Page 107 of My Ex's Best Friend

When she looks up at me, she has tears in her eyes.

“Okay, Mom. You’re freaking me out a little.”

She shakes her head and leans forward to touch my cheek. “You saved me, Kiera. At the lowest point of my life. You saved my marriage.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“Your Dad and I were having problems in our marriage. We got together young and got married too quickly. Maybe it was just not the right timing, you know? He was getting started in his career, and he spent hours out of the house. I was left here alone. I got a job, but that made things worse. We hardly saw each other. That’s when we found out that we were pregnant with you. It was the lowest point of our marriage. There were no arguments, but we were hardly talking to each other. Your father and I…we were both going through something incredibly difficult.”

“Mama, I had no idea.”

“I never told you,” she says. “Because I wanted to protect you. But you’re all grown up now. You’re going to be a mother now, Kiera. Part of me didn’t want to admit my own weakness to you. I always wanted to be strong for you, but I was breaking inside, so much so that I almost considered not bringing you into this world. But the moment I saw you, I knew I would have made the worst mistake of my life. You were in my arms, and you were the most perfect thing, Kiera.”

“Mama—”

“I’m not saying the initial months weren’t difficult, but you had this thing about you, kiddo. You brought your Dad back to me, and we were closer than ever.”

By the end of the story, both she and I are crying.

She squeezes my palm. “But when you came in here, and told me what happened, I saw how broken you were, but you were so brave for the sake of your child. You didn’t let yourself break. Even your Dad…he was going through something difficult. I didn’t see it outside my grief. But when the time came, he stepped up.”

I finally see where she’s going with this. “You’re wrong about one thing. Jake isn’t like Dad.”

“Now, I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, or what happened.”

I grab my belly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m not forcing you to, but it’s difficult to raise a child by yourself.”

“Watch me do it,” I say. “You just said I’m a strong girl. Have some faith in me.”

"Baby, I'm not challenging you." She sighs. "Maybe Jake being here is a good thing. You can't raise the baby alone, you know. I mean, you can, but you shouldn’t have to."

"I have you and Dad and Tammy and Ellie."

"You know what I mean, Kiera. The baby needs to grow up with both parents."

"I'm not having a baby around someone who broke my trust."

She shakes her head. “What did he do that was so terrible?”

I swallow hard. I haven’t told them what actually happened. It’s pathetic, but a part of me is still trying to protect him.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t feel so good, and talking to him isn’t going to help.”

There’s a short pause. “You know whenever I saw you together when you were younger, I always got the feeling that you would end up together even though you always insisted you were just friends.”

I stare at her in disbelief. “What made you think that?”

“Just a hunch.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I respected your decisions. You’ll find out when you become a mother that you have to let your baby do all the discoveries on their own. That’s how they grow up. And difficult as it may be for me to see you like this, I’m going to respect your decision."

“Thank you,” I say, feeling a little guilty for yelling at her.

She kisses me on my forehead before leaving the room.

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