Page 87 of Second Chance Wedding
“You made a call thatwasn’tyours to make,” she said. “Please leave. Now. I have to go talk tomyson.”
“Ana. Don’t do this. We can work this out.”
“Leave, Cole. Leave Ben alone. Leavemealone. Just— Leave.”
* * *
Ana was still shaking when she stood outside Ben’s bedroom. He hadn’t turned on any lights, but through the open door she could see that the room glowed from the RGB lights behind his television. Those were an icy blue, reminding Ana of a glacier or iceberg as they faded in and out. But then maybe that’s just because she felt so cold having just locked Cole out of her house and her life.
But how could she not? Cole had done the unforgivable. He’d made a decision he had no right to make. Insinuated himself into their lives as a parental figure when he wasn’t.
She didn’t care that Cole thought he’d helped her son by driving him there. He hadn’t.
Cole had only caused more pain. For Ben and for her.
She knocked on Ben’s door but didn’t wait for a response. She pushed it the rest of the way open and moved toward the bed. “Ben, we need to talk. You…need to talk.”
Ben had his back to the door and lay on his side facing the wall. She thought she heard a sniffle, but when silence followed, she wasn’t sure.
Ana sat on the edge of his bed, and when Ben didn’t roll to face her, she went a step further and dropped to the surface, shifting so that her back was to his.
Exhaustion and pain pulled at every cell and muscle in her body, every emotion, and she reeled from the news that had broken her once she’d made it home.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
The whispered words were barely audible, and her very soul squeezed in response, the instant burn of tears forcing her to close her eyes to combat the flood.
She had to stay calm. She had to…somehow do damage control in a situation that never should’ve happened. “Tell me why.”
Ben cleared his throat and said, “I didn’t do it to hurt you. I had to go, though.”
“Why, Ben? I thought… I thought we were okay?”
“Weare.”
“Obviously not. At Thanksgiving when we talked, I thought you understood why I didn’t discuss your father.”
“I did. I do, but I just— I don’t know. I still wanted to see him. Please don’t be mad at Cole.”
“Iammad at Cole.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But hedid, Ben. He should never have taken you there. He should’ve called me.Youshould’ve called me. You…you should’ve talked tomeabout this.”
“Cole only took me because I begged him to. He didn’t want to. He said you’d be mad, but I told him I couldn’t…go with you. I couldn’t askyou,Mom. Cole understood that. He understood.”
Hurt pierced like a sword, and her heart shattered. Cole understood her son’s desire, but she didn’t—couldn’t.
She was his mother. She was the one who’d kept him when his father told her to abort, when her parents didn’t support her decision and urged her to put Ben up for adoption. She was the one who’d fed and bathed him, been covered in vomit and worse whenever Ben was sick. She’d stayed up and walked and rocked, sleep-deprived and sobbing as she’d cared for him the way a parent wassupposedto. And maybe she’d only done what was expected of a mother, but it didn’t change the fact she was the one who’dbeen there. Not them, not anyone else.Her.“Makemeunderstand.”
Maybe that was a tough request for a teenager, but once the words were said, they couldn’t be swallowed back. She wanted to understand, but she didn’t. She felt betrayed and hurt and— She justdidn’t.
“I don’t know if I can explain why. I just wanted to see him. Be in the same space. But I knew it would hurt you, and I had to do it by myself.”
“Cole said you didn’t talk to…your father. That you didn’t even plan to. Why put yourself in danger getting there if you weren’t even going to??—”
“Did you know he has a wife and kids?”
