Too Close To Home - (A Mystery Suspense Thriller)

Chapter 3: Three Days Later (Pt. 2)

After her session with the therapist, Mrs. Graven, Missy left the office and went back out into the waiting room where her mother was waiting patiently.  Sheila looked up when she saw her daughter walking toward her. Missy sat down beside her mother with a content-looking smile on her face.

"Mrs. Howard, may have have a word with you, please?" Mrs. Graven asked from the doorway of her office.

"Sure. Just a moment," Sheila replied. She closed her tablet and file folder and sat them down on the chair. "Missy, hon, watch my bag for me please. I'll be right back in a few minutes."

Melissa nodded and watched her mother disappear into the therapist's office.

"So...how's she doing?" Sheila asked Mrs. Graven.

"She 's doing much better, actually. She really seems to be making progress every week," Mrs. Graven replied.

"Now, I know you can't talk about what you discuss in your sessions, but, in your professional opinion, do you feel she is being completely honest with you?" Sheila inquired.

"Yes, Mrs. Howard, I really do," Mrs. Graven stated.

Sheila sighed with relief and smiled at the dark-haired therapist.

"Mrs. Howard, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I wanted to ask you if you talk to Melissa at all about sex and dating."

A look of surprise and shock appeared on Sheila's face.

"Wh-Why do you ask? Has she talked about sex with you? Is she having sex with someone?"

"Mrs. Howard, you know I am not at liberty to..."

"Oh dear God!" Sheila placed a hand over her chest as the look on her face transformed into one of dread and despair.

"Please, Mrs. Graven! That's not why I asked, I assure you of that! Now, please calm down. it's not anything like that at all."

Sheila took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, feeling a wave of relief washing over her.

"Oh, thank GOD!" she mumbled, wiping a thin layer of perspiration from her brow.

"I was just wondering if you've talked to her about dating, that's all. She seems to be a little bit stressed out over you not wanting her to date," Mrs. Graven told her.

"Well, I told Missy that we'll talk about it when she's old enough. Her father and I had agreed on a 'dating age' for her back when he was still alive, and we felt that sixteen was an appropriate age for her to start dating. That's a fair age, don't you think?" Sheila looked at Mrs. Graven intently.

"I just want to encourage you to keep the lines of communication open with your daughter, Mrs. Howard, to make her feel comfortable enough to be completely open and honest with you. She's a very bright young lady and she's also a good kid. She may have better judgment than you think," Mrs. Graven replied and winked at Sheila as a smile spread across her face.

"Yeah, I guess that back when she'd started hanging out with those...ne'er do wells--for lack of a better term--I just...I got a little freaked out.  And I just don't want her falling in with the wrong kind of people again, you know?"

"I understand, Mrs. Howard. But, she's made a tremendous amount of progress and she's done a lot of growing over the past year-and-a-half. In fact, I feel that we could cut down to every other week, or maybe even once a month, now, if she's comfortable with it, of course," Mrs. Graven said.

Sheila raised her eyebrows as a smile crept across her face. She was proud of her daughter and she wanted her to know it.

"You're right, Mrs. Graven. She has made a lot of progress and I am very proud of her. I will make more of an effort to relate to her and try to make her feel more comfortable with opening up to me," Sheila assured the therapist.

**

Sheila decided to surprise her daughter on the way home from the therapist's office. They pulled into the parking lot of Aye's Cream Shop, a little mom and pop ice cream and sweets  spot they often frequented. Sheila put her SUV in park and cut the ignition off. She looked over at her daughter and smiled.

"Creepy, mom," Missy told her mother without looking up from her phone.

"Oh come on, Missy. This is your favorite place," Sheila teased, widening her smile at her daughter.

"It used to be my favorite place, when I was like five," Missy retorted sarcastically, as the small hint of a smile began to creep across her pretty face.

"You remember how me, you and your dad would always come here on Saturdays after your track meets," Sheila reminded her.

Melissa finally looked up from her phone.

"Of course I remember, mom," she said, finally returning her mother's smile.

"You would always order a banana split with 2 cherries and your father always got the..."

"Banana fudge ripple with extra whipped cream," they both said in unison. Then, both mother and daughter shared a brief moment of laughter together. Sheila let out a sigh of euphoria and beamed at her daughter again.

"You know, Melissa," she began, calling her Missy by her real name in order to emphasize the seriousness of her next statement, "I really miss how close you and I used to be before...you know." She regarded her daughter with hope in her eyes.

Missy looked down at her lap, as if the statement had made her feel somewhat awkward.

"Me, too, mom," she said softly, almost in a whisper.

"I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything...anything at all. You do know that, don't you?" she asked, searching her daughter's eyes for some type of validation.

Melissa looked up at her mother's face and smiled.

"Yeah, mom, I know," she replied.

Sheila leaned forward and took her daughter into her arms. Missy returned her mother's embrace. Her smile transformed into a look of uncertainty, but her mother couldn't see it.