𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗲

22. 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁

Stef's POV

I had just arrived at my wife's office for lunch not too long ago. Our lunches were usually something to look forward to, as it gave us one on one time to catch up without Frankie's ears listening in. Todays lunch however was different.

A soft tone was passed between the two of us, but I couldn't say the same in the current moment.

"Alverez. Out of all the last names you could come up with?" I heard Lena say to me.

The plan had been to tell Frankie that night in the car. Lena and I discussed what we wanted to say and how much detail we chose to tell. More specifically I chose to tell.

"Well it's not like you wanted to step up and confess anytime soon." I quickly shot back before having time to even realize what had just come out of my mouth.

The truth had certainly come out that night, just not all of it. And the reason for that was because of me.

I knew Lena was beyond afraid. Afraid to tell her own daughter the truth. And I think that's what made it worse for her, it was her own biological daughter. She felt like she had hurt her so much already in those first few years of her life that she didn't want to be the one to tell Frankie just to hurt her all over again. What happened to Frankie wasn't Lena's fault.

At nineteen, she was told Ella Mae was going to be adopted by a family. It was a closed adoption and that was the end of it. At least that's what Lena had thought. The system was messy and with how many kids are already tossed around in it, what's one more. And that one more happened to be Frankie.

I had left this part out considering I hadn't told Frankie who Lena really was.

That was the most important part and I should have said it, but I bailed. I just couldn't bring myself to say the words. The way Frankie looked at me with those eyes of hers, and I felt like I had already shared so much information to start with. Surely that would be enough for her little brain to work on for the next month.

"Look, I'm sorry I said that Lena. But I'm also-"

Lena cut me off before I could continue.

"I've put you in a bad position. I know. And I'm sorry too. I just keep thinking this is going to blow over and I just assumed the night would play out like we planned."

Another sheet of silence fell across us. It was messy. And I felt like I was the one with the shovel in hand digging Frankie's hole of sadness.

Suddenly I felt my wife lean into me. Instinctively I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in for a bigger hug. I knew how challenging this was. But I also felt like I couldn't tell Frankie that night because we hadn't really planned out what would happen after that. Would Frankie have run inside and woke Lena up? But had lena been up the most of the time that night waiting assuming I had told her. When she realized Frankie wasn't going to come up, she automatically assumed Frankie was mad at her and refused to speak to her.

But the next morning rolled around with Frankie eating breakfast at the table, my wife knew immediately I hadn't said the whole truth. More specifically about Lena. But we couldn't talk about it for the rest of the day, because our daughter was home with us.

So here we were the day after in the office now discussing what I hadn't done. But I couldn't. As much as Lena didn't want to tell Frankie, I think it was only right for her to say it. On her own terms.