Page 21 of Coming Home for Fall 5
“It’s just… It was a messy situation that I found myself in with your dad, and I knew it would’ve completely blown up his life if I told him I was pregnant, so–I—”
“You what?” Sasha was now outright glaring at her mother, which was not something she did often, if ever. “You didn’t tell him?”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I did,” Molly argued. “He had a family of his own and he never would’ve accepted you as his child.”
“What—what are you talking about?” Sasha rubbed her face a few times as her vision blurred. “He had a family? Meaning he was already a dad? I could’ve grown up with siblings?”
Molly shook her head. “No, honey. You’re totally misunderstanding. Your father was separated from his wife, but they weren’t even technically divorced, and they weren’t even sure what they were going to tell their children. He and I had a fun, but brief summer fling, and that was all it was supposed to be. We were never in love, and it would’ve been unfair of meto do anything that might affect his relationship with his other kids.”
“Unfair to who? Him?” Sasha laughed bitterly. “And what about what was fair to me? I lived my entire life without a father, and you want to talk about what’s fair? Did he have money?”
Molly didn’t answer.
“Mom.”
“He worked a good job, yes,” she admitted without looking Sasha in the eye. “But again, Sasha, you’re missing the big picture! He wouldn’t have taken care of you in any way, financial or otherwise.”
“How can you be so sure? You didn’t even give him the chance to step up and be a dad, did you?’
“I did this to protect you,” she insisted. “And to protect myself. I didn’t want to invite some guy into your life who might not stick around, or whose other family might force him to cut you out. Like I said, the situation was messy, and he had no idea what to do about the whole separation thing, if it would lead to divorce or what!”
“This—this is insane.” Her mom tried to reach for her, but Sasha stood and dodged her hand. “I can’t believe this. You lied to me for my entire life. And grandma too?”
“I’m telling you the truth now.”
“It’s a little late, don’t you think?” Sasha scoffed.
Molly shrugged sadly. “I just thought it was important for you to know in case… in case anything happened to me.”
As much as Sasha hated hearing her mom talk like that, she was still too angry to offer any comfort in that moment. She took a few deep breaths near the door to the room, getting ready to leave. She turned the knob, but before she stepped out into the hall, she looked back at her mother one last time.
“What’s his name?”
“Hm?”
“My dad. What’s his name?”
“Are you going to go looking for him?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Sasha admitted. “But I deserve to have the option to find him. So, tell me his name and where I should go looking for him if that’s what I decide.”
“David,” Molly said in a soft voice. “David Ward. He lives in Ferndale.”
