Page 83 of The Wife Stalker

“Piper, look, we’re almost finished,” Stelli’s voice broke through the silence.

She opened her eyes and tried to sit up, but excruciating pain shot through her shoulder, taking her breath away. Sweat broke out across her forehead, and she sat still for a moment. The doctors had told her that a shattered humerus would hamper the movement and use of her shoulder for a long time. She’d been lucky, though, that the bullet hadn’t severed an artery or hit the nerves in her upper shoulder. She might have bled to death or lost the use of her arm permanently.

She looked at Stelli. “Wow! What a great job. It’s fabulous.”

He grinned at her, and Piper was gratified by the happiness she saw in his eyes. So much of what had lain at the root of Stelli’s fears had come out after that awful day in Maine. Had it really been only three weeks ago? It seemed like years now, but she remembered the details with stunning clarity.

The night following Piper’s release from the hospital, thechildren had come downstairs in their pajamas, ready for bed, and Stelli had crawled onto Piper’s lap, careful not to touch her shoulder. Evie wiggled in between Piper and Leo.

“You saved me,” Stelli said, his big brown eyes staring at her.

She gave him a warm smile. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

“Are you going to stay with us forever, Piper?” Evie had asked.

“Yes, Evie, I am.”

“Mommy left,” Stelli said.

“Mommy didn’t want to leave, Stelli,” Leo said. “It was an accident.”

Stelli sat up, his eyes wide. “Joanna said Mommy told her she was going to go away ’cause she wanted Joanna to be our mommy. But I don’t want Joanna.”

Leo and Piper had exchanged glances.

“Joanna was just confused. Mommy never told her that,” Leo said.

“Mommy was sad, though. She cried a lot, and that made me sad, too,” Evie said, tears filling her eyes.

“I still don’t like those trails,” he’d told Piper. “Mommy told me there are monsters at the bottom. They make you jump and then they eat you.”

Piper was shocked that his mother would have told him something so frightening. “That’s not true, Stelli. There are no monsters.”

He’d looked at her imploringly. “Mommy told me she could hear them. They said her name.”

So that was it, she’d thought. No wonder this poor child had trembled in terror at the thought of hiking those trails. She should have talked to him and explored the reasons for his fear. So much could have been avoided if she had.

“Stelli, you know how sometimes you hear the waves splashingagainst the rocks or you hear the ducks quacking or a bird singing, and it sounds like they’re saying a real word?”

He nodded.

“Well, it’s just our minds telling us that. Because we know that water can’t really say things, and birds and ducks don’t know how to speak our language, and monsters are only make-believe. Right?”

He fixed his eyes on Piper’s, seeming to think this over, and then slowly nodded his head. “Right.”

“You see, your mommy only thought she heard her name.” Piper paused. “Stelli, I need to apologize to you.”

His eyes grew wide.

“I didn’t understand what you were going through, and I pushed you too hard. I promise to do better, to be more patient. And I know I can never take the place of your mommy, but I want to do a good job and be like a mommy to you, if you’ll let me.” She noticed the look of gratitude on Leo’s face.

Stelli thought about that a moment. “Will you stop making me drink those smoothies and eat yucky stuff?”

She laughed. “Yes. No more yucky health food for you, I promise.”

That night had been the real beginning for all of them, but especially for Piper. She’d steeped herself in self-help advice and often flippant bromides. She’d even chosen Reynard, an old Germanic name, because of its meaning:counselandstrong.She’d been overcompensating for a childhood that had been sterile and bereft of any tenderness or affection. She had never been taught that the true essence of the relationship between a parent and a child was understanding and acceptance. She had to stop trying to make others into what she wanted them to be. It sounded so simplistic, even trite. But she knew now that she had to stop, let go of her past, and move fearlessly into the future.

Piper smiled. She would do her best to help Stelli overcome the anxiety that had tied him up in knots these past few years. She was thinking of selling the Phoenix Recovery Center and starting a new counseling practice here. But first,shehad to recover.

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