Daylight

* ~ eleven ~ *

'You never did give a damn thing, honey,
but I cried for you,
and I know you wouldn't have told nobody
if I died for you'

TW: Mentions of rape. Don't read the end of the chapter (after the asterisks) if it makes you uncomfortable.

"Kar?" Tracy asks for her second-born daughter after the party is over and the Kloss family is finishing cleaning up. It's become a tradition that once all of the other guests leave, the sisters are stuck with their parents, cleaning up after everyone's messes. Kristine managed to get out of it this year, saying she needed to put Bronson and Quilla to bed and that it was past their bedtime, much to the envy of her sisters.

"Yeah?"Karlie asks as she finishes loading the dishwasher with all of the serving plates.

"Can we talk?" Tracy beckons to the empty living room.

"Oh, sure," Karlie says. She's always loved having one on one time with her mom, and this is no exception. Although she did notice her mom having a pretty in-depth conversation with Taylor earlier at the barbecue, and she's worried about some of the things that may come out of her mother's mouth, but she knows that everyone who's going to tell her the same thing is right - she needs to tell Taylor about what's going on in the behind-the-scenes of her life.

Karlie and Tracy sit down on the large L-shaped couch in the living room, the same one that Karlie used to do her high school homework on. "Karlie, I had a lovely conversation with Taylor," Tracy starts off, not wanting to scare her daughter into a state of panic. "She's a wonderful woman and she definitely wants the best for you."

Karlie allows a soft smile to play on her lips. "She's amazing, Mom. When I saw her for the first time while dropping off Quilla at the elementary school for her first day, I was honestly shocked, more than anything. And she was frozen and just looked petrified, especially when I asked about Skylar. It was so sad, Mom. But the first time I had hope of somehow being able to become a figure in her life again was when she said yes to going out for coffee with me that morning, and we talked for what felt like days, catching up on everything we missed in each other's lives."

"Everything?" Tracy asks, putting an emphasis on the word.

Karlie blushes sheepishly, looking down at her hands resting in her lap. "Well, no, not about everything."

"Does she know about you and Josh?" Tracy asks.

"She knows that we were dating, after all, she met him a few times before she left the spotlight," Karlie responds. "Actually, she was the one to bring him up, and she asked me how he's doing, and I just told her the truth- that we haven't been together since 2016."

"And you didn't tell her anything else, did you?" Tracy asks the rhetorical question, making the assumption that she knows is correct.

Karlie shakes her head slowly. "I just felt like, if we just reconnected, I didn't want to scare her away from me with a secret that I've been keeping since we first met. I wanted her to trust me, Mom, and I still do. I... I love that woman and her little girl with all of my heart, and the last thing I want to happen is for her to break up with me because of you-know-what."

"Karlie, that woman loves you more than she loves life itself," Tracy says. "She had nothing but great things to say about you. Not to mention, she clearly told you about Skylar when you first reconnected, something that you mentioned she had been terrified to do. And God knows I'm one to know what it's like to risk your child being suddenly thrown into the spotlight. But I just don't understand it, Kar. You've been dating for two months, Taylor and that little girl are clearly attached to you, and yet you feel the need to keep this a secret from her? Do you ever think about how if you keep it a secret for longer, it might hurt the relationship she has with you?"