Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Mary closed her eyes and whispered, “Holy shit.”
“Tell me about it. I was so angry with Hope that I told her I wanted a divorce. I didn’t want to lose Winnie, though, and I told her I wanted custody, fifty-fifty. She could stay in Moose Village, I’d pay for the house and everything for Winnie. She was upset with me, cried, begged me to give her another chance, but I just couldn’t. Things had already started to go downhill between us, even after we moved to Moose Village. The only reason I hung in there was for Winnie, and I had this stupid idea that Hope would eventually love Moose Village and we would find that spark we had when we first met. It had died out long ago though. My mother, to make matters worse, had suspicions about Hope from the moment Winnie was born. She never bothered to tell me; instead, she focused on hating Hope more and more as time went on. Even if she had known, her treatment of Hope was uncalled for.”
Mary buried her face in her hands, then dropped them. She stared straight ahead. “That was why she kept saying her cancer was karma. I would tell her she was crazy for thinking that way.”
“She would say the same thing to me. The sicker she got, the more guilty I felt because I was only staying with her because she was dying. I often wonder if I had shown her some love that maybe it would have helped. I couldn’t do it, though, but I wouldn’t have left her to fight alone.”
“Liam, you had nothing to do with her dying. She had an aggressive form of breast cancer, and Winnie should have been enough for her to fight with all her might. And I like to think she did. At least until the end, anyway.”
I nodded.
“And you never thought twice about raising Winnie as your own?”
Shaking my head, I quickly replied. “No. Not at all. I held her when she was born. I fell in love with her the moment her eyes met mine. I didn’t care if I wasn’t her biological father; I was the only father she had ever known. Winnie is mine and will forever be mine. It doesn’t matter to me that she and I don’t share the same blood.”
“Does my dad know?”
I shook my head. “You’re the only person I’ve told. I promised Hope I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes before Mary finally spoke. “That was why Hope got crazy jealous of Aurora at the end. Oh my God, it makes so much sense now. And that was why Aurora pulled away, but she thought it was because Hope was jealous of how much time Aurora was spending with Winnie; actually, she was worried that you were falling for Aurora. That’s why you pushed Aurora away after she died, because you knew you had feelings for Aurora.”
“That pretty much sums it up.”
“Liam, why are you denying your feelings for Aurora then? Hope is gone. You don’t have to ignore your own heart because of the guilt that you feel. Hope was in the wrong.”
“She was your sister, Mary.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “I know that, but that doesn’t make what she did right. She used you by lying about Winnie being your daughter, then used her cancer to draw you back to her. Let me ask you this. If Hope hadn’t gotten cancer and you divorced her, would you be with Aurora?”
I shrugged. “The more time Aurora and I spent together with Winnie, especially when Hope refused to leave the house, was when I started to feel something other than friendship for her. She made me feel so alive, and for that brief time, I could forget everything with Hope and the cancer and biological parents. I was heartbroken about Hope being sick, pissed off still about finding out Winnie wasn’t my biological daughter, and honestly, I was just angry. With Hope, the world. All of it. I wasn’t sure if my feelings for Aurora were because I was so angry with Hope and I was drawn to someone else, or if they were genuine feelings I was having.”
She nodded. “That’s fair. But what about now? If Aurora has feelings for you, and you have feelings for her, why are you ignoring it?”
With a gruff laugh, I replied, “I’m scared. I still feel guilty, and I’m trying to work through that, but I don’t want to lose the friendship I have with Aurora. I’d rather have her in my life as a friend than risk telling her my feelings and it not be reciprocated.”
“I don’t believe that excuse. You cannot tell me that you don’t see or feel the way that woman looks at you. Tell her the truth!”