Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I growled. “They do. All three of them. They’ve all come to me talking about it. Why would you take that from them?”
“I don’t want them to be stuck here like I was,” she countered, changing tactics. “If this land stays like it is, and you’re able to expand, then that’s exactly what’ll happen to them. They’ll get stuck here. They’ll never make a life for themselves. There’s still a chance for Catalina and DeAnne now that Josephine’s ruined everything for herself by getting knocked up.”
“Is that how you really feel, Mother?”
I looked over my shoulder to see all three girls standing in the mouth of the barn, thankfully no dogs in sight.
I hadn’t heard them come back.
“I…” Juliana started, but quickly stiffened her spine and lifted her chin. “You don’t know yet, but having children that young will ruin your life.”
“Is that how you feel about us?” Catalina asked. “Do you feel like we ruined your life?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and wondered how Juliana was going to dig herself out of this hole.
The girls were already hating on her pretty hard due to her abrupt departure from my life.
But they’d kept in contact. Still visited her regularly.
Now, though…
This was going to be terrible for her.
“That’s not what I meant…” Juliana started. “Georgina, hey. Didn’t see you there. What are you doing here?”
The way she was so desperate to change the subject would’ve been comical had she not all but ripped my kids’ hearts out.
“Girls, why don’t y’all go get those apples from the house,” Holly suggested.
“But…”
Holly looked over at Catalina and gave her a look.
Luckily, they all obeyed.
They went to the house and never once looked back.
“Why are you giving my kids orders?” Juliana asked. “And why do you look so comfortable here? What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that I’ve moved into the apartment over the barn because I needed a place to stay. Denver so graciously made that space available to me. Though, the not having a shower thing kind of sucks. But he’s working on that.” Holly leveled her gaze on Juliana. “Do you know why my mother left, Juliana?”
Juliana frowned. “No?”
“She left because she felt like her kid brought her down. Felt like by having a child, it meant that she couldn’t be the person that she wanted to be. She couldn’t have the life she wanted to live. Couldn’t go out and party like she wanted to. Couldn’t perform the jobs that she wanted to. And never once in all my years on this earth has my mom let me forget that I ruined her life. That I ‘ruined her body.’ Or that I ruined her twenties. She’s let me know, in many ways, that she chose her happiness over me. And that I’ve been nothing but a burden to her. Do you want to know how many times I’ve talked to my own mother in the last year?”
“No.” Juliana clenched her jaw.
“That’s too bad. Because I’m going to share that information with you.” Holly crossed her arms over her chest and set her feet. “I’ve talked to her once. When I called her a few days ago to ask her why she was contesting my father’s will.”
I whipped my head around to stare at her.
That was news to me.
“That’s unfortunate…”
“I haven’t talked to her because it makes me feel like shit every time she reminds me that I wasn’t a good enough reason for her to stay,” she continued. “And honestly, I didn’t really even need her to stay. I just wanted her to love me like a mother should.”
Juliana continued the silence.
“One day, you’re going to push them too far, and they’re going to realize that it’s easier to cut you out of their life than keep getting their hopes up that their parent will want to be a parent. It’s freeing, really, to cut that last tie. Once you do, it doesn’t take long for you to stop thinking about them. One day, you’ll just be a person they used to know. You won’t know what it’s like to be a grandmother. You won’t know what it’s like to watch them graduate, because they won’t want you there. You won’t know what it’s like to help them pick out a wedding dress. Because they won’t even think about you. You have a choice to make, Juliana. And that’s going to decide how the rest of your life will go with those girls. Denver won’t have to badmouth you, because you’ve done a pretty bang-up job of fucking yourself.”
Juliana hissed. “I just wanted to be happy.”
“Sure,” Holly said as she headed toward the barn. “But so do they. Remember that.”
Juliana stormed off, yanked open her car door, then slammed it so hard that the car shook.
She backed away from the house and tore up the grass in her haste to leave.