AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I chuckled. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He was annoying and a bully.”
“What did you do with the money?”
She peered up at Rosie. “We got you your anniversary gift.”
“Oh my God, that’s how you paid for that expensive plaque?”
“It was a really nice backpack, Ma,” she stated with simplicity.
She covered her mouth with her hand in mock distress. “My daughter is a criminal. Did you really steal your colleagues’ stuff to sell them later?”
“Only from the jerk ones,” she defended, as if that made it all better.
As we all laughed, Ben sat up straighter, a gleam in her eyes only a middle school kid could have. “There was also the Jell-O or flan thing after he tried to beat me up.”
“Yes! We need to bring that tradition back. Such a great payback.” At our questioning, she explained, “He walked around carrying these fancy X-Men action figures. I think they were a collector’s edition because he’d carry those inside the closed boxes. He was always extra irritating with that stuff. So, I did the only logical thing. I stole them, opened all the boxes, and put the toys in the Jell-O from the cafeteria. Which was a shame, I saw that last year those things were costing around fifty grand.”
As we learned more about Mia’s criminal past, Ben continued between his guffaws. “He cried so hard after that.” He turned to Mia, snapping his fingers to help his memory. “What was it that he said?”
“Damn, you’re right. He cried that...” She tapped her knees, trying to invoke his words. “It was something about losing his superpower...urgh, I hate forgetting stuff. I need to ask Zach about it, he’ll rem—”
The laughter stopped abruptly.
Mia squeezed her eyelids shut, pain coloring her features again when she realized her lapse. She stood up from the ground, rubbing her forehead and avoiding everyone’s eyes.
“I’ll start the bonfire for the kids.”
She strode to the back yard, where all we needed for a bonfire was already settled. The kids wanted some traditional smores before our snowy days came, but right then it was the perfect avoidance strategy for her.
We were all unsure how to react, unable to make things better. Rosie and Jackson went inside to mourn the loss of their children again—Zach wasn’t the only one they’d lost, since Mia wasn’t the daughter they knew anymore. Izzie walked inside with Haley to comfort her. Ben stayed seated on the floor, his elbows on his bent knees, resting his head on his hands, with his eyes closed in pain. Oblivious to it all, the kids played around him, having Hugo as the furry nanny.
Worried, I followed Mia to the bonfire she was starting.
“Want to talk about it?” She shook her head. “Need to bail? I can handle things around here?”
She smiled sadly at me. “Thank you. But I think I’m going to stick around for a little while. I promised the kids we’d have s’mores, so...”
“You know you can talk to me?”
“I do.” She hugged my waist, and we squeezed each other before she went back to her task. “You know you can do it, too, right? You were oddly quiet today. And to be honest, even though I love spending time with you and Fee, I must say I’m surprised to see you here. I was sure you’d spend today with Lisa.”
I pulled two folding chairs and opened them for me and Mia. After we settled, I took a while to organize my thoughts. Not even once did she urge me to do it faster, and for that I was grateful.
“I used to resent you,” I admitted. She peered at me with worry, and I explained. “When Andrea announced she was pregnant, you told me I didn’t have to get married for me to be a good father. I could be present even if I wasn’t legally attached to my baby’s mother. But then, when the same thing happened to Ben and Izzie, you went out of your way to make them work.”
She sat down next to me and touched my arm. “I’m so sorry I hurt you by doing that.”
I smiled in reassurance. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not even sure why I brought it up. I think I just wanted to expunge everything from my past.”
“Like a fresh start?”
“Something like that. And you were right. I didn’t need to be married to her to be a good father, but I don’t regret it either. It gave me more time with Fee without custody arrangements. And now we’re both fine. Besides, my situation was different from Ben and Izzie’s.”
And that was the truth. I understood where Mia was coming from. Her dealing with both situations so differently showed me Andrea was all kinds of wrong for me, and maybe I hadn’t been ready to face it yet. Not because I still loved her or anything. But because getting out of something like that wasn’t easy.
“Still. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you or make you feel...I don’t know. Lacking? Or if I didn’t support you?” She squeezed my arm. “Because I do. One hundred percent I do. It’s just...” She took a breath and pondered her words. “You deserve so much. And I hated Andrea for you, I hated what she did to you, how she treated you. But I love Izzie for Ben. Just like I love Lisa for you.”
