Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Four Months Later
Kinsley
“Hello, my sweet boy.” I smiled as I picked up Christopher from his crib. “Did you have a good nap?”
He smiled and laid his head on my shoulder. After changing his diaper, I walked downstairs, and the doorbell rang. I opened the door with Christopher in my arms and stood there in shock.
“Jimmy?”
“Kinsley. You are one hard woman to find,” he spoke.
“My God. What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you about your mother.”
“Come in.” I gestured.
“Who’s this handsome little guy?” He smiled.
“This is Christopher, my son.”
“Your son?” he asked in shock. “Wow. It’s good to see you.” He reached out and touched my arm.
“It’s good to see you too. How did you find me?”
“I hired a private investigator. I had no choice. I needed to find you. Your mom is in the hospital, Kinsley, and she’s asking to see you. She’s dying, and she doesn’t have much time left.” He lowered his head.
Suddenly, I felt weak, so I sat down on the couch.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked.
“Her liver is failing.”
Tears started to fill my eyes as I looked up at the ceiling.
“I’m not surprised,” I softly spoke.
“Listen, Kinsley, I know she was a shit mother, but she’s still your mom, and she wants to see her daughter before she dies.”
Christopher started to cry, so I got up from the couch and put him in his highchair.
“I need to give him his dinner,” I spoke as I grabbed the baby food from the cabinet.
“How old is he?” Jimmy asked.
“Six months.”
I heard the front door open, and Chase stopped dead in his tracks when he walked into the kitchen.
“Umm. What’s going on here?” he asked.
“Chase, this is Jimmy, from back home. Jimmy, this is my fiancé, Chase Calloway.”
“Nice to meet you, man,” Jimmy spoke as he extended his hand.
“Ah yes, I do believe Kinsley has mentioned you.” Chase shook his hand. “What brings you to California?”
“Kinsley can tell you. I need to get going. It was good to see you.” He smiled at me. “Thanks for taking care of her.” He turned to Chase. “You have a beautiful family.”
“Thank you,” Chase spoke.
As soon as he left, I sat at the table and began feeding Christopher.
“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” he asked.
“My mom is dying of liver failure and she’s asking to see me.”
“Oh, baby.” He walked over and kissed the top of my head. “I’m sorry.”
“I always knew this day would come. To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long with the amount of alcohol she drank every day.”
“I’ll feed Christopher,” he spoke as he placed his hand on mine.
I jerked away.
“I can feed my son,” I shouted in an irritated tone.
“Sweetheart, talk to me.”
“I don’t want to talk about anything, Chase. So drop it,” I snapped.
“Okay, fine. I’m going upstairs to change.”
As soon as I was finished feeding Christopher, I took him upstairs and handed him to Chase.
“Can you bathe him, please? I need some fresh air.”
“Of course. Come on, little man, let’s get you cleaned up.”
I went downstairs, grabbed a blanket and a bottle of wine, and took it down to the beach.
Darkness was falling upon the sky, and the stars were waiting patiently to make their appearance.
Sitting down on the blanket, I brought the bottle to my lips and took a sip as I stared out into the ocean water.
“You okay?” Chase asked as he sat beside me and brought his knees up to his chest.
“I’m sorry for snapping at you. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m okay or not.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re going through a lot of mixed emotions right now.” He hooked his arm around me, and I laid my head on his shoulder.
“A part of me hates her, and a part of me loves her.”
“We’ll go to Indiana. You have to make peace with her, Kinsley. If you don’t, you’ll end up regretting it the rest of your life.”
“I know.”
“You can do this, baby, and Christopher and I will be there for you. I’ll make a few calls, get a private jet, and we’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Then I guess we better get packing,” I spoke as I took a sip of wine.
“By the way, you never really did tell me who that Jimmy guy is?”
“He’s her cousin. He gave up on her a long time ago. One night, they had a huge fight, and he never came around again. He owns a car repair shop in town. He buys vintage cars and rebuilds them.”
“Come on, let’s go inside. I have calls to make and we need to get things ready to leave tomorrow,” he spoke.
When we arrived in Indiana, we checked into a hotel because I knew the house would be filthy, and I didn’t want Christopher there. As soon as we settled in, we headed straight to the hospital.
“You can do this, sweetheart. You’re a strong woman,” Chase spoke as he reached over and grabbed my hand.
“I know.” I sighed.
As we entered the hospital, the sick feeling in my belly intensified. Chase held Christopher in one hand and held mine with the other. I didn’t think I could do this without him here, and I was so grateful for all of his support.
We took the elevator up to the second floor and walked down the hallway until we found room 2101.
I stopped in the doorway and took in a deep breath as Chase gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
I slowly walked into the room, and my mom turned her head and looked at me.
A small, weak smile graced her face when she saw me.
“Kinsley,” she spoke in a soft voice.
“Hi, Mom,” I spoke as I walked over to her bedside. “I want you to meet my fiancé Chase Calloway and your grandson, Christopher.”
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at him.
“My grandson? You’re a mother?”
“Yeah.” I smiled.
“I met him already.” She looked at Chase.
“Hi. I apologize for being rude when I came to see you,” Chase spoke.
“Nah. Don’t be. You didn’t tell me anything I already didn’t know. Can I hold my grandson?”
“Of course,” I spoke.
Chase walked over and put Christopher in her arms. Tears ran down her face as she held him against her.
“You’re so handsome,” she spoke to him.
After a few moments, Christopher started to cry, so I took him from her and handed him to Chase.
“He’s probably hungry,” I spoke.
“I’ll go feed him and leave you two alone.”
Chase walked out of the room, and I sat in the chair and stared at my mother. She was so frail and weak.
“How long have you known, Mom?” I asked.
“I kind of suspected something was going on the past couple of years.”
“You could have gotten help. You could have asked me to help you,” I spoke.
“You’ve helped me enough, Kinsley. I didn’t want to put that on you. You had Henry and you were doing your own thing.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I shook my head.
“Listen to me. I know I was a shit mother, but I loved you and did what I did for you. I needed you to be stronger than I ever was. I’m sorry, Kinsley. I’m so sorry.” She began to cry.
Suddenly, all the anger I had felt for her all these years slowly dissipated away. This woman, whom I called my mom, was dying, and remaining angry at her for something neither she nor I could change wouldn’t solve anything. She needed my forgiveness.
“I forgive you, Mom.” I squeezed her hand. “I am strong, and it’s because of you.”
I got up from my chair and wrapped my arms around her as we cried together.
After we settled down, we talked for a while.
I told her all about California and how I was going to school.
I shared my dream of owning my own antique shop, and she told me for the first time in my life that she was proud of me.
After Chase finished feeding Christopher, he returned to the room, and we stayed for a while longer so she could spend some time with her grandson.
She was tired and growing weaker every minute we were there.
“We better go and let you get some rest,” I spoke.
“Thanks for coming, Kinsley,” my mother whispered.
“I love you, Mom.” I leaned over and hugged her. “We’ll be back tomorrow morning.”
“I love you too.”
Later that night, Jimmy called me at the hotel and told me my mother had passed away.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Chase spoke as he held me tight.
“She’s in a better place now,” I cried on his shoulder. “She doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”
A couple of days later, we buried her in the same cemetery my father was buried at.
“Kinsley.” I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Well, well.” Chase smiled. “If it isn’t the waitress from that grease pit.”
I turned around and locked eyes with Krista.
“I’m sorry about your mom.”
“Thanks, Krista. I appreciate it.”
“I didn’t know you had a baby. He’s so sweet.” She smiled.
“He is.” I hooked my arm around Chase. “They both are, and they’re both the love of my life, so thank you.”
“For what?” she asked.
“For sleeping with Henry. Because if you hadn’t, I’d probably still be stuck in this miserable town, living a miserable life with a man I never even loved. But thanks to you, I moved to California, met this wonderful man, and had this beautiful baby.”
“Umm. You’re welcome?”
I smiled at her and gracefully walked away.