Page 126 of Tell Me When It's Over

Only the cleared throat pulls us away, not because Harry looks uncomfortable, but because there’s a nurse trying not to gape at us from the doorway. Her face turns red as she quickly looks away when I meet her eyes, her gaze going around to all of us. “Mr. and Mrs. Casanova wanted everyone to know they’re now the parents of a beautiful baby boy. As soon as everything is set, I can guide you all to their room.”

Mom claps, Harry’s expression softens from the stoic look that’s been there since sitting down in this tiny room with us, and I look at Lenny.

Like always.

When the nurse leaves, it’s Harry who grumbles, “I guess the Bishop men can’t help but fall for the Grier women.”

He says it in defeat, but the words are more than I expect from the man who’s made my life a living hell from day one.

It’s an olive branch—one I accept with no hesitation knowing it’ll probably be the only one I get from him in this lifetime.

I look at Lenny, at her equally surprised expression, and take my first real breath choosing the woman in front of me.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Leighton / Present Day

I’m distracted at work, messing up inventory count and making Mel submit two separate orders to make up for what I missed the first time. She doesn’t reprimand me until I accidently mix up three customer orders in a row and get sent home early.

It isn’t until I get to the house when I let out the shaky breath I’ve been holding in. A lot has happened over the past few days. More pictures of me have surfaced online, people have stopped me on the street asking questions about Kyler, and a few have even brought up Mia and the baby even though nobody has announced his birth yet.

I knew this would happen, yet the overwhelming feeling breaks apart something inside me. The barrier that has contained all the feelings I’ve kept smothered suddenly cracks under the pressure of every weighted question, and I think about Mom.

I think about how often she’d feed into the media’s taunts when we moved back to Phoenix. How I’d beg her not to say anything and she wouldn’t listen. She could have made things easier, let us fade away from peoples’ interest, but instead, she let it fester and grow.

The tears collecting in my eyes burn because I refuse to let them fall. Why now? Why feel the pain tenfold when I finally have everything I’ve always wanted—a home, a job, a college education.

Because Mom isn’t here.

I choke out a sob. Guilt.

When the truth hits me square in the chest, the guilt shackles itself to me like an invisible limb. What I told Nora is the truth. For the first time in my life, there’s a lightness in my chest that was never there before.

Because of Mom.

Because she held me back.

Because she was selfish.

It feels like being happy with Kyler should be a reward for every single time I had to rescue my mother from one of her many episodes, so why does it feel like my happiness is a punishment now?

Another sob escapes my lips, and only then do I hear, “Lenny?”

Jaw quivering as I try collecting myself, I lift my glassy gaze upward to see Ky watching me with concerned eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He’s in front of me before I can blink, fingers on my chin as he examines my face with a softness that melts away some of the shame eating at my insides.

When I part my lips, I struggle to find the words. All I manage is to shake my head, lips trembling.

“Lenny,” he says. “Talk to me.”

I swallow, the notion hurting as I meet his gaze again and feel the first tear slip down my cheek. Then the second.

A third.

“She’s not here,” I force out, voice hoarse as I fist a handful of the shirt he’s wearing into my palms.

“Who?”

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