Marg looked away and drew in her breath, then released it. She turned to him this time with a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, Ben. I promise.”
Ben remained silent for a beat, then he spoke, “I want you to know that you can tell me anything. I love you, Marg. Please, don’t shut me out. Okay?”
Marg nodded and tried to muster another smile for his benefit. “I love you,” she expressed and stretched over the console to place a light kiss against his lips.
When she pulled back, Ben stared at her with a mixture of emotions; the more prominent one being registered was concern. “Thank you for being the perfect boyfriend.”
Ben smirked. He got out of the car and helped her out before walking her up to the inn. He placed a kiss on her lips before he turned and left. Marg watched the car until it disappeared from sight.
She loved Ben very much, but she wasn’t sure how he would receive the news that she wanted to have a child, and she was afraid of the answer. Of course, in her condition and at her age, she knew it was next to impossible to ever be able to conceive, but she wasn’t ruling it out. But still, she had to be realistic. She had to consider the most viable option for herself.
Marg had a quick chat with Susie, and then she headed over to her office to turn on the computer. She quickly looked up Seattle and Whidbey Island adoption agencies and their requirements for acceptance. She needed to know her options.
ChapterFive
Marg stirred, her eyelids straining to remain closed as the constant vibration reverberated through her head. Finally, after the third prolonged buzz, her eyelids cracked before opening all the way. Sighing heavily, she drew herself up until her back rested against the headboard; the comforter slid down her body and came to rest around her waist. She reached over to the bedside table, grabbed the object of her discomfort, and brought it to her face. Her heart skipped a beat before a worried frown creased her forehead at the name displayed on the screen. She quickly swiped up, answering the video call. Her mother’s heart-shaped face filled up the phone screen instantly.
“Mom, is everything okay?” Marg asked, noticing her puffy, red eyes and slightly smudged eyeliner.
“Hi, honey,” Alice replied, swiping the back of her hand across her cheek. She tried to muster a smile, but her lips crumbled, and she opted to purse them instead.
“Mom, you’re crying. What’s wrong?” Marg repeated worriedly. “Is it Da—Travis?
"He's still your father, Marg," came Alice's immediate response.
Marg opened her mouth to refute that claim but snapped it shut, not wanting to get into it with her mother. Travis was her father on paper, but she’d recently learned that he wasn’t her biological father— not that he'd ever treated her as more than just an inconvenience.Finally, it made sense why he always stared at her like a complicated math problem that frustrated him. Her mother confessed to him that what he had suspected all along was true, that Marg wasn’t his biological child, and she’d strayed outside their marriage.Now they were getting a divorce, though Marg suspected it would have eventually led to that even without the bomb.
"No matter what happens between us, he's still the one that chose to raise you," Alice spoke softly, her head bowed.
"Did he…" Marg swallowed the hard lump in her throat. "Did he hit you?" she managed to ask, holding the comforter tightly against her palm.
"What?" Alice's head flipped up as her light green eyes stared at Marg in alarm. "Travis would never hurt me like that. In the nearly five decades of our marriage, he's never raised a hand toward me. So why would you ever ask a question like that?" she asked, affronted.
"It’s not like he’s been the model husband or father all these years," Marg scoffed, unable to stop herself.
“Marg, that is no way to talk about the man that raised you, that made sure you had a roof over your head and food to eat.”
“But that’s all he did, Mom,” Marg interrupted her irritation, causing a nerve to tic at her temple. “He was never at a sporting event, a cello recital— he didn’t even come to my graduation.”
“That’s because he had to work,” Alice defended.
“There you go again. Defending him even when he’s divorcing you.”
Alice’s tired sigh sounded through the speaker as she bowed her head once more.“You will never understand the hard work and sacrifices it takes to make a marriage work. You didn’t even try to stick it out with Rob.”
Marg’s head reared back from the whiplash of her mother’s words. “How could you? How could you even think to bring Rob into this, Mom? He cheated on me repeatedly; then, he left me for his mistress and unborn child. In what world could I have made it work with him?” Her voice was full of disbelief.
“You’re missing the point,” Alice replied with a shake of her head.
Marg kept her mouth shut, waiting for her mother to explain.
Alice looked at her daughter, her jaw set in determination. "Travis has his flaws, I do not deny that, but he has been here. I'm sorry it isn't the way you wanted him to be, but he did his best for you and your sister. We both did what we thought was best. We’ve also had our fair share of mistakes, but I will not have you act like this man did nothing for you.”
Marg stared at her mother incredulously. She wanted to reach through the phone and shake her silly. It angered her that after all this time and with their mini-breakthrough last year after Grams’s death and her finding out about her birth father, Alice would revert to glossing over the problems she’d endured as a child back in Burlington. It was as if her experiences didn’t matter, and it cut Marg deep.
“You know what, Mom? Maybe it’s best if we choose not to agree on this and move on,” she spoke tiredly.
After a long pause, Alice replied. “Okay. I will let it be.”
