Confrontation
After he meets his father, Jackson goes to his mothers' place. He finds her alone and asks to speak to her.
He gets straight to the point. "Why didn't you and Robert find a way to compromise?"
"What?" Catherine looks up at him in confusion.
"Mom, all I want to understand is what was so important that you and my father could not find a way to compromise for my sake? Why did you rob me of the chance to have a relationship with him?."
"According to him, there is more to the story than what you told me, and if it were anyone else that he was talking about, I would not believe him. But it's you, and I know you. I Love you, mom, but I saw what you did to April when she didn't tell me about Harriett."
"Did you somehow manipulate the situation to punish him for taking me away from you and made sure he could never see me again?"
Catherine turns her back on him. "You didn't even greet me. You waltz into my house in the middle of the night and start reciting things that your deadbeat father would say. Would you like some tea perhaps, maybe then you could be in the right state of mind to realize who you are talking to?"
Catherine says. While nervously touching the kitchen counter.
"Mom, stop please, I know he left and didn't fight hard enough, but I also know you, and I am asking you for the truth. Did you prevent him from sending me letters?"
"Did you both, in your refusal to compromise, cost me a childhood without a father? Of knowing that even though my parents weren't together, he at least cared? If that is the case, then you were both selfish in this matter."
"Did you ever stop to think what it would cost me to not have a dad? Imagine if April had done what you did if I had taken Harriet and ran off with her, and April had decided to make sure that I never had the chance to know my daughter, and you never saw your granddaughter again!"
"Tell me, how would that have made you feel? Made Harriet feel? She would have grown up thinking I had up and left someday, all because April and I were selfish!"
"I would have never allowed that to happen," Catherine says, pouring herself a glass of water.
"You see, that is the kind of attitude that cost me, my father! I am grateful for all that you have done for me, and you are my mother but don't I at least deserve to know why, why I grew up without a father! The whole story!"
Catherine takes a sip of water and turns back to him. "I'm sorry, but some things you are better off never knowing. That man left us, he's the selfish one in this situation, and that is all you need to know."
"But Mom!"
"This discussion is over! And I don't want you asking me about it again."
"But."
"Goodnight, Jackson!" She leaves him standing there and goes to her room. Frustrated, Jackson leaves in a huff.
