley,” she shouts as she runs down the steps and pulls me into her arms. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”

I wrap my arms tighter around her waist. “I’m so sorry,” I choke out as I erupt into a full-blown meltdown on the front lawn.

The officers say something to Grams, but I ignore them. Grams ushers us inside and pulls me into her lap on the couch as I cling to her. She brushes my curls out of my face and cups my cheeks. “Hadley Eleanor Kincaid, where were you today? You scared me to death. That’s not like you. I was so worried.”

“I made a mistake.”

“Well, I know that,” she cuts in.

I shake my head. “No, I made a bigger mistake. I went through the box of Mom’s things and found the photo of Colin Maxwell. Kimmie Jensen said I couldn’t go to the father-daughter dance because I don’t have a father. So, I thought maybe if I went to find him that he would want me and he would take me to the dance.”

Sorrow laces her features, and she sighs heavily before tugging me back into her arms. “Oh, baby girl.”

“I just wanted to go to the dance, Grams. But he was so mean. He told me he didn’t want me. That he would never have wanted me.” I cling to her shirt and choke on my words. “Why doesn’t anyone want me, Grams?”

“Shh,” she coos, rocking us back and forth. “I wish I could take this pain away from you. People like that are not worthy of knowing your love. I love you, my sweet girl.”

Being abandoned by my mother had never cut so deep until now. Both of my parents didn’t want me.Was I such a horrible person? Did I not deserve their love?

“I wish you would have come to me first. One day you will understand that you will do anything to protect your children even if that means protecting them from the truth.” As Grams holds me tightly, whispering encouraging words and showering me with her love, I vow that one day when I have kids, I’ll make sure they never doubt my love for them and that I’ll always make them a priority. Even if that means choosing their life over my own.

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