24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

P atty took a deep breath here, and Cleo realized that at some point during the telling of her story, someone had brought them tea and cookies. Steam billowed out of a kettle as Cleo poured everyone a cup. Cleo stirred some herbal concoction into hers that she hardly tasted. They were getting to the crux of the story, she could tell.

“The wedding wasn’t a grand affair; I think Trevor’s parents were too embarrassed by their future daughter-in-law to do it up big. But I preferred something smaller and more intimate anyway, and it was beautiful. My mother was there, as well as my best friend and the girls from work. My dress cost more than my mom probably paid in rent for a whole year; I didn’t want anything expensive, but Trevor’s mom insisted. In hindsight, I think she was doing it less for my benefit and more because there would be photos in the society column of the paper, and even a cheap, plastic doll can be trussed up and made to look high-end if you cover it with expensive enough things.”

Cleo hated that her mom saw herself that way.

Patty took a small bite of a cookie. “Trevor was so happy that day, and I felt…maybe a sense of satisfaction?,” she said like a question, “that I could make him feel that way. I’ll admit, I was a knockout,” she chuckled. “That I was giddy about getting out of the projects rather than being in love or any emotion like that was not lost on me, but I didn’t let it worry me like I should’ve. What can I say? I was young and immature.”

Cleo sipped her tea, noticing that Tina had finished hers and was buried in her chair again. She fleetingly wondered what Tina’s story was, before getting pulled back into her mother's. “Trevor asked me where I wanted to go for our honeymoon, and I said, ‘Europe.’ He took me at my word and we went all over western Europe for a month. It was the last time I felt happy with him.” She looked down at her lap again and picked a piece of lint off her pants.

Her head still down, she continued. “As soon as we returned, Trevor’s parent’s determined to make me into a proper wife, their words. I won’t bore you with all the details, but they interfered with everything. Trevor was stepping into a more involved role in his father’s business, too, and spent a lot of time at the office. He came home stressed and distracted.

“It didn’t take long to see how much his parents detested me; whenever we were with them, they’d make subtle digs and comments that soon turned into full-blown insults. Instead of defending me like he had in the past, and allowing me to be the girl Trevor knew I was, he instead allowed his mom to belittle me at every turn. Maybe I didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, because he didn’t always hear how she spoke to me, but he didn’t believe me when I told him how it was, either. His mother wanted me to dress like the debutantes Trevor had despised and avoided; she tried to change how I talked, how I walked, how I held my fork. She wanted to Pretty Woman the projects right out of me, and even though I hadn’t been a whore, she made me feel like I wasn’t much better than one. I was demoralized, and felt like I had no ally against her and her horrible friends.”

Cleo hadn’t known her grandparents well; they both passed in an accident when she was only seven, so it was difficult to tell whether these people Patty was describing were the ones she’d also known, because she’d been too young to remember much. Her grandpa had smelled like black licorice and her grandma like a perfume that made her sneeze, and they always had a gift for her whenever they visited, but that was about all she could recall.

Patty put her hand on her stomach. “And then I got pregnant with you. I thought things would be better–with your dad as well as with his parents–once we had a baby, but if anything it got worse. Now there was the worry that I wouldn’t be a fit mother. Why Trevor didn’t think of all these things before he married me I’ll never know, but I became engrossed in preparing for a baby, and he spent more time at work than ever before. The stresses of work and the company became more important to him every day. I hadn’t seen that side of him when we were dating and still don’t know if he’d always been that driven to make money and carry on his father’s legacy, or if it only became something he obsessed over after we were married. He certainly hadn’t ever worked so much before. Over time, he seemed to lose the desire to defy his parents that had driven him to marry someone like me. He became more like them every day, and slowly allowed his parents to poison him against me. I felt like I couldn’t do anything right, that I was all wrong for him. It was absolutely true, but I started to feel like Trevor began believing that for the first time, too.”

Patty pushed the tea tray away and Cleo shifted in her seat, wishing she could get up and move to release some of the tension building.

“You were born, and I was resolved to do everything I could to love and protect you from this world that I quickly realized had become more of a prison than the sanctuary I thought it would be. So I would take you to the park near where I grew up and to the children’s museum and let you draw on all the things. I let you get dirty and tried to give you a normal childhood like the one I had, though without the worry over money. No, instead it was full of worry that I wasn’t going to be able to protect you from so many dangers that I now understood came with a wealthy, privileged life.” Patty’s brown eyes looked so sad, and Cleo knew the past weighed heavily on her still.

“My rebellion was a quiet one. I didn’t flaunt it in front of Trevor and his family, I just did my thing and tried to fly under the radar. But one day, it all came crashing down.” Cleo sat forward on the edge of her seat. What could’ve happened to make her mother leave her? “When you were two I found out I was pregnant again, and I was so happy. I loved being a mom; you were my pride and joy and I couldn’t wait to do it again. I decided to keep it to myself for a little while. I’d had a couple of little complications with you, so when the doctor encouraged some early blood tests, I opted to do them.” She touched her stomach once again. “The tests revealed that the baby I was carrying was going to have some significant health issues. I researched them and determined that I was willing to continue on with the pregnancy; I loved all children and felt like no issue would prevent me from loving and wanting my baby, so it was easy to decide to keep it. Your father, however, reacted differently.

“Once he found out I was pregnant and that there were issues, he also started looking into the disease, and what he found scared him. You see, it not only would affect the baby’s health but also the way it looked. He panicked and divulged everything to his parents, even though I had begged him to keep it between us until we could agree on what to do.

“I found out that he’d gone behind my back, speaking with his parents about it, when his mom came over to let me know that she’d scheduled an appointment for me to abort the baby. They were livid with me when I refused to go. They said that no grandchild of theirs would look like that, and they insisted I end its life.”

Fat tears slid down her cheeks as she became emotional. “I was so scared and had no one to help me. I didn’t tell Trevor what they were doing, but I should have. I hope he would have sided with me but I was scared he wouldn’t. I kept their bullying to myself, and they kept hounding me. I didn’t feel safe there anymore. I decided my only course of action was to leave. I made my plans for escape and tried to sneak away one night with you, but your father caught us. He was completely irrational, not like himself at all. He told me if I decided to leave, he would let me, but I could never come back, and I couldn’t take you with me.” Patty was sobbing at this point. “I should’ve just gone anyway, but he said his father had a team of lawyers that would make certain that I never saw you again. He probably didn’t really mean it, but he was scared and lashed out. I had no lawyer, and didn’t think a court-appointed one could take on a force like that. So I stayed, though I hated him for forcing me to choose between you and the baby I was carrying. An impossible choice.”

Cleo’s stomach clenched. She knew which one of them Patty had eventually chosen.

Or perhaps she hadn’t. Her mom wiped her face with the backs of her hands and grabbed Cleo’s, squeezing them tightly. “I couldn’t have made the choice myself.” Looking straight into Cleo’s eyes she said, “If nothing else you must believe me that I never would have left you. I promise you that, Claudy. Never. But in the end, your grandfather made the choice for me. When they found out I was trying to leave with you, he arranged for me to leave.”

“What do you mean arranged ?” Was she kidnapped?

“I mean that a man he hired ‘escorted’ me here to Texas to a life he set up for me. He intercepted me on the way out of the house one day, picked me up, put me in a car, and drove me to the airport, telling me the whole way that they would harm you if I tried to get help or run away. He’d already abducted me, so I believed him that he would hurt you. I didn’t know if your dad was in on it, but I couldn’t trust anyone.

“When we got here the thug brought me to this apartment he’d rented, gave me a monthly stipend–barely enough to survive on–all on the condition that I never return or try to contact you again. And since your father never came looking for me, I assumed he was either behind it, or his parents told him I abandoned you and him.”

Was that what had happened? Had he participated in this? Set it up even? Or had he loved her mother and been heartbroken that she could’ve left him? Why else would he not have looked for her? Tried to find her? She wanted to believe that he never would have allowed her to leave him and Cleo if he’d known she’d been forced to leave.

“Why did you never try to come back?” Cleo asked. “Or try to contact us?”

Patty’s face fell. “That’s the part of the story I’m most ashamed of.