Horizon Lines

~10~

Belle answered the front door, ignoring her mother's shocked gaze. She greeted her grandfather, a tall and hunched over man with deep lines etched in his face, deep brown eyes, a white beard covering the lower half of his face, and white, fluffy hair that grew to his shoulders.

She embraced her grandfather. "Hi, Grandpa."

He hugged her back briefly, then let her go to enter the house. "Hi, sweetie. I--" He stopped short when he saw his daughter standing in the doorway of the living room, arms folded around herself.

His brows lowered and he stalked over to her and growled, "I hope you have a good explanation as to why you just ran off on your daughter like that."

Mom  sighed and rubbed her temples as though getting a headache. "Dad, please, don't start in on me."

"You left your daughter, your mother and I worried sick," Grandpa  growled. "So I am going to start in on you. I know you heard what happened to Laura, and that you're upset, but you still have a responsibility to your daughter. You need to be a responsible adult and quit acting like a child."

Mom glared at her father. "I know that, Dad, and I feel horrible enough as it is."

"As you should. I raised you to be more responsible, more considerate."

Mom opened her mouth, shut it, and stormed upstairs.

Belle and her grandfather watched Mom climb the stairs at a fast rate.

Grandpa shook her head and looked at Belle. "You and your mother are going to move in with me while all of this is going on. We need to be together during these times."

He gently pushed her towards the stairs. "Go and pack. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

She nodded and did as she was told, agreeing with him that it was better to stay together while all of this was going on.

Alison Harper walked to Belle's room, wanting to apologize again for her behavior. She knocked on the door and entered. "Hey Belle, I-- What are you doing?"

Belle had her suitcase opened on the bed. She was putting her clothes inside.

Belle looked up. "Grandpa wants us to move in with him and Grandma with all this going on."

Alison frowned, not liking that her father made the decision without consulting with her first. "When did he say that?"

"After you went upstairs. He said the best thing to do right now is to stay together."

Alison did agree with that, although at the moment it galled her, but her father was doing what he did best: stepping into her life and making big decisions that he expected everyone to follow through with. She did concede that staying together was the best course of action, but she hated how he made this decision without talking to her.

Alison nodded and walked over to Belle. "That's a good idea."

Belle nodded but didn't say anything. Alison could sense irritation wafting from her daughter. She had every right to be irritated with her. Alison felt the guilt creep in again and set out to make it right.

She reached out and took Belle's hand. "I am sorry for running off like that, and how I reacted when I got that phone call. I was overwhelmed and I had a lot of bad memories come back, but that's no excuse for acting like that around you and keeping you in the dark like that."