“Riley?”
Riley turned around at the sound of Angela’s voice. “Hello, Mother.” She had called her yesterday to arrange a meeting at a local wine bar and had arrived a half hour early, needing a beer to help settle her nerves before her mother showed up.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” Angela said as she settled into a lounge chair opposite her. She seemed nervous. Riley could understand that. She herself had a sick feeling in her gut, and her palms hadn’t stopped sweating since she had arrived.
“I didn’t really have a choice after you sent your husband to my house. I believe this is yours.” She handed over the folder of reports Richard had given her, minus the cards and letters. Riley would keep them as they were meant for her originally.
Angela took the file, her hand trembling. “Did you look through it?” she asked, keeping her head down but maintaining eye contact.
“You know I did, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” She was being snarky, she knew, but her anger about what she had learned refused to dissipate.
“And what did you think?”
“What do you want me to say?” She glanced at the other people in the bar, gathering her thoughts. “It paints a pretty clear picture.” She looked back at her mother. “The one thing that isn’t clear is why you would leave me behind.” The feeling of abandonment over the last seventeen years washed over her. She couldn’t get her head around her mother leaving her with such a violent asshole.
Angela excused herself to get a glass of wine, obviously needing time to gather her thoughts. She returned to her seat and took a large gulp of her white wine. She took a deep breath and Riley steeled herself for the answer she so desperately craved.
“Two weeks after he threw me out, I came by to pick up some stuff. He came home early and caught me packing a bag for you.” She stared intently at Riley. “I always intended to take you with me.” Riley nodded for her to continue. “He grabbed my arms and started shouting at me. Calling me a whore, a good-for-nothing tramp. He said I was to never go near you again or he’d kill me. I threatened to go to the police. Legally he wasn’t your father, he had no right to keep you.” She took another sip. “He said if I ever attempted to contact you again, he wouldn’t just kill me, he’d bury you in the back garden.”
Riley shook her head vehemently. “He wouldn’t have done that. He never touched me.”
“I know, but I couldn’t take that chance. He had been hitting me for years. It wasn’t a crazy leap to think he’d do the same to you.”
“But he loved me.”
“I’m sure in his own way he did. But I couldn’t risk it. I loved you so much, I thought it better if I just left. I kept an eye on you, though, at a distance.” Riley raised her eyebrows, sceptical. She would have noticed if her mum had been following her around. “I had to make sure you were happy, that he never hurt you. I watched as you went to and from school. I was there when you went to the prom with a very beautiful young lady. I was there when you opened your garage the first day. I saw you cut the ribbon. I have always been here, Riley, just not where you could see me. As soon as I read he had died, I came to you.”
She seemed sincere. It had to be true. She couldn’t have known about Riley’s prom date unless she had been there. Her dad didn’t even know she’d gone with a girl. She hadn’t yet come out, so she had told everyone she was going by herself. She had met her date outside the school gates so her dad wouldn’t find out.
“I did wonder how you found my address, and phone number.” It wouldn’t be hard to find where Riley worked, but her home address was unlisted. Following her would have been the only way Angela could have found her. She wasn’t sure she was happy about the fact her mum had basically been stalking her. She could have come and spoken to me.
“If I had seen anything to suggest he hurt you, I would have come for you. I would have made sure it was the last time.”
“I wish you had. After you left he started drinking heavily. Started distancing himself from me. I thought it was because he still loved you, but now I think he kept me just to spite you. We never did anything together anymore, no more fishing, no more watching sports. He began to resent me, and now I know it was because he wasn’t my dad and he hated you.” She felt betrayed. If he had let her go with her mother, she might have had a better life. But if he had, she might not have met Kelsey, or Jennifer. For that fact alone, she was almost grateful he had kept her. She would never change her life if it meant she might not have had them in it.
“Honey, I am so sorry.” Angela reached across the glass table and placed her hand on Riley’s tight fist. It was the first time she had felt her mother’s touch for years, and it felt good, felt right. Slowly Riley’s resentment evaporated. It would take work, on both their parts, to build a relationship, but Riley wanted to at least try. They had a second chance, and although she would never be able to gain those lost years back, she was hopeful for the future.
She loosened her fist and laced their fingers together. Her mother’s smile was electric. “It’s okay, well, it’s not, but it will be. He’s gone now. He can’t hurt us anymore.”
“He was still your father.”
“Yeah, and I’ll always look back on those first ten years fondly. I’m sorry I never noticed what was going on.”
“Not your fault.” She shook her head. “He was skilled at when he would hurt me. He didn’t want you to see.”
“I hate him for keeping you from me. Everything sucked after you left, except for meeting Kelsey.”
“Kelsey?”
“She’s my best friend. I met her at junior school. We’ve been like sisters since then. Her parents died when she was eleven, so we bonded over having lost our parents. She’s pregnant now, due in about a month.” Riley smiled fondly. She would be a godmother in a few weeks. She couldn’t wait to help Kelsey raise her child. She would do a much better job than her dad ever did. Riley vowed to never let anything happen to the little boy or girl. She would be there for him or her every step of the way.
“She sounds pretty special to you,” her mother said.
“She is. There’s something else you should know. I’m a lesbian.”
“I know. Richard mentioned he interrupted your date. But I knew that already when you were young.”
“How?”
“A mother knows.”
Riley didn’t believe that.
“Plus, the fact I saw you kissing your prom date after the dance finished pretty much erased any doubts I might have had.”
“That’s weird, knowing you were spying on me.”
“Not spying, keeping an eye out. And as soon as you started making out, I left. Is this woman special to you also?”
“Yes, she is. She’s Kelsey’s sister. She’s five years older and has spent the past seventeen years hating me, or so I thought. Turns out we were both fighting an attraction to each other.”
“Well, I hope to meet her one day.”
“I’d like that.”
Angela looked at her watch. “I have to go pick Justin up from school. Can I see you again?” She looked so hopeful, so desperate to rekindle a relationship with her, and Riley agreed without hesitation.
“Yes, I’ll call you.”
“Thank you, Riley, for giving me a chance.” They both stood. “I know I don’t deserve it.”
“He took us away from each other. He can’t stop us now.” Riley did what she had wanted to do for the last seventeen years: she stepped forward and hugged her mother.
“I love you,” Angela whispered.
The words sounded good. They soothed a long-ago-broken heart. Riley couldn’t stop herself from saying, “I love you too, Mum.”
After she left, Riley sat back down, blowing out a relieved breath. The meeting had gone better than she’d expected. She wished her mother hadn’t been so frightened to fight for her, but Riley understood why she didn’t, couldn’t. They had a chance now—a chance Riley was going to grab on to with both hands.
She grabbed her phone off the table and shot a quick text to Jennifer and Kelsey, telling them the meeting went well and she’d give them all the details when she saw them next.