Page 202 of Love Unwritten
“You never said anything.”
“I wish I had.” Her head hangs low. “Maybe if I had stuck to my original plan to get you a therap—”
“I wasn’t ready for that.”
“Still, it was my job as your mother—”
“Stop.”
“What?”
“Feeling guilty over a past neither of us can change.”
Her eyes turn glossy again as tears cling near her lash line. “It’s hard.”
My eyes screw tight. “I know. Fuck. I really do.”
She pulls me into another embrace. “Okay. I promise to stop, so long as you do too.”
“Deal.” I return her hug with one of my own. “I just want to let go of it all and focus on my future.”
“Then that’s what we will do.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Rafael
I knew my happiness couldn’t last forever. Ellie and I have spent the last week since coming back to Lake Wisteria in a haze, and it was only a matter of time before reality caught up to me.
I just wish my son wasn’t collateral damage as well.
“Nico,” I call after him.
He slams his bedroom door and flips the lock. “I don’t want to go!”
I test the doorknob anyway. “But you’ve worked so hard for this.”
He and Ellie have been practicing his Strawberry Festival song for two months straight, so to hear that he no longer wants to perform because of her…
It makes me want to rage.
I knew Hillary could flake, but I didn’t want to tell Nico that just in case she kept her promise. He seemed so hopeful about it, so taking that away from him felt unfair.
And look where that got you.
I lean my forehead against the door. “Everyone who loves you will be there.”
“I don’t care! I quit!”
“Quit what?”
“Music! What’s the point anyway?” Nico’s sobs can be heard through the door. My chest aches at the sound, and I wish I could take away his pain. Wish I could do anything but stand around, unable to protect him from the one person who always manages to hurt him.
I don’t know what the fuck to do. I hate her too, but she is his mother. She has a legal right to talk to and see her son, even if it is sporadic, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I pull out my phone and shoot Ellie an SOS text before testing Nico’s doorknob again. “Will you let me come inside? Please?”
He ignores me and tries to muffle his cries with what I assume is a pillow.