Whispered Promises

Chapter Four

      When I got home, I saw my grandmother was asleep on her Lazy-Boy. I grabbed a blanket and

 placed it on her. I was halfway up the stairs when the front door opened, and I heard my 

mother's voice accompanied by a deeper voice. I stopped to listen. "Shh, David Don't wake my 

mother up", she said playfully. "Oh, Darling Why don't we just tell her and Elizabeth too. We've 

been together for almost two years", David replied. It was a gut punch; I wanted to vomit. How 

could she do this? While my father was dying, she started a whole new relationship. I felt so 

betrayed, all I could do was silently cry and go to bed. The next morning I came downstairs to 

find my mother drinking coffee while humming a tune. "You seem happy", I say to her. "Oh, just 

had a good night's sleep", she explained. "Mmmm, I'm sure", I say in an accusatory tone. "What's 

that supposed to mean?", she questioned. "Oh, nothing. just heard a lot of giggling last night.", I 

answered back. She snapped her hand in my direction. "If you got something to say I suggest 

you say6 it right now.", my mother asked with a forceful tone. Seeing that questioning her, 

causes her to get angry. I reverted to a neutral tone. "I don't care that you're dating David, I just 

wanted to know did you cheat on dad while he was undergoing his treatments?". "What? Why 

would you think that?", she said with a shocked and caught look on her face. "Why would I think 

you're dating David or why would I think you cheated on dad?" I stand waiting for an answer. 

Tears started to form in her eyes as she started to speak. "I loved your father, he was the very air I

  breathed. But during the months and months of treatments, watching my husband's body fail 

him, I was on the edge. When I was visiting mama for her birthday, I met David and he made me 

laugh, he made me happy, made me forget about the horrors back home.". My mother is now 

sobbing. I wanted to feel bad for her but just couldn't. After what I heard I felt nothing but 

distain. All I could do was stare at her in disbelief. "Baby, please believe me, I was just in pain.", 

she cried and held on to my arm. Before I could respond to her pathetic cries, the doorbell rings. 

I looked at the front door and back at my mother repeating the words 'i was in pain'. Feeling 

even more disgusted with her begging, I snatched my arm from her and said "well, so was my 

father". I open the door to find my boss, Rita, "Hey Liz, I Know you don't come into work later but 

need you to open and close today.". "Um sure. Is everything okay?", I say with concern. "My son 

got into some trouble down in Florida so I'm gonna go to try and help him out. I should be back 

by tomorrow night.", she finished and then stopped me with the keys to the bar. "Okay be safe", I 

called after her as she was leaving. I turned around to see my mother staring at me wanting to 

resume our conversation. Not wanting to, I grabbed my purse and headed for the bus stop.