Chapter 25

Twelve weeks. We saw you today! Imagine a tiny room with three grown men, a doctor and me on a table. I swear there was so much love in that room today. We got to see your tiny little self, and I'm pretty sure you've got Daryl's nose. Don't tell him I told you that, but I just know it. Dr. Greene is scheduling me for an amniocentesis in about a month. I had one done with Sophia, and I feel comfortable getting one with you. I just want to know that everything is alright, and even if everything isn't alright, you'll still be so loved. Aaron and Eric have already told me that they don't care if you're a boy or a girl, if you are healthy or have needs. They will love you no matter what. Those are the kind of men your dads are, and I am so thankful for that.

I took a nice drive down by the lake today. Daryl helped me pick out a pretty reliable car, and I really love it. It's blue, and Daryl thinks it's too small, but anything's small compared to his truck. Trust me, I'm sure you'll be riding in the back of it along a country road some day. That truck's not going anywhere. He treats it like a kid. Maybe he'll take you out for your first driving lessons in it. Goodness knows your dads will be an absolute wreck. Eric is a backseat driver, and Aaron gets claustrophobic in a traffic jam. Have patience with them. You might just inherit a little road rage from Daryl and the love of road trips from the both of us. Just have patience. You'll have your own license before you know it.

Carol looked at the time on her laptop and took a sip of lemonade. She'd been craving it lately, so she usually drove down to a little café about five minutes from the hospital on her lunch break. She hadn't had much of an appetite, but she'd managed to eat a sandwich for the sake of the baby. That lemonade had tasted heavenly, and she was a little sad that it was gone.

"Top you off?" the kind waitress asked, stepping up with a sweating pitcher of the icy beverage.

"Oh, no thank you. I have to get back soon."

"Alright, honey. It's over here on the counter if you change your mind."

"Thanks," Carol grinned, as the older lady walked away to help another patron. She saved her file before closing her laptop and opening up her bag to stuff it inside. Much to her surprise, the chair across from her seat at the table pulled out, and she looked up to see Nora Harrison sitting down across from her. "Mrs. Harrison?" She looked around. "What…what are you doing here?" Suddenly, a wave of fear washed over her, and she put her hand to her chest. "Is it Katie? Is she ok?"

"She's fine. Daryl doesn't even know I'm in town."

"Oh," Carol said quietly. "Alright."

"I'm here to see you," the woman continued. "I thought we could have a little chat."

"Well, that's fine, but I have to get back to work," Carol pointed out. "I'm running a little late." Carol furrowed her brows. "I'm sorry, but how did you know I was here?"

"Katie told me you work at a hospital for kids, and it didn't take me long to look you up. A lovely girl named Tara told me where to find you." Carol felt a cold bead of sweat run down the back of her neck. Nora had a pleasant smile on her face, but something told her this visit would be anything but pleasant.

"Alright," Carol said quietly. "What do you want to talk about?" Carol tucked her computer bag under her arm and tried to relax in her seat despite the bundle of nerves jumping about in her stomach. She cleared her throat and took a sip of the watered down lemonade at the bottom of her glass.

"My husband and I have done a lot of talking and a lot of thinking in the past couple weeks. To say we were worried about Katie when we left would be an understatement."

"Worried?" Carol asked, furrowing her brows. "Why would you be worried?"

"We've never known her to have nightmares like that. She woke up screaming and crying and asking for you."

"She's three. She had a bad dream. She's used to me being there."

"So you stay at Daryl's a lot?"

"I had a car accident a little over a month ago. I stayed at Daryl's for a week or so to recover. She got used to having me around."

"But you aren't staying there now?"

"No," Carol replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "But I really don't think that's any of your business. I mean no disrespect, Mrs. Harrison, but I don't understand where you're going with this."

"My daughter was very special to me. The day she died, a part of me went with her, I think." Carol felt her throat tighten, and she gripped the sides of her skirt to feel something than the sorrow that began to fill her heart. "When she told me she was pregnant, my heart broke. I thought her life was over. I never approved of Merle. I thought he was bad for her, and I stand by that. I wanted to take Katie when she was born, and against my better judgment, I didn't. My husband talked me out of it and convinced me that Merle was her father, and she deserved to know her father. After all, our relationship with Andrea was…strained at best after she left home."

Carol watched as Nora folded her hands in front of her and looked down for a moment, as if remembering a particularly difficult moment.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Harrison. I know what you're going through."

"How could you?" Nora asked. "Have you ever begged your child to come home, to come to her senses? Have you ever warned her that she was going to end of dead? Have you ever held your newborn grandchild and looked down at her mother's body and wondered how you could have changed it all?"

"No, ma'am. I haven't. And I suppose I may never get the chance." She flinched as her eyes burned with the salt of her tears, and she swallowed through the tightness in her throat. "What do you want to ask me?"

"We love Katie," Nora murmured, blinking back her own tears. "We want to give her a good life. We can provide that. And we don't want to fight it out in court. Daryl has done a good job with her, and we are so thankful." She paused and shook her head, sniffling. "But he didn't know Katie's mother like we did. And Merle isn't going to be around. Even he didn't know her like we did. She was a good kid. Smart. She was beautiful and popular, and the room just lit up when she walked in. Katie's got a bit of that charm already."

"She does," Carol said with a little smile. "She's very smart, and she's very loving, and that's because Daryl's been there. He's taken such good care of her."

"He has, and I won't argue that. But he can't tell her about her mother. He can't remember those things for her. And Jack and I won't be here forever. We want to raise her. We want her to grow up surrounded by stories of her mother. We want her to know that her mother was good, because I'm afraid…"

"You're afraid she'll think bad of her because of Merle?" Nora nodded her head but didn't speak. "You don't have to worry about that, Mrs. Harrison. Katie talks about her mother a lot. She has a little picture of her that she carries around. She can't remember her, but she loves her. She's so proud of her. She showed me the picture when we'd barely just met. That little girl can't help the circumstances she was born into, but Daryl certainly isn't going to keep her from knowing about her mother." Nora looked away then, and she finally pulled her purse into her lap and shuffled through it. She pulled out a thick, sealed envelope and put it on the table. "What's this?"

"Daryl's family, but he's not her father. We appreciate everything he's done for her, but we are more financially capable of caring for her. Our daughter meant the world to us, and so does Katie. Do you know what she talked about the entire time we had her?" Carol shook her head. "You. She absolutely loves you, and I'm thankful you've been so good to my granddaughter. But I was giving her her bath, and she asked me to read her a story. I pulled her little book out, and she told me I wasn't reading the story right. She said her mama Carol does the voices."

"She said that?" Carol said softly, placing her hand over her heart.

"She did," Nora said quietly.

"I don't know what to say," Carol said softly, feeling her eyes welling with tears. Katie had never called her that before and to think that she'd so easily said it during conversation with her grandmother made Carol's heart swell. But the look in Nora's eyes made her heart want to break. "I don't want you to think I'm trying to take Andrea's place. I could never. I love Katie, Mrs. Harrison. She's very special to me, and I want you to know that it's just as important to me as it is to you that Katie knows about her mother. I would never take that away from her. I couldn't." She shook her head. "And whatever happens with Daryl, I…Katie comes first. And I know he feels the same." Nora looked down at the envelope in her hands, and she nodded, tucking it back into her purse.

"I have to do what I feel is best for my granddaughter. Please tell Daryl that my lawyer will be contacting his."

"Mrs. Harrison!" Carol begged, as Nora stood and slid her purse strap over her shoulder. "You can't do this."

"I want to know my grandchild is safe, and I'm not so certain Merle Dixon won't be a presence in her life down the road. He's a bad influence, and I'm not certain Daryl's focus is directed solely on Katie right now. I have to step in." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I have no choice. I need to do what's best for Katie." She turned on her heel and left the diner, the little bell over the door ringing in Carol's ears as she felt like the floor dropped out from under her.

She put her hand to her heart and gasped softly as a dizzying, sick feeling washed over her. She grabbed her bag and rushed to the counter, fumbling with a wad of bills to pay for lunch. Then she was driving down Main Street, heart hammering in her chest as imagined Katie being taken from Daryl. There was no pain like losing a child—permanently or otherwise—and she vowed in that moment that she would do whatever she had to do to make sure Katie stayed where she belonged. With Daryl.