Something Infinite

Chapter 6

Jen's POV

Falling back to sleep wasn't as easy of a task as I initially thought it would be. My mind was on overdrive, constantly thinking if Mia was okay upstairs, and if Harry wasn't to wake me had I expressed enough milk for a feed.

I knew if Harry had seen me get out of bed purely to check on Mia, he would think I thought he was incapable of watching over our daughter. So I decided to sneak around and get a glass of water, then head upstairs for a minute on the way back to bed, since I was up anyway.

I threw the covers off myself, and quietly made my way to the door, opening to see Harry embracing my mum with a hug. She was crying, and he seemed to be comforting her. I stood silently watching them, waiting for someone to explain why my mum was being emotional.

"What's happened?" Harry rubbed her back, giving her a minute to calm herself down enough to get her words out.

"Dad passed away this morning," her bottom lip quivered, and my heart sunk at the words that had just left her lips.

"Grandad's dead? What?" The words escaped before I could even process what was happening right now. My throat was becoming tight again from holding back tears, and my legs felt like they were going to give way at any second.

"Jen, you weren't supposed to find out like this," mum made her way over to me, cupping both my cheeks in her palms.

"When was I meant to? What happened to him? Was he sick or something?" I didn't understand how this had happened.

My grandparents hadn't visited me since giving birth Mia, but I just put it down to them not being able to face the hospital again, since my uncle Paul's death. Nan called and congratulated me, and promised her and Grandad would visit when I returned home. No one mentioned anything about him being unwell.

"Why don't we talk about this later, when you've had some rest. I don't want to upset you anymore, it's not good for you to be stressed and worked up right now," mum tried to cut the conversation short, but I wasn't having it.

"Tell me what happened mum! I'm not a teenager anymore, I can handle it. Please, just tell me why grandad passed away," I begged her, working myself up into a sobbing mess.

"He had a heart attack the day after Mia was born. His surgery went as best it could, but they said the recovery wasn't promising. He was deteriorating everyday, there was nothing they could do. Your Nan switched off the life support this morning."

This whole thing was hugely shocking to me, I couldn't believe that this had been happening all week, and I had no idea of it. Mum put on a brave face, as did everyone else, if they knew. Did they? Why had no one deemed it necessary for me to know about my own grandfather?

"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded answers from her, growing extremely pissed off that she kept this from me for days.

"Jen, don't be angry with her please, we just didn't want to upset you while you were just getting adjusted to everything," Harry answered for my mum. Then it hit me- he knew, and he kept it from me too.

"You knew?" My attention turned to him, gasping at the shock he of all people had kept me in the dark.

"Jen just please try to understand we-"

"Stop! Yes or no Harry? Did you know about my grandad this whole time, and kept it from me?" I cut him off, just wanting an answer to the question. A big part of me hoped he would say no, and that he only found out right now, but a small part of me, the part that knew the truth but was hoping for the best, knew he knew, and kept it from me.