Page 186 of Breaking Point
“No, not at all. The trainers at IceHawks were giving me shit about it.”
Her eyes dance with the reflection of the flames as she lays her head against the seat. “What was he like?”
The question stumps me, and also makes me realize this is the first person in my life that hasn’t met Drew. Then another thought assaults me.
Drew will never meet the woman who is the love of my life.
The thought depresses me more than I want to admit, so I blow out a breath and quickly redirect my attention. “He was my best friend. We did everything together, and when Kieran came into the picture, it was us three against the world.”
A short bark of laughter flies from my mouth. “Drew was a little shit though. Always up to trouble and dragging me into it. He and Kieran were always egging each other on and I was just…”
“There,” she supplies.
“Basically.”
“I always wondered what it was like growing up with siblings.”
My head works side to side. “Imagine a best friend, except one that you fight with constantly and then two seconds later act as if no fight occurred at all.”
Her brows rise. “Maybe I’m glad I didn’t have siblings after all.”
“Was it lonely growing up?”
She inhales deeply. “Yes and no. My parents tried to overcompensate so I didn’t feel lonely, and at times I wasn’t, butgrowing up wanting to play Barbies or mermaids in the pool and having to beg adults wasn’t the best.” A whimsical smile overtakes her features. “When I met Layla, though, that changed. She’s been my best friend since middle school.”
“Have you ever been separated like this?”
“God no. We try and stay as close as we can if possible but she needed this opportunity. Honestly, my home has never been this quiet. With my mom in and out of hospital for treatments and Layla gone, the house feels like it has ghosts walking around.”
“Ghosts?”
“Metaphorical ones. I can’t look at the house the same anymore.”
Sliding my leg up on the bench, I prop my head onto my fist. “Because of your mom’s illness?”
“A little because of that. I mean, it smells like a hospital now but mainly because…” A thousand thoughts flit through her eyes. I can practically see the gears turning in her mind before she suddenly stops. “My dad used to fill the house with joy but I can’t look back at those memories with fondness anymore.”
My heartbeat quickens. “How come?”
It’s quiet for so long that if I weren’t staring at Bella, with her puckered lips and furrowed brows, I would have thought she fell asleep. Finally, her soft voice drifts toward me, making my heart sink. “He left the week my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.”
Indignation and pure unadulterated anger surges through my veins.
This is what her mom was talking about. The story that was both hers and Bella’s to share.
The utter devastation that fills those gorgeous honey-colored eyes has my chest pinching painfully and my stomach bottoming out. She doesn’t deserve to have that pain in her heart.
“He abandoned you two when you needed him the most,” I state simply.
Bella seems to grow heavier, her body sagging on the bench. “Over twenty years of marriage, a grown daughter… He wrote a note, packed his bags while we were at the grocery store, and never looked back.” She laughs but it doesn’t hold an ounce of humor. “Ironic how usually it’s the man leaving for the grocery store and abandoning his family, not the family going out for bread and milk and returning home to half of their belongings gone.”
“Jesus Christ,” I curse. I wish more than anything I knew Bella then, so I could have helped her. “That would have been?—”
“Shocking to say the least.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk badly about him because he’s your father?—”
“He lost the right to be called my father the moment he gave up on my mother and left me to deal with the weight of her impending death alone.”
