Love Is Won

Part Five

"Do you think they'll ever love each other again?"

Jessica's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. She closed her eyes and took a breath before turning to reach for Ilse, who had been trailing behind, deep in thought and unusually quiet. Ilse took her grandmother's hand and allowed herself to be pulled in. Jessica coiled her arm around her small shoulders and bent to kiss the top of her head.

"Your mom and dad love you both very much," she began slowly, forming her words carefully. "And they will always love each other because they made you and Adah together."

Ilse sniffed and nodded, desperately trying to blink away the tears that were rapidly filling her eyes.

Of late, she'd had so many questions about why her parents had divorced all those years ago, things she wouldn't have even thought of back then due to how young she was. Now, she went home with school friends to households with both mothers and fathers, and she struggled to remember a time when it was like that for her also.

"Oh, honey," Jessica's voice cracked as she knelt down on the floor in the middle of the deserted produce aisle, unable to bear the sadness on her granddaughter's face. "You've been thinking about this a lot recently, haven't you?"

Ilse nodded, her bottom lip beginning to tremble.

"What's brought all this on, my love? It's been making you so unhappy lately."

"I don't know," Ilse whispered. "I've always wondered, but... me and Adah have been talking about it..."

"And it's something you're both really worried about, baby?"

She nodded again.

"Oh sweetheart, it's okay," Jessica soothed, catching the tears that were beginning to fall down her granddaughter's cheeks. "Everything's okay."

She held Ilse's hands firmly in hers and looked into her watery eyes, willing her pain away.

"Everyone else gets both their parents all the time. I miss Daddy so much when he's not there," Ilse gasped as she fell forward into Jessica's arms, immersing herself in the sweet, comforting smell of her hair and drenching the shoulder of her coat as she cried.

"Shhh, darling," Jessica whispered, fighting her own tears. "He's never far away, and he loves you both more than anything, and we love him too, you know that."

They stayed bound together, swaying slightly, until Ilse's tears had dried and her pounding heart had settled. Jessica eased her off her shoulder and cradled her cheeks. She kissed her nose, both her ears and her forehead, something she had done with each of the girls and her own children as they had grown. Ilse smiled at the familiarity of their ritual and began to hiccup as Jessica stood and they faced each other once more.

"Alright?" Jessica asked, running the pad of her thumb under each of her own eyes.

"Alright," Ilse smiled.

"If you're ever worried or upset, you must always talk to me," Jessica said. "I don't care how late at night or how early in the morning, I'm always here honey."

Jessica stroked her girl's hair away from her face as she nodded in promise, looking up at her grandmother and catching her hand to hold for a few seconds more.

Jessica moved to the side to allow Ilse to push the cart.

"Come on now, we need lots of treats for the next few days," she said cheerily, in a bid to lighten the mood. "Pick some things Adah will like as well."

"Whatever I want?" Ilse asked in disbelief.

"Just this once, you can have whatever you want."

***