Smile

Chapter 4: Mother

I rang the doorbell to my mother's place at exactly 5:30PM. The house had one floor and a basement. It included three bedrooms (two on the main floor, one downstairs), two bathrooms, an office,  a kitchen, and two livingrooms (one on each floor, though the one in the basement served more as a game room than anything else). Thanks to the maid my mother had hired a few years back and to the fact that my mother and her husband were two very hard working people, the entire house was impossibly clean, down to the gigantic backyard.

 The second husband, James, answered the door and let me in. Despite him being horribly nice and always giving me the space I needed when I was around, I'd never thought of James as anything but my mother's second husband. Thinking of him as a step-father made me feel like I was betraying my dad. 

We exchanged polite greetings and he lead me to the livingroom, where my mother was reading a magazine. She set it down as soon as James and I entered the room and got up to greet me with a smile on her face. She pulled me into a tight embrace before motioning for me to sit down next to her on the white leather couch. James sat down on the matching armchair, which immediately set off warning bells in my head. James usually left my mother and I alone when I was visiting.

"So, how are you?" my mother asked, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Fine," I answered. While my relationship with my mother was better than the one she had with Parker, it still wasn't all that great. "I, umm... made a new friend," I told her. I had no idea where the sudden urge to talk about Logan had come from. The words had left my mouth before I could think of saying them.

However, the news seemed to delight my mother. "Really? That's wonderful! Boy or girl?"

"Boy," I answered truthfully. I could see where this conversation was headed from miles away. I chanced a look at James, who seemed almost as uncomfortable as I was. 

"Ooh! What's his name?"

"Logan."

"Is he boyfriend material?" she stage-whispered, her gray eyes sparkling. It wasn't everyday that she managed to have a conversation about boys with me. I usually brushed off the subject before she even had a chance to bring it up.

"Mom!" I protested. This wasn't the type of conversation I wanted to have with James listening.

She raised her hands in mock surrender. "Just asking. Now spill!"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know, yet. Maybe." I rushed onto another subject before she could ask another question. "What about you? How are you?"

"I'm great! James and I actually invited you over to tell you something," she admitted hesitantly, but I wasn't surprised by the confession.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling like I should dread the answer.

"Here goes nothing," James muttered to himself, shifting anxiously in his seat.

"Mom..."

"I'm pregnant," she blurted out.

I froze.

Pregnant.

She was pregnant.

This can't be happening.

"You're what?" I asked, praying that I'd heard wrong.

"Pregnant," she said again.

I shook my head and slowly got up from the couch. "I can't believe this," I muttered to myself, feeling sick to my stomach.

My mother's smile faded. "Chloe..."

"No," I said firmly, gathering as much strenght as I had to pull myself together. "I can't believe you. Supporting you with your second marriage was one thing, but being okay with you starting your life over without Parker and I is another. What, did you think it'd be okay with this? Don't you think it isn't obvious to me that you're trying to replace Parker and I? To make your life right again, you have to take out the wrongs, is that it? Guess what, Mom. You don't get a do-over. I tried defending you against Parker all these years, I really did. But you know what? He was right all along. You don't actually care about us. To you, were just mistakes of the past, aren't we?"