The Heart of a Mother (Obsession collection) by Julie Clark

Author:Julie Clark [Clark, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Published: 2023-07-24T23:00:00+00:00

I waited until we were in bed, the TV playing some cop show neither of us was paying much attention to, David scrolling through his phone, tapping out texts and emails, as he usually did before going to sleep. “I need to talk to you about something.”

He turned to me, hazel eyes creased with concern, his black-framed readers hanging low on his nose.

I took a shaky breath, having rehearsed all afternoon how I’d start. “It’s about Joanna,” I said. I hadn’t liked lying to him—it wasn’t something we did inside our marriage. I told myself it was okay because I had no intention of inviting Joanna fully into my life. Except that was exactly what I was now planning to do.

“Okay,” he said.

I kept my eyes on the TV. “I’ve been talking to her. Meeting up with her for lunch.”

“That’s wonderful,” he said. “When did she reach out? Why didn’t you tell me?”

I plucked a stray thread off our comforter and said, “She didn’t reach out. I approached her.”

“It sounds like it went well, if you’ve been seeing her regularly. How did she react when you told her who you were?”

That’s when the tears started. “She doesn’t know,” I admitted. “I told her my name was Nancy.” I covered my face with my hands, not wanting to see the confusion and disappointment on his face. I went on to explain how all I’d wanted was to see her. Hear her voice. I made sure to tell him that our first lunch had happened by accident. That it wasn’t something I’d orchestrated. But the truth was, some part of me had always known things were going to progress beyond simply watching her.

“Surely, you have to know this isn’t sustainable,” he said when I was done.

“I wasn’t thinking,” I admitted. “Once I met her, once we became friends, I lost all reason.”

He took his readers off and set them on the nightstand next to him. “Why are you telling me this now?”

I explained how Joanna and Evan’s lender was about to foreclose on their home. “I want to loan them money.”

David shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he said. “She chose not to reach out to you for a reason—whatever that reason might be. If you can’t be honest with her about who you are, the respectful thing is to back away.”

An urgency rose up in me. I couldn’t do what he was suggesting—not when I could help her. It’s what a mother would do. “Fifty thousand dollars,” I started to say.

He interrupted me. “That’s a lot of money to give a stranger,” he said.

“She’s not a stranger,” I countered. “She’s my daughter.”

“There are other ways we can help them,” he said. “We know a lot of people—we can connect Evan with a new job if that’s what he needs.”

“They need the money now. They’re about to lose their home.”

David rubbed his eyes, and I pushed on. “I know it’s a lot, but we can manage.”

“It’s not about the money, Hillary.

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