AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Back at her house, she found Chris already gone from her bed. He had made it so that she didn’t have to, even putting every extra pillow back on like she liked. All she wanted to do was crawl in and sleep the day away, but she decided to do something else instead.
Up in her studio, Agatha picked up the wooden box that was stored on the shelf where she kept her books. Opening the cedar box, she inhaled deeply and took out the envelope on top. The box contained at least six others, each as precious to her as the last.
Agatha pulled out the picture from the envelope of a baby in a highchair. Her entire face, hands, and bare chest were covered in long noodles and red spaghetti sauce. The baby was grinning and had dark black curls and brown eyes. And Chris’s crooked smile.
Running her hand over the picture, she was filled with sadness to have missed the moment it captured, just like every moment in her life she would miss. Her baby was nine months old, and Agatha had spent less than an hour with her. She had given her up to parents that would love and care for her like Agatha couldn’t at the time. The baby’s new parents sent her letter after letter, letting her know how the baby was doing.
A month later, she had sold her books, but she hadn’t known that would happen the morning Poppy had been born. That morning she had been at the lowest point in her life and had nothing to give a baby. Less than nothing. Her only job had been given to her by her sisters, and she wasn’t even any good at it. Her dream of publishing a book was so far off she had stopped believing it would even happen. She had gotten pregnant by a man who didn’t remember her eighteen months later.
Calling Chris about the baby had led her to his agent. The man had coldly told her Chris wasn’t interested in her alleged baby and that if she was serious, she would demand a paternity test. Then they would discuss how much money she wanted. Hanging up, she knew she had tried to tell him, and it was now her decision, which she had already made. She couldn’t keep the baby.
If Sera had been there, she would have forced Agatha to take the baby home, but Sera had just married Harrison days before and was on a honeymoon/family vacation with the two youngest girls. For months her head had been elsewhere and not focused on Agatha, who had turned more into her art as she ignored her body.
Lucy and Buzz at that point were the only ones at home, but they had not thought anything was wrong with their little sister. The others had been focused on settling into their married lives. It had been the right decision; she would not regret it now that her life was in order. The baby was with her loving parents, who wanted nothing more than to raise her as their own. They didn’t care what kind of a mess Agatha was; they loved Poppy anyway.
For their part, they didn’t know anything about Agatha, or they would never have named her baby Poppy, such an uplifting, fun name. Poppy would have the personality of Sera with a name like that. Nothing like Agatha.
Nine months before, she had only looked at the baby she and Chris had created. Now she was a wiggly bundle of dark hair and already had dark eyes, nothing like what she had always imagined of Jet since she had lost him. She always pictured him blond like his father. Lightly she touched the baby’s cheek in the picture and knew she was better off without Agatha. Others could give her everything she deserved in life. Agatha couldn’t give her anything but love, but love didn’t buy diapers and clothes.
Now she could buy her everything, but she was gone. Forever just a picture of a baby who was growing up somewhere in the city, completely lost to her. Her only chance to see her was a phone number, a number she had never called.
Today she needed to make sure that her baby was where she needed to be, loved like she deserved to be loved. Pulling out her phone, she called the number for a family who never wanted to hear from her.
After the call, she tucked the picture back in the envelope and put the box back where it lived, in plain sight but hidden. She headed out of the house before she lost the nerve that seeing Benjamin had caused. She needed to see her Poppy.
