said something to me about it in the bedroom so I would have been prepared. So it didn’t look to his children like he was dismissing me. Still, I’d heard every word from the den. They were devastated, and I had no idea how to help them through this. I had no idea how to get through it myself.
“Grace?” Victor called out from the hallway, pulling me from my thoughts. “What happened?” He must have heard Ava’s door. His face appeared from around the corner a few seconds after his voice. He was pale and disheveled, as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. I didn’t want to tell him what his daughter had said. He had enough to handle; he didn’t need a thirty-seven-year-old whining that she got her feelings hurt.
“Ava just needs some time in her room, I think,” I finally answered him, sighing wearily. I couldn’t believe the exhaustion rolling through my blood. Even my bones felt heavy.
His dark eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. “What did you say to her?”
“Nothing!” I snapped, trying to keep the defensiveness I felt out of my voice, but failing miserably. “She wants to be alone. She’s traumatized, Victor. I’m not her mother and I’m certainly not a therapist. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
The skin softened around his eyes and mouth. “Sorry.” The word was a whisper. A ghost of an apology.
I nodded, holding my breath instead of speaking. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t mean to accuse. He turned around, and a moment later, I heard another door quietly shut.
I blew out an enormous breath between pursed lips and leaned heavily against the back of the couch, pressing both of my palms to my forehead. It was obvious I was the intruder—a totally unwelcome guest. And this was supposed to be my new home. How would we build a life together after this? And then, a much worse thought, one I shoved back down the instant it echoed through my mind.
Maybe I shouldn’t be here at all.
Kelli
Kelli was almost three months pregnant when she and Victor stood together in a small church and said their vows. Victor’s mother, Eileen, was thrilled when Kelli asked her to be the matron of honor.
“Are you sure your parents can’t come, dear?” Eileen asked as they shopped for a wedding dress. Eileen was a loving and kind woman, and while she was a little concerned that Victor and Kelli were marrying so young, she was as smitten with Kelli as her son had been. Eileen hadn’t married again after Victor’s father left them—she’d worked hard and raised Victor on her own.
“I’m sure,” Kelli said, pulling a dress off the rack and holding it up for Eileen to see. “What about this one?”
“It’s lovely, but maybe a touch too much lace here?” Eileen said, fingering the edge of the bodice. She looked at Kelli with the same warm gray eyes she’d passed on to Victor. “I just hope they don’t regret missing all of this.”
“They won’t,” Kelli said as she hung the dress back up. “We’re not close.” She hadn’t spoken to her parents since leaving California and couldn’t fathom having them in her life. They wouldn’t have recognized her, anyway. She’d built a new version of herself since arriving in Seattle—bubbly and fun. She knew they’d be too much of a reminder of what went wrong, of the mistakes she’d made and the pain she’d suffered through. It was easier to simply tell people they were estranged.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Eileen said, giving Kelli a quick hug. When she pulled back, Eileen smiled at her. “Well, you have me now, so that’s something.”
Kelli smiled and nodded in return, imagining that Eileen would become the mother figure she’d always wanted. While it made Victor happy to see her spend time with his mom, he too expressed concern that Kelli never talked with her parents.
“They’re your family,” Victor said. “Don’t you miss them?”
“Don’t you miss your father?” Kelli retorted, knowing full well that Victor wanted nothing to do with the man who’d abandoned him. Her point hit home, and Victor let the subject go.
For the first few years, being married to Victor was everything she’d dreamed it would be. He couldn’t wait to become a father. He placed headphones on Kelli’s stomach every night, playing a wide variety of music for Ava—Talking Heads, Bach, and the Beatles. “We don’t know what she likes yet,” Victor told Kelli. “So we need to let her hear a